An hour later…
“Name?”
“Keanu... Iruka.”
“Age?”
“39.”
“ID tag?”
“Number 44.”
“Skill?”
“...Inventory Inspection.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I was a... salaryman at XX Corporation.”
“Outpost code?”
“…”
Getting no answer, Yu Zhiye looked up from the journal page he was jotting down notes on. “Why did you stop again?”
The Iruka stuck in the sand glared back angrily. “Are you really asking me to repeat that long ass code again?!”
Yu Zhiye spun the steel-nibbed pen in hand and casually asked back, “What do you think?”
“But I told you so many times already! Why do you keep asking? Can’t you ask something else?!!”
“That’s not for you to decide. I’m doing the asking here. Just honestly tell me what I want to know.”
“Oh, right. Don’t be like the start where you even mess up your own base number displayed right on your status page. Otherwise…”
Yu Zhiye’s hand tossed a stone up and down. “Don’t blame me for adding another bloody bruise to your head.”
Iruka almost couldn’t resist cursing out loud, but a smart man knows when to keep his head down.
Just endure! Once the boss gets here, this asshole is dead meat!
“Outpost code?”
Gritting his teeth, Iruka suppressed his anger and recited the long number on his floating status screen.
“128A7194B.”
“How many women are there?”
“Three.”
“Huh? So little? As far as I know, there’s only three men on your explorer team. Even if you kept a single man back at base, that only adds up to seven. Didn’t you say the population was nine earlier?”
“I... I forgot we lost a few men to the spiders.”
“Hey, hey, still not being honest, are we?”
Fwoosh—Tak! “Iteh!!! Temee—You damn beast!”
The man’s curses only earned a chillingly cold look from Yu Zhiye.
“Call me whatever you want. But if you want out, I suggest you honestly tell me everything you know. Otherwise, once you sink under, it’ll be too late even if I want to save you. Alright, let’s start again. Name?”
“You—!!!”
Alas, no matter how furious Iruka got, there was no choice but to play along.
If he chose silence, this ruthless man would really pelt him with stones until he bleeds to death!
Even now, his mind felt faintly groggy…
It’s still unclear if it was from blood loss or dehydration.
He could only hope he’ll hold out until somebody came to rescue him…
“Name?”
“Keanu. Iruka!”
“ID tag?”
“Thirty Ni—I meant—44...”
The Q&A session continued, but Yu Zhiye soon felt thirsty and passed the buck to his secretary. “Noona, your turn.”
Chae Yoona knew the questions inside out by now and smoothly took over the interrogation.
Meanwhile, Yu Zhiye gulped down some water and reviewed all the intel acquired from this not-so-great actor.
By now, they’ve asked almost everything they wanted to know and even learned things he didn’t care to know…
Like what kind of suffering the ladies at the other base were going through on a daily basis.
That certainly whipped this supermodel at his side into shape and motivated her to work even harder to stay in his favor!
At least, she didn’t dare to slack off at all during this interrogation session, and she even showed off her psychological tricks that were a league above his own.
How good was that exactly?
Let’s just say: if life were a story, her skills were so psychopathic that the author-san has no better way to explain things except skip over the details and brush it off as plot armor.
Then the cliché story flow will take place.
A wordy author might do some info dumping in this chapter.
On the other hand, there’s the lazy author-san that’ll skip over the details only to reveal it at opportune moments in the future as plot armor.
But Yu Zhiye was sure this was reality since everything was clearly noted down on paper for him, and honestly, there was a lot even after taking out the superfluous nonsense.
To summarize: there’s another survivor base at the other side of that mountain.
The layout there almost mirrored their own base, complete with four temple ruins and all.
What’s shared are the mountain caves in between and just yesterday, the opposing side discovered the route to their base.
Now the initiative was in the enemy’s hands.
Danger always comes knocking so unexpectedly.
But Yu Zhiye wasn’t too worried. Invasion from other survivors? What’s that got to do with him?
If push comes to shove, he’ll just hole up in his hideout and do academic research with his sexy secretary until the raiders are gone!
Danger for others wasn’t danger for him. A single cheat was the solution to all problems! How convenient.
Since there’s nothing to worry about, Yu Zhiye felt more relaxed than ever. He stopped caring about the interrogation and went back to fishing.
That’s right. The slice-of-life core energy accumulation never stopped even during all that interrogation!
Those fishing lines cast out all around even doubled as the ultimate psychological tactic to wear down the poor soul’s willpower!
Imagine seeing the safety line ever so close yet forever out of reach. How pitiful.
Yu Zhiye could almost feel that poor soul’s growing desperation…
Inch by inch, the quicksand swallowed the poor soul, and rescue seemed like a pipe dream.
Did this cannon fodder get abandoned? Who knows. At least, they didn’t see a second scout even after more than two hours.
By this time, the man that had most of his body swallowed started getting desperate...
“...please. I beg… you! Save me! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll do anything!! I can be your dog in this life and your ox in the next! I can be useful… I can...”
The fisherman ignored the cries for help and patiently played his fishing game...
It wasn’t long before those desperate pleas turned into cries and furious curses…
“I curse you! Curse you all to die a horrible death! Even if I turn into a ghost, I’ll come back to haunt you murderers! AHHHH!”
The final struggles of the man was in vain, and the pair of partners-in-crime coldly watch the screaming, panicking head go under.
Peace returned. Yet the heart of a bystander wasn’t so peaceful.
“Oppa… really not saving him?”
Yu Zhiye calmly cast out his fishing line at another spot. “Why bother? A scum like that isn’t worth saving.”
“Besides, whether he came with ill intentions or not, he saw what he shouldn’t have seen. It’s best to get rid of this trouble. Don’t you agree?”
The crazy bitch’s smile bloomed even more radiantly.
“Oppa, Yoona really, really likes your cold and ruthless side. Shishishishi~”
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