The little girl finished speaking, then broke into uncontrollable sobs again.
By "taken away," she naturally meant that the group of Hunters had captured them to perform some evil rituals.
Cao Xing and Liu Muxue exchanged a glance.
It was clear that the little girl, who had lost her father, had fallen into the hands of those crazed Hunters. If Cao Xing hadn't arrived, her fate would have been easy to imagine.
Liu Muxue looked at Cao Xing and asked softly, "A Xing, can we take her back to our camp?"
Cao Xing thought for a moment, then nodded.
The camp was gradually getting on track. Having one more mouth to feed wouldn't matter much.
Besides, the little girl was a survivor too. She might be able to help out in the future.
Liu Muxue gently comforted her. "Little one, would you like to come back to our camp with big sister?"
The little girl, whose name was Tong Chuchu, gradually stopped crying. She asked in confusion, "Your camp... has food? Chuchu hasn't eaten anything for a long time..."
Liu Muxue stroked her head and said, "Of course. The lord of this territory is that big brother over there. He's really amazing."
There was admiration in her voice.
Tong Chuchu looked at Cao Xing at once, with a trace of fear and curiosity in her eyes.
Then she remembered something and asked tentatively, "Then... can you take my mother too?"
"Dad isn't coming back, and Mom is still alone at the camp..."
Cao Xing froze.
That was right. This version was a family-team mode. Since Tong Chuchu had been with her father, her mother must be at the camp too.
However, this question left Cao Xing conflicted.
After all, human survivors weren't like the natives. They wouldn't easily betray their lord, and their loyalty could be checked.
He knew the saying that you couldn't know what was in someone else's heart.
He was willing to take the little girl because she had little combat ability and posed no threat to him.
But it was hard to say the same of the adults.
So Cao Xing opened the system interface and asked, "If I want other survivors to join my territory, what should I do?"
A system notification appeared at once.
[The answer to this question is the Territory Merge function. There are currently two methods.] [Method 1: Invite the other party to join the territory as a new lord, sharing building permissions, resources, and so on.] [Method 2: Recruit the other party to join the territory as a resident. They will only have basic residence and construction permissions, and will be unable to attack friendly units.]
Seeing the second method, Cao Xing felt reassured.
"Great. I can recruit other survivors into my territory as residents."
"That way, I don't have to worry about newly recruited survivors damaging my territory."
Cao Xing looked at the little girl and asked, "Do you remember where your camp is?"
The little girl nodded. "I remember. Mom taught me how to read the minimap."
"Our camp is about five kilometers from here."
Cao Xing and Liu Muxue looked at each other.
No wonder the Hunters had targeted them when they were so close.
Liu Muxue asked softly, "A Xing, can we go take a look?"
Cao Xing thought for a moment. "If it's five kilometers, we can make it."
"But whether her mother wants to join our territory is up to her."
Liu Muxue's face immediately lit up with a warm smile.
She knew Cao Xing would agree.
At those words, the little girl gradually stopped crying and thanked Cao Xing again and again.
"Thank you, big brother. Chuchu will remember your kindness for the rest of her life!"
Two days of harsh living in this world had already made her much more mature.
Cao Xing shook his head, then looked toward the other people inside the tent.
They were all natives of this world.
Cao Xing asked outright, "Do you know Jasmine and Sapphire?"
The six people on the ground exchanged glances.
One of the slightly older people replied, "Yes, they're our companions."
Cao Xing nodded. "Good. They're already residents of my territory. One of them told me that the Hunters had captured you."
"So, are you willing to submit to me and join my territory?"
Cao Xing didn't waste any words. This time, he had come specifically to expand his territory's troops.
The slightly older person asked tentatively, "My lord, what about the Hunters outside?"
Cao Xing replied, "As you can see, I've killed them all."
The next moment, all of them said respectfully, "We are willing, respected lord."
Cao Xing nodded with satisfaction. Then he had the towering Asam walk over and cut the ropes binding them, freeing them.
[Recruitment successful: Colin Hopper, Lucho Lore, Marlin Kuhn... have joined your territory. Territory population +6]
Another group of Western names. Three men and three women. Cao Xing's mouth twitched.
He pointed at the slightly older person and said, "Starting today, you'll be called Cao Yi, you'll be Cao Er, and you'll be Cao San."
"The women will start from Fourth Flower. You'll be called Fourth Flower, Fifth Flower, and Sixth Flower."
The people looked at one another, then nodded. "Thank you for giving us names, my lord."
Then a series of notifications about increased favorability rang out.
Cao Xing glanced at their attributes.
[Resident: Cao Yi] [Level: 3] [Talent: Basic Speechcraft (Give a speech to soothe the residents' emotions)] [Loyalty: 70] [Hunger: 44] ... [Resident: Fourth Flower] [Level: 2] [Talent: Basic Cooking (Food cooked by this resident provides an additional 20% satiety)] [Loyalty: 72] [Hunger: 47] ...
Seeing the talents of these residents, Cao Xing's eyes lit up.
Wow, two of them had special talents.
The other residents had no talents, but they were all between levels 2 and 4.
This was a high-quality batch of residents!
Now Cao Xing had enough people to assign to building all kinds of territory facilities!
After recruiting this group, his territory's population limit also changed to 25/50.
After taking in all these refugees,
Cao Xing noticed a yellowed wooden chest in the corner of the camp.
As he approached it, a system notification appeared.
[Hunters' Storage Chest (White): Can be opened]
Cao Xing clicked to open it.
[Obtained White Bread*17, obtained Wheat Seeds*72, obtained Milk*5, obtained Copper*7, obtained Church Letter (Special Item)]
There was quite a lot of supplies inside. Cao Xing began looking through them.
[White Bread: 1 White Bread = 2 food] ... [Wheat Seeds (White): Can be planted on cultivated land.]
Cao Xing was delighted. "Oh? I can start farming?"
That meant he would have a steady source of food and wouldn't have to worry about running out of supplies!
However, to farm, he would first need to cultivate a plot of land near the territory.
Besides that, he would need to build a shelter over it. Otherwise, if a blizzard hit, all the seeds he had sown would be ruined.
Cao Xing continued looking through the items.
Before you continue