Chapter 239: A Human Tragedy

"Once you’ve made a decision, don’t regret it."

Stella took her last bite, not looking at Professor Lawrence. Her voice was calm.

’Those two men did everything they could to buy Professor Lawrence time. It’s clear they were willing to do so.’

’That must mean Professor Lawrence treated them well. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been willing to sacrifice their lives to help him escape.’

Stella didn’t know how they had come to that decision, but it was clear the two men had done it voluntarily.

At the very least, they had achieved their goal. Professor Lawrence had indeed made it out alive.

He just hadn’t escaped the way they’d intended. Instead, he had fallen into her hands.

Hearing Stella’s words, Professor Lawrence flinched. He then lowered his head and said nothing.

He knew, of course, that one shouldn’t regret a decision once it’s made. But hearing that his longtime companions were gone because of him, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of grief.

’If only I hadn’t been so stubborn,’ he thought. ’If I had just agreed to those people’s demands from the start, none of this would have happened.’

Stella wasn’t very good at comforting people. ’Some things you just have to get through on your own. Once you’re past them, you’ll be fine.’

So she gave him his space and didn’t bother him further. After telling Nathan Cheney and Shane Lawrence to get some more rest, she went to the bow of the boat and secretly ate some snacks she’d stashed away.

That self-heating hotpot from earlier hadn’t been nearly enough to fill her up.

So she ate two chocolate bars, a can of food, and an apple. That barely got her to about two-thirds full. She tossed the empty wrappers directly into her space to avoid being discovered.

After resting for a while, the group prepared to set off.

The boat traveled across the lake for two days. Everywhere they looked, they could see desperate people with nowhere to go, fighting to the death over scraps of territory.

Life inside their base was relatively stable, but in the outside world, the slaughter was only growing more intense.

When Stella had nothing else to do, she would watch the world go by through a pair of binoculars.

While passing a small city, she saw a man on the roof of a building. He was starting a fire, apparently roasting something.

Stella focused her gaze and saw that what he was roasting on the spit was...

Stella’s eyes went cold. She glanced at something next to the man, then closed her eyes, a grim understanding dawning on her.

The man’s face was flushed with excitement, as if he were eagerly awaiting something.

Stella’s gaze hardened.

’Once people get hungry enough, they’re capable of anything. They’ll do whatever it takes to survive, no matter the cost.’

People had started doing this over a year ago. She had encountered it before.

The man in the distance had a look of crazed excitement in his bloodshot eyes. It clearly wasn’t his first time doing something like this.

The boat sped past, and the man’s figure vanished from Stella’s sight.

But once you spotted one instance of it, you started seeing it everywhere.

In just a short time, she had already seen several other similar scenes.

’This must be connected to those crazed, irrational people who appear later on.’

"What are you thinking about?" Professor Lawrence asked, coming to sit beside her.

"About the future."

Stella lowered the binoculars, her voice devoid of any emotion.

’Before, you could still catch fish in the lake. A good harvest should have yielded plenty of stored food. But even so, this many people are resorting to this... It’s clear the situation outside is getting worse and worse.’

Professor Lawrence looked at the young woman beside him, finding her completely inscrutable.

Sometimes she was mischievous, enjoying teasing and joking with people. Other times she was so cold and detached she seemed utterly heartless. And then there were times she was perfectly calm, as if devoid of the normal human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and grief.

Yet at other times, she seemed burdened by a deep melancholy.

’What an enigma.’

’She’s so young, yet she seems to think more deeply than a fifty-something-year-old man like me.’

Professor Lawrence shook his head. He picked up the binoculars Stella had set aside.

The next moment, his breath hitched.

"Worse than animals!"

He cursed, having clearly seen the same bloody, savage scenes.

’These people have completely lost their minds.’

Professor Lawrence was breathing heavily. He had known the outside world was harsh, but he had never imagined it had reached this point.

But after his outburst, he fell silent again.

Faced with such a cruel scene, he didn’t know what to say. He only felt a profound sense of powerlessness.

He was furious, yet utterly helpless.

He turned to Stella. "You saw it too?"

’So that’s why she was acting that way just now? Because she saw those scenes?’

"Yes."

Stella nodded, admitting it directly.

Experiencing it this time around, she no longer felt the same fear she had in her past life—only a certain sadness.

She was also somewhat grateful that her past self had neither met such a miserable end nor become one of those people.

But then she remembered how she had died in her past life, and her heart sank once more.

Professor Lawrence put the binoculars down as well. He didn’t look through them again, unable to bear seeing such images.

People died every day in this apocalypse, but the thought of facing something like that even after death was enough to make one’s heart tremble.

Even though it hadn’t happened to him, just seeing it happen to others was more than any decent person could accept.

Stella spoke up. "Professor Lawrence, what do you think? After people do something like that, do you think they get addicted? Do you think the things they do next will be even crazier?"

As Stella spoke, her voice was glacial, and a chill seemed to radiate from her entire body.

Professor Lawrence’s pupils contracted. He didn’t answer. He didn’t dare to answer.

But deep down, he already had a very clear answer.

’Some people would. In this world, there would always be people who would.’

’And if that’s the case, there’s no telling how many more tragedies will occur.’

’You can just imagine the fate awaiting the weak.’

’At that point, the chances of survival for weaker people will be even smaller.’

’They’ll be stripped of their dignity as human beings even before they die.’

He looked at Stella. "Is your base strong?"

"It has me. Of course it’s strong."

A corner of Stella’s mouth lifted into a smirk, her tone brimming with confidence.

Professor Lawrence shook his head.

’She really is the most confident person I’ve ever met.’

But he had to admire her abilities; she was undeniably formidable.

Composing himself, he said, "I’ll agree to join your base, but I have one condition. The kind of thing you just described must never be allowed to happen within the base. Otherwise, I will absolutely refuse to work for you."

He didn’t ask her to use the power behind her to eliminate these degenerates, because that would be unrealistic. There was no telling how many people like that were lurking in the shadows. For every one they eliminated, another would just take their place.