Chapter 203: You Must Be Blacktiger Ford

Chapter 203: Chapter 203: You Must Be Blacktiger Ford

Seraphina Sinclair saw the fear in his eyes and said curtly, "Let’s go together."

She glanced back at the Sunflower. After a moment’s thought, she still felt uneasy. "Selene Lawson, you stay here and guard the Sunflower."

Selene Lawson acknowledged the order and stood quietly beside the Sunflower.

With Seraphina Sinclair following, Victor Warner’s courage grew considerably. He walked ahead and raised his foot, intending to kick the corpse clinging to the staircase landing and curry favor with Seraphina Sinclair!

But the monster had a firm grip, its knuckles dug deep into the steps. Victor’s kick failed to dislodge the body completely; it just shifted sideways, still blocking the stairwell.

Just as he was about to try another kick, Seraphina Sinclair placed a hand on the railing and vaulted gracefully over the obstacle, landing solidly on the first floor and stirring up a small cloud of dust.

Victor’s ingratiating smile froze on his face. He awkwardly retracted his foot and hurried down after her.

"Move it," Seraphina Sinclair said concisely, her gaze sweeping over the pile of junk by the door.

It was mostly broken wooden crates and splintered table and chair legs. They were indeed flammable, but there wasn’t much, and it all seemed damp.

Victor Warner didn’t dare to delay. He quickly bent down and gathered as much of the drier wood as he could.

Seraphina Sinclair picked up a few pieces as well. The two of them quickly stuffed the wood into the fireplace, then took a leather waterskin full of fire oil and sprinkled some on top.

Watching her, Victor Warner suddenly raised a hand to scratch his head, frowning. "Serafelle, we don’t have a fire source, do we? How are we supposed to light this?"

That was right. They hadn’t found a fire source yet.

’This must mean there’s something else they haven’t found, something kept with the fire source.’

’Probably those torn-out journal pages?’

As Seraphina Sinclair considered this, she simply pulled out a Fire Drawing Rune, tore it, and guided the resulting flame into the fireplace.

The wood shouldn’t have caught fire, or at least it should have produced a lot of smoke.

But with a little work from Seraphina Sinclair, the damp wood instantly dried, and a fire that shouldn’t have started roared to life.

Victor Warner watched from the side, his respect for her soaring.

’He might talk a lot of nonsense,’ he thought, ’but I have eyes and a brain. Both this Serafelle Sinclair and the woman upstairs, Selene Lawson, are people I can’t afford to cross.’

’Getting matched with these two in this instance... I’ve really lucked out!’

Flames licked at every piece of wood. Just as Seraphina Sinclair stood up, intending to search for the missing information, a notification panel suddenly popped up in front of the three of them.

[Current Outpost Status: Stable!]

[The Sunflower is continuously powering the Clear Kill device. Please do not remove the Sunflower!]

[While the fire is burning, the number of monsters that appear will be greatly reduced. For your own health and safety, please do not let the fire go out!]

[Friendly Reminder: Desperate times call for desperate measures! If you encounter an uncleared monster horde, a Forced Clear Kill vote can be initiated. All surviving humans in the outpost have the right to vote! After one person is elected, the corresponding Sunflower will unleash all its energy to eliminate all monsters that have entered the outpost this round. Concurrently, the Sunflower will wither due to life force depletion. The first time it withers, the Sunflower can recover on its own with no side effects! The second time it withers, the Sunflower will not recover on its own!]

[Friendly Reminder: The first wave of monsters will arrive at the outpost in ten minutes! The instance will be considered a failure if monsters breach the second floor! Surviving more than three waves before failing will count as completing the instance. At the end of each wave, you will have an opportunity to exit the instance. You may exit if all surviving humans in the outpost agree! The more waves you withstand, the higher your instance rating will be!]

A series of notification panels popped up before them.

After memorizing the contents, Seraphina Sinclair silently closed the panel.

’Another attempt to sow discord.’

’All this talk about voting and withering...’

She sighed. ’Can’t the system come up with anything new?’

’And it just had to add that line, "The more waves you withstand, the higher your instance rating will be." Does it think all humans are that greedy?’

Even as she thought this, her body didn’t relax for a second. ’If the other two get any funny ideas about controlling the vote, I’ll have to make the first move.’

But for now, Victor Warner and Selene Lawson clearly had no such intentions.

Now that she knew the second floor was safe, Selene Lawson also jumped down from upstairs. She looked at the two of them and said, "We have ten minutes until the first wave of monsters arrives. What should we be doing?"

Victor Warner glanced at Seraphina Sinclair. Seeing she had no intention of speaking, he had no choice but to voice his own idea:

"The prompt says we only fail if monsters reach the second floor. The first floor opens right onto flat ground; monsters can just walk in. But the stairs to the second floor are broken. If we defend the top of the stairs, wouldn’t it be like one man holding a pass against ten thousand? Let’s just go up to the second floor and defend from there! What do you think? Serafelle! Ms. Lawson!"

He turned to look at them, hopeful his proposed plan would be accepted.

Selene Lawson’s response was a cold sneer.

It was Seraphina Sinclair who took pity on him and explained why. "Defend from the second floor? What about the fire? Without the fire, the number of monsters will skyrocket. Even with a terrain advantage, it would be difficult to hold them off."

Victor Warner froze, instinctively glancing at the dancing flames in the fireplace. He scratched his head. "Right... so, we defend on the first floor, then?"

"What else?" Selene Lawson shot him an exasperated glare. "Use your brain. The system prompt said the fire drastically reduces the number of monsters. That’s our most important defense. We have to protect the fireplace."

Seraphina Sinclair surveyed their surroundings. "We don’t have much time. Move all the usable wood next to the fireplace. Once the fight starts, we might not have time for this."

The realization dawned on Victor Warner. He nodded furiously. "Right, right, right!"

He didn’t dare waste any more time with idle chatter. He immediately got to work, grabbing all the relatively dry wood scattered by the door and in the corners and piling it all near the fireplace for easy access.

Seraphina Sinclair wasn’t idle either. She walked over to the stairs, grabbed the corpse’s twisted arm with a blank expression, and with a sharp tug—

With a sickening CRACK, she snapped the rigid arm clean off the edge of the staircase and tossed it aside.

The corpse, having lost its support, slumped down and got stuck at the turn of the staircase.

Tearing the corpse away wasn’t enough. Seraphina Sinclair then simply took out her longsword and hacked away the remaining steps.

’It’s best if no one goes to the second floor before the wave is over.’

When she was done, Seraphina Sinclair turned around to see Victor Warner and Selene Lawson staring at her, dumbfounded.

Seraphina Sinclair subconsciously frowned. Just as she was about to say something, Victor Warner yelled, "Sis! Serafelle! That sword... that longsword! Where did you pull it from?! And those runes, did you buy them from Master Blacktiger? You use them so decisively!"

"Serafelle Sinclair, you’re Blacktiger Ford, aren’t you?" Selene Lawson’s voice was much calmer, her tone exceptionally certain, as if she was stating a known fact.