Chapter 545.4: What Would Bore Do?

Kishur suddenly laughed. As he laughed, tears began to fall again. "Sorry, Dad. I let you down... I really am a hopeless idiot, just like you always saw me..."

He paused, then muttered to himself, "The folks on Endpoint Cloud were right. I’m just like them, we're all lazy cowards who only know how to preach about better days. The only difference is, they know their preaching would ruin people, so they never tell wastelanders how to live. But me? I thought I was right. I thought I brought back some kind of treasure, something everyone should be using..."

Staring blankly at his suddenly unfamiliar son, Malvern trembled as he asked, "Where are you going?"

"To the wasteland," Kishur replied calmly.

"You’ve lost your mind!? That place eats people alive! You think you walked to Ideal City alone?! I hired mercenaries to get you there! You won’t survive till morning, you useless fool!" Malvern was fuming, so furious he tried to grab the boy, only to trip and fall into the snow up to his knees.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Kishur didn’t help his father up. He simply took a step back and looked at the man whose hair had gone grey at the temples without him noticing, his voice full of shame. "I understand your intentions. Confessing and reforming might be my last chance, but I no longer have the ability to confront anyone in this settlement... They’ve forgiven me, but I’ll never forgive myself."

"A useless, arrogant piece of trash like me deserves a beating in the wasteland. I deserve to rot in some nameless sewage ditch. That’s where I belong."

"Goodbye. Please tell my dear sister that her damned brother is dead. She doesn’t need to atone for a man like me. She should live happily in the beautiful new world, the fairy tale you once whispered into her heart."

"I think... The New Alliance is actually a good place. But we probably won’t see each other again."

He bowed slightly to the city wall, tightened his grip on the suitcase, and turned away from the bustling square, and his devastated parents, walking slowly into the howling wind...

...

At dusk.

The New Alliance’s relief stations opened in Boulder Town. Large cauldrons were set up just inside the gates to the inner city, stopping many from fleeing the city.

A quarter of a million kilograms of food per day cost less than 50,000 silver coins, and truthfully, they wouldn’t even need that much if they rationed.

Compared to the cost of letting the settlement rot, the food was nothing.

Besides, they were all family now.

The aroma of the porridge was so rich that even the guards at the gate swallowed hard.

"Porridge...?"

"I thought it’d be nutrient paste... Even that would’ve been a blessing."

"Glory to the New Alliance! Praise the administrator!"

"My child is saved..."

People shrank into themselves in the cold, whispering softly. Some even wiped away tears in secret. A new hope flickered in their eyes, the hope of surviving winter.

No one wanted to eat the dead unless they were truly starving.

Even a bowl of porridge was enough to restore a person’s dignity, prompting people to line up obediently within the barrier those from the New Alliance built.

At Lorette’s call, the Worker’s Union stepped up to help maintain order.

Most of them weren’t educated. They didn’t look very clever either. But they had one slogan.

Do what Bore would do.

Their idol wasn’t even a real person, but their passion and drive were shockingly strong.

They hadn’t even realized it, but with the inspiration of victory and miracles, that nonexistent Bore had become a kind of faith in their hearts, a belief even purer and more grounded than Great Stag God.

Even the well-trained soldiers couldn’t help glancing twice at the workers.

Not a single doubt existed in their minds that if those workers were given a gun, they would fight harder than any mercenary, even if they had never set foot on a real battlefield.

"Don’t push, everyone will get some!" Yaya who was wrapped up in an apron, yelled through a loudhailer while holding a ladle in her other hand. She looked mighty happy while standing next to her pot.

"We have vegetable, mushroom, and minced meat porridge! Everything is sponsored by Teng Teng’s Hut! We hope everyone makes it through winter safely! In spring, we’ll make sure everyone gets new clothes. Let’s leave the unpleasant past behind us!"

Nobody responded to her nonsense as all eyes were fixed on the steaming pots.

Yaya continued to yell happily anyway.

Her dialect wasn’t perfect, so it was a good chance to practice!

Teng Teng blushed and glared at her, wishing she could throw the big lady into the pot. "Enough already! Do your job properly and stop saying stupid things..."

She was there to build regional reputation. The stat wasn’t much use for Combat Profession players, but for storyline obsessed players like her, it was everything.

Events like rare server-wide relief efforts unlocked achievements normally inaccessible through daily logins.

Medals didn’t only come from battlefields. According to the administrator, helping others was also a kind of battlefield.

Whatever it was, even without those motivations, she truly enjoyed doing things like that.

Wasteland survivors had a simple understanding of kindness. A bowl of hot porridge or a small favor could move them to tears. She too received spiritual satisfaction from giving. All it cost was a few hours of dreaming while lying in bed.

Looking at the red-faced Teng Teng, Yaya playfully wiggled her eyebrows. "What’s the harm? You really are the sponsor, I’m just casually helping promote your art project!"

Seeing Yaya about to blurt out another ridiculous slogan, Teng Teng’s face flushed even redder. She ducked into the milky white steam to hide her face.

Besides her rowdy friend, her maid-uniformed shop worker Hua Hua was also helping out enthusiastically nearby. Her warm-hearted little shop owner had become her idol.

When she heard what happened in Boulder Town, she didn’t even hesitate. She dropped everything and came to help! She even closed her shop for a few days!

Such kindness!

Just thinking about Miss Teng Teng’s generosity made Hua Hua well up with emotion.

In her eyes, the residents of Shelter 404 were like angels sent by the Great Stag God to save the wastelanders.

At a nearby pot, with a steaming bowl of porridge in hand, Kent bowed his head and mumbled thanks to the cook, feeling as if a stone were lodged in his chest.

That night, he had hidden at home. Though chaos raged outside, it didn’t reach his drafty little shack.

The looting mercenaries and soldiers had gone after houses near the outer city, not the industrial slums.

Unable to stay awake, he had fallen asleep. When he woke, it was dawn.

He intended to go to Vega’s factory to work, but when he arrived, it had already been sealed off.

It was sealed off by the Worker’s Union, no less. The same thieves who once rotted in jail were now in charge.

Seeing crates of frozen meat and vegetables being moved out of the warehouse made Kent’s heart ache, but he didn’t dare ask where they were going. Instead, he slipped into the crew and started helping.

He even got a makeshift armband made of gauze.

Most of the workers didn’t recognize him, but they liked his hard work.

Seeing the corpses dragged from alleys, Kent felt he had lucked out by hiding at home. Otherwise, he would have been one of those corpses...

Squatting at the side while drinking his porridge that had several small pieces of vegetables and meat chunks, he felt a warm sensation in his belly. However, he felt more suffocated than before.

To make himself feel a little better, he muttered under his breath. “Heh... you guys screwed everything up, and what did you get out of it?”

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t become another Stephan? Didn’t Lorette end up as the leader of the Worker’s Union anyway? The militia commander is Joey... He’s just another General Zhao. A bunch of new lords, that’s all... and I still have to eat the New Alliance’s handouts.”

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He gulped down a mouthful of hot porridge and spat out a curse in his heart, still dissatisfied.

Hearing his muttering, a fellow worker shifted his backside and sat down beside him with a smile. “Buddy, how can you say we got nothing? Lorette said we’ll have a new set of law that everyone has to follow.”

“The New Alliance’s laws?” Kent shot him a sideways glance and snorted. “Don’t kid yourself. It’s just a different batch of lords.”

The worker stared at him in astonishment, and his gaze suddenly turned to one of pity.

Kent hated that look, but he was wary of the armband on the man’s sleeve, even though he himself wore one too. “I know who you are now.”

Kent’s heart clenched. His face went pale, and he nearly jumped in fright.

He carried a secret in his heart. It had been him, together with Yalek and Phyllis, who had dragged Spielberg away and sent him to prison.

Although he had not seen any wanted posters on the walls, he was certain that the workers were all secretly looking for him, and that once they found him, they would drag him into an alley and execute him in secret.

“Who?” he swallowed and asked in a trembling voice.

The worker shrugged. “You’re Ken.”

The air fell silent for a moment.

... Ken?

Who is that?