While the group was chatting, the rescued villagers also got off the vehicles one after another.
Looking at the ominous Calamity behind them, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, but thinking of their destroyed homes, many couldn't help but cry.
"I plan to transmit the situation here to the organization via the network. Being able to rescue an entire village this time can be considered a perfect Crisis Contract. As for Kanna, in my opinion, she is a genius capable of challenging high-difficulty Crisis Contracts alone." She looked around; the Calamity was slowly moving away, and the most dangerous phase had passed. Next, they just needed to take the villagers to a nearby location or Rhodes Island for a physical examination, and this mission would be successfully completed.
To this, Provence found the villagers and asked them to elect a spokesperson. After hearing Provence's introduction, the spokesperson went back to discuss with the villagers.
Finally, one-third of the villagers decided to follow the convoy to Rhodes Island, while the remaining two-thirds, led by the spokesperson, headed to the nearest town.
They were very angry about the village chief's betrayal, so they wanted to report him to the higher authorities, accusing the village chief who abandoned his territory and people.
Neither the Calamity Messenger nor the Rhodes Island group intended to persuade them. After all, the village chief had indeed done a terrible job. If they collectively reported him, and if he didn't have a powerful background, he would at least be severely punished, if not worse.
Because all nations in Terra have extremely harsh penalties for officials who abandon their territories and people.
It's important to know that on this land, forming a village and ensuring its stable continuation is extremely difficult. If every lord were to run away alone when faced with trouble like this, the nation's prestige would be utterly lost, and everything that these grassroots structures are supposed to provide—soldiers, food, taxes, etc.—would collapse due to this lack of trust.
Therefore, they were not worried about the villagers reporting the village chief.
When Uncle ACE took in the remaining people, he found that most of them were elderly, children, or Infected. The former lacked the physical strength to keep up with the main group; even if they wanted to go, they were powerless.
The latter probably learned from some Operators along the way that Rhodes Island is an organization primarily focused on treating the Infected. They thought that before, they might have remained undiscovered due to village connections, but once they left the village, if they were found to be Infected, they would at best be denied entry to towns, and at worst, be beaten to death or sent to forced labor.
In this context, going to Rhodes Island was practically a paradise-like choice compared to the latter.
Of course, Uncle ACE had already anticipated this situation. After all, an organization that treats the Infected, by its very nature, would have many Infected members. So, ordinary people, brainwashed by the relationship between the Infected and non-Infected, would naturally be unwilling to go.
Those who remained and chose to go were the old, weak, sick, and disabled who had no other options. Many of these people would also choose to leave Rhodes Island once they were able to survive independently.
This is the stark reality of the bloody opposition on this land. It was only because these villagers had just been rescued by Rhodes Island that the relationship between them seemed somewhat harmonious. Normally, upon learning it was an Infected organization, they might not even allow Rhodes Island personnel through the village gate.
Just as Uncle ACE and his group were preparing to leave, Reinhardt proposed to travel with them.
Uncle ACE was naturally delighted by the Calamity Messenger's accompaniment and arranged for them to sit in the two vehicles behind. Provence also wished to exchange intelligence with Reinhardt, who was also a Calamity Messenger, so she also went to the back.
Kanna, sitting in the front, enjoyed a good sleep undisturbed.
When she woke up, the convoy had been traveling for about a day.
When she opened her eyes, she saw herself lying in the arms of a medical Operator from the team.
Seeing Kanna wake up, the Operator seemed very happy and took out a piece of dried meat that had been prepared earlier.
Kanna's nose twitched, smelling the aroma of the dried meat. Like a fish smelling bait, her body twitched, and she hung on the Operator's hand like a fish being reeled in.
"Ah!" The medical Operator had never encountered such a situation and was startled.
However, after realizing what was happening, she couldn't help but laugh at Kanna dangling like a salted fish. Fortunately, the Operator's arm was strong, and Kanna wasn't heavy, so she barely managed to hold on.
The now-awake Kanna shook her head, snatched the dried meat from the Operator's hand, and devoured it in just a few bites. Before she could look for other dried meat, she was hugged back to her seat.
Uncle ACE, hearing the sound, turned around and saw Kanna's still-hungry expression, and couldn't help but smile.
"You're awake. We should be back at Rhodes Island by tomorrow noon. Didn't you mention wanting to watch a baseball game? As far as I know, the game is the day after tomorrow. After returning home, you can happily rest for a day, and then go watch the game on the second day. But speaking of which, which team do you support?"
"Kanna doesn't understand baseball, but Kanna promised Tortoise that she would go watch her game. Kanna cannot break her word." Kanna was completely clueless about baseball—she didn't understand it at all. However, this didn't stop her from watching the game. Although she couldn't tell what a hit was or what a home run was, and didn't even understand the purpose of first, second, and third bases, it didn't prevent her from enjoying the excitement.
Besides, if she didn't watch just because she didn't understand, wouldn't she never understand? Even if she didn't understand the ball, couldn't she watch the people? For the sake of Tortoise being so cute, even if Kanna had no interest in baseball, it wouldn't stop her from going to watch a game.
"That's true. There are many games at Rhodes Island, mostly organized by various Operators. For example, I've continuously won third place in the Chair Sliding Competition," Uncle ACE said, looking proud.
"I know about that. LOGOS was the champion. You guys used a lot of corridors in Zone B for your competition back then, and I heard Kal'tsit fined you for it."
Rhodes Island's Chair Sliding Competition was infamous. While other competitions awarded prizes to winners, this one always saw the top three fined by Kal'tsit—the reason, of course, being obstruction of traffic.
But Operators were surprisingly enthusiastic about this sport; they would insist on holding it even if fined. Of course, official Rhodes Island events had to be approved, and the Chair Sliding Competition clearly couldn't get past Kal'tsit. It was always Little Donkey who secretly approved them.
Kal'tsit knew about this too, but she turned a blind eye. After all, whether on external missions or internally, Operators constantly accumulated stress in their daily work. If these activities could release that stress, it was naturally for the best, and it could also generate some income. Why not?
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