Chapter 235: Cannot Escape

"You have so many people looking for you, and they’re all fighting to the death over you. At this point, no one is going to back down easily."

"No matter who you go with, the other factions will never let it rest!"

"Your little disappearing act might have fooled most of them, but someone is bound to notice something’s off. When they do, you won’t be able to get away on your own."

"Come with me. I can guarantee your safe passage out of here. As for whether you join my faction... we can discuss that later."

Stella Sterling spoke calmly. Her words were harsh, but they were the undeniable truth.

Professor Lawrence had no choice, and she had no intention of letting him go so easily.

Professor Lawrence didn’t believe a single word Stella Sterling said. He’d spent too much energy escaping to fall back into the hands of people like her.

He waited for a moment when the woman in front of him wasn’t looking, then bolted in another direction. He figured that if he could just get away from this spot, it would be much harder for anyone to find him again given the current chaos.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to join a base; his experiments required the backing of a powerful faction.

He couldn’t do it on his own.

But even if he had to join a base, he refused to be cornered into it like this.

He planned to wait until he escaped and the whole affair blew over. Then, he would quietly choose a faction to align with on his own terms—he would not be coerced.

But it was no use. No matter which direction he ran, she caught up to him instantly. He simply couldn’t escape her sight.

After several such attempts, Professor Lawrence’s aging body couldn’t take it anymore.

He simply stopped, plopping right down on the ground.

Normally, Professor Lawrence was a man who cared deeply about his dignity, but at this moment, he couldn’t be bothered. He just sat right there on the ground, gasping for air.

Stella Sterling watched him with her arms crossed, making no move to drag him away by force.

After resting for a good while, Professor Lawrence finally turned his gaze to the woman. "How can a young girl like you run like that?"

"It’s all thanks to regular exercise, of course. Your poor stamina, Professor, must be from a lack of it."

Stella’s tone was serious, her words delivered deadpan as she looked at him. "Done running, Professor Lawrence?"

Professor Lawrence waved his hand in a gesture of defeat. "I’m not running anymore. I can’t outrun you."

’I get it now,’ he thought. ’If she wanted to capture me by force, she could have done it already. I never stood a chance of escaping.’

’I just don’t get it. She looks so young, how can she be this skilled?’

Stella smiled. "Thank you for the compliment, Professor."

’That wasn’t a compliment!’

Professor Lawrence turned his head away.

Feeling a little hungry, Stella pulled a loaf of bread from her backpack and took a bite. "Professor, it’s best not to make any rash moves," she said quietly. "If you dare to shoot, I can guarantee I’ll be unharmed. But I can’t guarantee that I won’t kill you."

Her tone carried a warning. After speaking, she tilted her chin, gesturing towards the pistol peeking out of his sleeve.

Professor Lawrence froze. He stared at Stella Sterling for two seconds, then helplessly slid the gun back into place.

He didn’t feel the least bit awkward about being discovered.

Gradually, his attention was drawn to the bread in Stella’s hand.

He had led his team into The Kryllian Mountains in search of a specific material.

Then, a series of accidents had left them trapped. He never expected to attract so many people who, under the guise of rescuing him, actually wanted to drag him away by force.

Trapped in The Kryllian Mountains for so long, and then getting tangled up with these people, he had long since eaten all the food he had with him.

For the past few days, he had been filling his stomach with tree bark; he couldn’t even find any wild vegetables.

The occasional animal he encountered was a powerful species he couldn’t beat bare-handed, and he didn’t dare fire his gun for fear of attracting the people searching for them.

They were too busy running for their lives to even think about hunting for food.

Only the tree bark was something he was certain he could eat. After gnawing on bark for two days, it had barely filled his stomach and did nothing else. It even made his throat ache terribly.

Now, seeing Stella eating bread, his stomach grumbled, and he couldn’t help but swallow hard.

Before all this, to focus on their research, they had lived in complete isolation with several years’ worth of food stored up. For years, they would just hastily grab a bite to eat before throwing themselves back into their experiments.

He had thought that after they got out, they would have a proper, good meal.

But he never imagined that the world outside would have become a place where even getting a hot bite to eat was a struggle.

Seeing him staring at the bread in her hand, Stella waved it. "You want some?"

Vincent Lawrence snorted coldly, turned his head away, and said nothing.

’I’ve seen how despicable these people can be over the past few days,’ he thought. ’If I want something from her, I’ll definitely have to pay a price.’

The next moment, something was tossed to him. Professor Lawrence caught it on instinct and saw it was a loaf of bread.

He looked at Stella Sterling, but she paid him no mind, continuing to eat her own.

Professor Lawrence was taken aback. He hadn’t expected her to give it to him so readily. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided not to overthink it, tore open the packaging, and began to devour it.

After finishing, he looked over at Stella. "Got any more?"

Stella tossed him another loaf.

She even kindly gave him a small bottle of water.

Two loaves of bread later, the ache in his stomach was finally eased. Professor Lawrence carefully took a small sip of water, not daring to drink too much, then tucked the rest of the bottle away in his coat.

With food in his belly and his thirst quenched, the man finally seemed to come back to life.

"There’s no need for that, Professor. I have more."

Seeing his action, Stella smiled. She drained the water bottle in her hand in one go and pulled another one from her backpack.

"Water is so precious now! How can you guzzle it down like that?"

Professor Lawrence glared at Stella, his tone accusatory, as if she had committed some unforgivable crime.

’Don’t you know what things are like out here? Every resource is incredibly scarce and precious.’

’Even though it’s raining, meaning there’s no shortage of water to drink, most of it is probably contaminated now. Even the rain itself is polluted.’

’Drinking too much of this water will probably cause problems down the line. It’s predictable that clean water will only become more and more precious. Eventually, people will be fighting to the death for a single mouthful.’

’That’s precisely why the bottled water left from before is so important. How could this girl be so wasteful?’

’It’s simply... simply...’