Stella Sterling left ridia Base. She slipped away quietly, without saying goodbye to anyone.
Louis Grant didn’t know, and neither did Basil Xavier.
She left at night, not bothering to inform the two people she had gotten along with.
Besides, she had already told them she would be leaving soon.
There was no need to make a special point of saying it again.
Before leaving, though, she did ask Louis Grant to get her so of the base’s new seed varieties.
This was the kind of thing most other bases would never give away so easily. After all, it was the fruit of their research—sothing that allowed them to be self-sufficient. It was also a draw for recruiting new mbers to the base.
But ridia Base, it had to be said, had a broader perspective. They weren’t secretive and hoped the new varieties would be widely distributed.
That way, more people could be helped. If more people planted them, they wouldn’t have to go hungry anymore.
So, when Stella Sterling brought it up, Louis Grant agreed without hesitation and quickly got the seeds for her.
This made Stella Sterling’s opinion of ridia Base improve even more.
After that, she spent all her remaining points in the base to buy a small yacht.
She already had one in her personal space, but the problem was she couldn’t just take it out in the open. She needed a vehicle to leave the base, so she had to buy one.
Such an important mode of transportation wasn’t freely available for purchase within the base; ordinary people couldn’t buy one.
At least, when Stella Sterling asked Ms. Ward, she was told she had no way and wasn’t qualified to buy one.
So in the end, Stella Sterling went to Louis Grant. He acted as a guarantor using his parents’ status, and although it took so effort, he managed to get her a small yacht.
But the thing was truly expensive. It cost her 3,000 points, and even then, it was a low-quality model—a product that had been phased out years ago.
However, Stella Sterling only needed it as a cover, so she wasn’t demanding about its performance.
3,000 points. That was an amount many people could work for a very long ti and never save up. The base set the price this high to prevent these important vehicles from being lost.
Expensive, and requiring a person of status to purchase—these conditions already barred most people. An ordinary person wouldn’t buy one anyway.
She certainly didn’t have 3,000 points on her. Ethan Young had given her 2,000 points before, and she had spent so of it here and there these past few days. After accounting for housing costs, she had about 1,600-so points left.
She then traded in everything she had scavenged from that scrawny man, which converted to about two or three hundred points. Even so, she was still short over 1,000 points.
This wasn’t a difficult problem for Stella to solve. She had plenty of useless items on her; she could easily trade a few to make up the difference. The hard part was explaining where those items ca from. She needed to co up with a plan.
After all, she hadn’t gone out on any missions. When she entered the base, she was only carrying a black bag. There was no legitimate excuse for where the other items ca from.
In the end, Louis Grant simply covered the remaining points for her.
It had to be said, for a rich kid, Louis Grant was quite wealthy inside the base. He handed over more than 1,000 points without even blinking.
He said it was a small reward for saving his cousin.
Stella Sterling accepted the reward frankly, without feeling the least bit embarrassed.
With these preparations complete, Stella Sterling left the next day.
Entering ridia Base required all sorts of checks, but leaving was easy. Many people went out onto the water every day to catch fish or scavenge for other items. The base didn’t stop this; in fact, they encouraged it.
Thus, her departure didn’t alert anyone.
It was only on the second day, when Louis Grant went looking for Stella and found the room she had been renting empty, that he realized she had left.
’Getting a yacht, getting seeds, stocking up on food... she’s been preparing to leave for days.’ He had already guessed as much.
"As long as we don’t die, we’ll have a chance to et again."
Louis Grant muttered to himself, then turned and left.
Stella Sterling glanced back at the receding base, then calmly turned her gaze forward again.
There was no excitent in her eyes, nor any sorrow.
’The ups and downs of life, partings and reunions—they’re all perfectly normal.’
"It’s just a pity..."
What she found a pity, Stella Sterling didn’t say. She sat on the yacht, her gaze distant as she watched the scenery glide past.
After spending a few peaceful days inside the base, seeing the desolate landscape outside again made her feel dazed for a mont.
Inside the base, it was quiet and peaceful, but outside, it was a raging storm. It was like they were two different worlds.
The terrifying sight was enough to instantly pull a person into a state of high alert.
She piloted the yacht across the water, planning to find a suitable spot to switch to the treasure she had in her personal space.
She didn’t head directly for her intended destination. Instead, she turned the yacht back in the direction of Mirefall.
Along the way, she saw many people salvaging things from the water, as well as others arguing and fighting over trivial items.
The fighting outside was even more severe than before she had entered the base.
Previously, aside from a few exceptions, most people kept to themselves, fishing on the water and generally not bothering one another.
But this ti, after coming out, she noticed far more people were fighting.
As soon as soone caught a fish, others would imdiately swarm over to snatch it.
The reason for this was that they had discovered the number of fish in the water had dropped significantly.
With everyone overfishing so heavily, the fish population had plumted. Many people could now work on the water all day and catch nothing.
This, in turn, led to increasingly severe conflicts. They had no choice. Food ant survival. If they didn’t fight for it, they would starve.
Seeing this, Stella Sterling frowned.
Because she was alone, her yacht was small and nimble, and she had fewer concerns, she was able to travel very fast. It had taken her several days to get from Mirefall to ridia Base before, but this ti, Stella took less than a day to return to Mirefall.
In Mirefall, there were still many people recruiting new mbers in the na of a base.
Stella Sterling thought for a mont, then took sothing out and wrote two words in a certain spot: "Help Wanted." She also left an address underneath.
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