Missing What? He Had No Shortage of Worlds

Once he explained his intentions, the Wild Dog House accepted him without much fuss.

They seemed used to it, and some even looked pleased.

"I'm glad to see a little guy like you joining the hunt."

"But you're unarmed, and that's no good."

Doberman, the boss, waved Golden Retriever over to take a long knife from their luggage and lend it to Chu Yunyi.

Chu Yunyi drew the blade. It was blue-green, with an exceptionally sharp edge—by standard measurements, it was probably below 7 BESS.

BESS measured a blade's sharpness. The lower the number, the sharper the blade.

150 BESS was about as sharp as an ordinary kitchen knife, while 5 BESS was about as sharp as a brand-new scalpel.

A BESS of zero meant that the moment the blade came near an object, that object would be cut in two.

That was only theoretical, though.

Everything was relative. If you wanted a 0-BESS blade, you could heat it until it glowed red and use it to cut a fragile strand of hair. Relatively speaking, that would bring it close to zero BESS.

Looking at the Wild Dog House boss who had lent him the knife, Chu Yunyi's mouth twitched.

"Thanks, Boss Doberman."

He wasn't used to people being so warm toward him.

He could handle it when people were fierce and intimidating. But when they were this nice, he felt a little uncomfortable.

There was nothing he could do about it.

He lived in Heitu Town, which was practically known as a "Valley of Villains."

The people there were truly rough.

People died every so often, and things had actually gotten a lot quieter since the apocalypse began.

Having grown up in a place like that, Chu Yunyi was more used to people who were selfish, calculating, and liable to stab their companions in the back at any moment.

Not people like the ones in this world...

As far as Chu Yunyi was concerned, none of the people in the tavern came close to being as vicious as Old Jin from his old Everything Shop.

Looking at the boss named Doberman, Chu Yunyi glanced around.

After getting to know them, he learned that the Wild Dog House had five members: Doberman, Teddy, Greyhound, Golden Retriever, and Pomeranian.

Doberman was the boss, Teddy was the one with the prosthetic hand, Greyhound was the one with the broken leg, Golden Retriever was the one who had carried the luggage, and Pomeranian was the only woman.

But none of that mattered to Chu Yunyi.

Once he got familiar with the ways of the mutated creatures beyond the city, he could hunt them on his own.

Then he could trade for a set of Nano Skin, get himself a good knife, and leave.

These people were only passing clouds.

After resting there for a while, the whole Wild Dog House team was ready to set out.

At Boss Doberman's command,

the team got moving.

But to Chu Yunyi's surprise, they were walking.

"Wait, don't you have a car?" Chu Yunyi asked without thinking.

"A car? That's an unfamiliar word." Golden Retriever scratched his head, looking confused.

Chu Yunyi frowned.

Night Star didn't even have cars. That was strange. With technology that advanced, they should have been able to build cars.

Just then,

Boss Doberman spoke up.

"Cars? There were cars before the New Star Calendar."

"But after that Meat Mountain came drifting through space and became Night Star's moon, no one drove anymore."

Chu Yunyi asked curiously, "Why?"

"There's a mutated creature called an 'Intelligent Brain.' It's small, but clever."

"They crawl under cars or inside them, and no matter how hard you look, you can't find them."

"Once they get into a city, they start with small animals like rats and cockroaches, then move on to children and adults."

"By the time they reach maturity, even a team of fifteen can't do anything about them."

Doberman shook his head, seeming reluctant to say more.

As he spoke, he glanced at his left arm.

Perhaps he'd lost an arm because of an Intelligent Brain. His eyes took on a distant look, but he didn't want to talk about it.

"Oh, how long until we reach the outskirts?"

"About twenty minutes," Golden Retriever replied.

At that, Chu Yunyi froze for a moment, thinking to himself:

Twenty minutes. That's, at most, a thousand or two thousand meters on foot.

So...

The area just a thousand meters outside the city is full of mutated monsters?!

Chu Yunyi was shocked by the realization. He hadn't expected anything like this.

He'd thought everything was fine in this world, and that the city could even sustain its own ecosystem.

But now that he looked at it...

They were surrounded by mutated creatures. What the hell was fine about that?

"You guys..." Chu Yunyi thought for a moment, then spoke.

"Can you really survive while surrounded by mutated creatures?"

Everyone looked a little surprised at the question.

Greyhound was the first to respond.

"Hey, what kind of way is that to put it? You make it sound like you're not from Night Star!"

"I really am from another world. It's called Blue Star," Chu Yunyi said honestly. He wasn't afraid of revealing his identity.

Once he revealed who he was, he could naturally use his abilities.

Even if everyone on Night Star came after him, he could just go to another world.

Come on.

There was one thing Chu Yunyi had no shortage of, and that was worlds!

If this world didn't want him, he had plenty of other worlds that did!

Hearing Chu Yunyi's astonishing claim, Greyhound couldn't help laughing.

"Pfft! Are you kidding me?!"

"You're from another world? Then I'm a Keplerian from F22B!" Greyhound laughed, clearly not believing a word of it.

But Golden Retriever stared at him in a daze, seeming to believe him at least a little. He said, "No wonder. You're a Native Human from the Lower City."

"So you're... an alien." Golden Retriever nodded, seeming even more certain.

At that moment, Pomeranian stirred.

She pressed a hand to her temple, her eyes unfocused, as if her personal terminal had connected to another device inside her mind.

In a few breaths, her eyes cleared. She said gravely, "Behind the mound to the west, there's one 'Skeleton,' one 'Intelligent Brain,' one 'Brute Force,' and one 'Tumor.'"

"It looks like the Intelligent Brain is leading them. They're lying in wait for us."

"If we don't go to them, they'll probably come charging over."

The first three mutated creatures' names didn't draw much of a reaction from the others.

But at the mention of "Tumor," even Boss Doberman's mouth twitched. He looked deeply uncomfortable.

"What do we do, boss? Should we run?!"

"We can't outrun the Skeletons. If they catch up, the fight will be even harder."

"Let's just take them head-on. We don't have a choice."

Boss Doberman considered this, then looked at Chu Yunyi.

"New guy, keep an eye on how things go. If we can't handle them, run."

"We'll hold them off."

"Newcomers like you are Night Star's hope of resisting the apocalypse. You're young. Don't throw your life away."

Chu Yunyi's mouth twitched. They made it sound like they were saying goodbye forever.

With him around, nothing could go wrong!