After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret

Forever?

Nina Jacobs frowned.

There was something about the way Julia Hughes grinned that made her feel uneasy.

”Let’s go.”

Upon hearing this, General Hughes glanced at Arcadia White.

Nina Jacobs followed.

She had noticed on the way here that the entire journey had been through deep, old-growth forests. Even before the apocalypse, the caves in these mountains would have been difficult for outsiders to access.

It might not be completely cut off from the world, but it could certainly be considered a hidden, ancient village.

After traversing a narrow, winding path, a collection of buildings appeared before them.

Nina Jacobs noticed that all the buildings were made of wood.

Aside from the houses, the most unsettling thing about the town was the wooden puppets walking around.

The puppets wandered aimlessly, varying in height and build, and dressed in different clothes.

They added a strange sense of liveliness to the streets.

It made one feel as if they had stepped into the middle of a grand puppet show.

But those puppets...

Nina Jacobs suspected they weren’t just wandering; they were more like sentinels, monitoring the town.

”Oh, Arcadia White, you’re back?”

A woman with her hair in a bun walked out of a large courtyard house.

She enthusiastically welcomed them into the courtyard.

”Dinner is ready for you. Hurry inside,” the woman said.

The courtyard was bustling with people, and the aroma of food wafted through the air, leaving Nina Jacobs momentarily dazed.

It was as if she had escaped the zombie-infested apocalypse.

This place felt like another world.

”We Whites love seclusion. We don’t want to get involved in worldly affairs. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live here forever?” Arcadia White said with a smile to Nina Jacobs, who was beside her.

Nina Jacobs remained silent. The courtyard before them was so lively that even if she said something, her voice would be drowned out by the cheerful chatter and laughter.

’Seclusion?’

’Bought with all of Keldorn’s supplies and human lives.’

’It certainly is wonderful for them.’

A flicker of mockery crossed Nina Jacobs’s eyes.

Since it was a family banquet being prepared in the courtyard, Nina Jacobs and Wayne Warner knew not to go any further inside.

Besides, she noticed that Thane Trevor and his men had also stopped. After exchanging greetings, they all retreated back outside.

”Diana Tate, take these two to rest first,” Arcadia White instructed a tall woman.

”Understood.”

Diana Tate was only a fist’s-height shorter than Wayne Warner. She was tall and sturdy, and it was easy to see she was the one who had been with Thane Trevor outside the train that day.

She didn’t say anything to Nina Jacobs, but she did ask Wayne Warner a few questions.

But Wayne Warner ignored her, and she dropped the subject, realizing it was pointless.

She led the two of them to a row of wooden cabins. ”Pick any empty room you like inside.”

”Alright, thank you.”

Nina Jacobs chose the room furthest down the row, and Wayne Warner’s room was next to hers.

She noticed that Diana Tate didn’t leave until they had both chosen their rooms.

Although they were wooden cabins, the interiors were quite spacious.

Nina Jacobs realized these weren’t cabins created by a Wood Element Superpower, but rather by ordinary carpentry.

They even seemed quite old.

Fortunately, the Keldorn region wasn’t humid, so the wooden cabins were still in good condition.

After surveying her surroundings, she noted the sky outside was gradually darkening.

Nina Jacobs released her Little Zombie Rat through a crack in the window to investigate, activating her ”Five Senses Enhancement” at the same time.

The soundproofing of the wooden buildings was poor. Nina Jacobs found she could even hear sounds from the far corners of the compound.

Including the sounds from the courtyard she had just left.

She could hear people laughing and talking, glasses clinking, but from deeper inside, she also heard the sound of a cup shattering, followed by angry rebukes.

Nina Jacobs quickly picked out Arcadia White’s voice:

”...I won’t agree to it, anyway. We can’t kill Han Lewis. He...”

Arcadia White’s voice choked with emotion. ”He’s the last person connected to my little brother, even if he is just a puppet.”

”You know he’s a puppet? The White Family never leaves a puppet behind after its master dies! Otherwise, our family’s Puppetry Technique would have been exposed long ago!” a raspy, old voice scolded.

Arcadia White shook her head. ”I’m not saying we should spare Han Lewis’s life. I just want to... borrow him for a while.”

”What do you mean?” Raymond White, who was nearby, asked in confusion, seemingly not understanding.

”Since Han Lewis carries Ambrose White’s blood and he’s male, if we could use him to produce an heir, it would be a comfort to Ambrose’s spirit in the heavens. The White Family has suffered greatly and our numbers are dwindling. If someone could couple with Han Lewis and bear the next generation, wouldn’t that be a good thing for us?” Arcadia White asked.

The atmosphere was silent for several seconds.

”That’s not out of the question. That boy, Ambrose White... it truly is a pity...”

”Yes. We have less than a month before we sever all contact with the outside world. Keeping Han Lewis temporarily is acceptable. But he became a simpleton after Ambrose White died. What woman would be with him...?”

Hearing this, Nina Jacobs understood.

’No wonder these people knew ahead of time that something had happened to Ambrose White. It turns out he had a puppet named Han Lewis. As soon as Ambrose died, Han Lewis fell into a catatonic state...’

’Does that mean Evander Langdon, the one taken by Harlan, is a puppet too?’

But as Nina Jacobs heard what was said next, a nameless rage surged within her.

She heard Arcadia White say, ”I have a candidate in mind.”

”You mean the woman and man you brought this time? How do you know she’ll agree? That woman doesn’t seem simple to me,” Raymond White said.

Nina Jacobs had been silent the whole way, but this silence demonstrated her composure and clear-headedness in the face of trouble. Such calmness was not something an ordinary person could exhibit.

Arcadia White sneered. ”Of course she’s not simple. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been valued by Anselm Hughes and made captain of the transport team right away. She might be a Dual Element, but once you’ve entered Whittaker Town, leaving isn’t so easy.”

”I suppose that’s the only way. It’s just a bit of a pity,” Raymond White said with a sigh.

”It’s not a pity at all.”

Arcadia White took a sip of tea. Hearing her daughter’s laughter outside the window, she continued:

”I haven’t been in good health lately, and Julia will be grown up soon. It’s time she had a Protective Puppet to accompany her.”

”Are you saying that after this business with Ambrose White is settled, you’ll turn her into a Protective Puppet for Julia?” the old voice asked.

Arcadia White nodded. ”Julia likes her, too. And I’ve seen her strength. She’s not much weaker than Aiden.”

Raymond White nodded.

”Julia is still young and probably couldn’t withstand such a ritual right now. In a couple of years, the timing would be perfect...”

At that moment, Nina Jacobs was drinking ice-cold water to calm herself down.

The people of Whittaker Town had truly disgusted her.

She had to find the supplies as quickly as possible and get out of this place.

But after nightfall, she used several Little Zombie Rats to search nearly all of Whittaker Town and still found no trace of the supplies.

’Could they be in the hands of a Space Superpower User?’ Nina Jacobs wondered.

But she found it strange. Logically, two-thirds of the entire base’s supplies was an enormous quantity. Unless they had a Space Superpower User with an ”Infinite Space,” it would likely take hundreds of Superpower Users to hold that many supplies.

But that hypothesis didn’t hold up. If Whittaker Town really had someone with an ”Infinite Space,” they wouldn’t need to transport supplies from Lornwood Base time and time again...

Either they were hiding a large number of Space Superpower Users, or the supplies were hidden in a place she hadn’t found yet.

Nina Jacobs was inclined to believe the latter.