Flowers and Dreams, Trees and Wolves

"Any advice?"

Isis glanced back, her starlight still cold and detached, as though she were all ears.

It made Yan Fei's scalp tingle even more!

The shadow of high-pressure studying surged up like tides. Under the gaze of those eyes, he trembled. "N-No, it's just... D0012... does that mean me?"

"Workshop registered employee number D0012, Yan Fei. Do you have any objections to your identity?"

"N-No."

"Very good." Isis nodded. "If you do not intend to wait for me to enumerate your tactical mistakes and poor decisions, then go take shelter with 0011."

"Wait, no..." Yan Fei was stunned. "Why does A Chang have an earlier number than me?!"

"Let's go, bro, hurry, hurry..."

Yan Chang obediently started up the wheelchair, hooked an arm around his brother's neck, and dragged him toward the basement.

Then, Isis looked at Tang Qian.

Tang Qian lay flat, raised both hands, and even rolled over, wriggling aside from the doorway so he was no longer blocking it.

Please pretend I don't exist. Thank you.

The door opened soundlessly.

Revealing the bloodshed and severed limbs on the long street outside, along with distant wailing and gunfire.

The wind rushing toward them carried the stench of rot and ashes.

Smack.

Amid the excited shrieks of the carrion-eating giant birds, a shattered corpse suddenly fell from the sky.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

A streak of crimson spread out, falling by the feet of the starlit silhouette.

Isis raised her head and looked toward the Giant Tree blanketing the sky, and the heavens dyed blood-red.

"In a world like this, what could possibly be worth loving?"

No one answered.

She coldly withdrew her gaze and flipped through the Workshop's inventory. Looking at the devastation everywhere, she found it even more of an eyesore.

Yet in the utterly untouched storeroom,