The address was for the very place she was planning to go.
She planned to establish her own faction right there.
In addition to the recruitnt notice and the address, she had also written down the offered benefits.
At the very bottom, she left one final line: Anyone interested in joining her could gather here around noon tomorrow, and she would personally lead them away.
She had written it with a black pen on a wall. Conveniently, a large panel directly above the spot sheltered it from the rain, so she didn’t have to worry about the ssage being washed away.
Stella Sterling was in a raincoat and rain boots, with the floodwaters already reaching her calves. After she finished writing and turned, she found soone standing right behind her.
The person was staring at the words she had just written, a hesitant look on his face.
Stella Sterling glanced over and saw that the man didn’t even have an umbrella. He was just standing there in the downpour, his hair matted and dripping, his clothes so waterlogged they looked like they weighed a ton.
The man looked over at Stella Sterling. "You saw this too? You were here before . Do you know which base this is for? I wonder if it’s legit!"
His voice was filled with uncertainty and a hint of confusion.
He was a man in his thirties, but his face was utterly lifeless, and he looked completely dejected.
Stella Sterling considered for a mont, sizing him up. "I know about it," she said. "It’s very reliable."
But at her words, the man suddenly flew into a rage. "Who the hell knows if it’s reliable!" he spat. "Damn it all! These crooked outfits... The world is already this hard, and they still want to bleed people like us dry! They’re monsters!"
He had suddenly erupted in fury. Seeing his reaction, Stella Sterling figured he must have been scamd by soone else before.
’And probably got a raw deal, too. Handed over his food and everything, but still didn’t even get into the base.’
’Otherwise, no matter how bad a base was, he should have at least found shelter there.’
Seeing the man’s rage, Stella Sterling didn’t bother explaining further. She simply turned and walked away.
The man, anwhile, stomped off in another direction, cursing under his breath as if he’d just been provoked.
As Stella Sterling walked through the rain, a few more people gradually gathered around the wall.
But they all left after a single glance.
Before, a notice like this would have drawn a lot of interest. But over the last few days, too many people had been scamd. Everyone had grown wary. They no longer got excited at the first ntion of recruitnt, desperate to join and find a safe haven.
This posting didn’t say who wrote it or what base it was for. There wasn’t even a recruiter present. How could anyone trust it? It was probably just another scam.
So, after a quick look, most people left in disappointnt.
So of the more hot-tempered ones even started cursing at the wall.
They moved on to other places, though many were far more cautious than they had been days ago. Now, they asked detailed questions before even considering joining a group.
She watched from nearby for a while. Seeing that no one was taking the bait, she decided to head elsewhere for the ti being.
Many areas were flooded, but so spots on higher ground had been spared the worst of it.
Others had constructed makeshift walkways between high-rise buildings, connecting the skyscrapers and forming new elevated districts where people now lived.
Stella Sterling found a high, deserted spot. As dusk fell, she set up her tent, planning to spend the night there.
As for the yacht she had bought at the base, she had already tucked it safely into her spatial inventory. She’d spent a good number of points on it, after all; she wasn’t about to let it get washed away again like the last one.
After an uneventful night, Stella Sterling woke up, downed seven or eight stead buns and a bottle of milk for breakfast, and piloted her yacht back to the spot where she had written the recruitnt notice.
She had said that anyone who wanted to join her could gather here today, and she would lead them away.
But when she arrived at the designated ti, the place was completely empty.
She waited a while longer, but still, no one ca. She gave a helpless shrug.
The result didn’t surprise her.
’If it were , I wouldn’t trust such a haphazard recruitnt attempt either,’ she thought. ’I’d take one look and walk away. It’s only natural that others would do the sa.’
Besides, she didn’t really have the energy to spend a lot of ti on recruitnt right now.
She had just wanted to test the waters, so she wasn’t too disappointed by the outco. Then, she took another tour around Mirefall, picked out several more suitable and prominent locations, and left behind a similar ssage at each one.
Then, she piloted her yacht out of Mirefall.
Her destination was a mountain range several hundred kiloters from Mirefall. It was a remote area of sheer cliffs and precipices, a place no one would ever normally venture.
And because of those sheer cliffs, no one ca here even after the apocalypse began.
In her past life, she had discovered this place by a stroke of luck and had lived here for a while.
Following her mories, Stella Sterling navigated to the area. She disembarked from her yacht at a specific spot, stored the vessel in her inventory, and started up the mountain.
Relying on her mory again, she found the very cave where she had stayed for a ti in her past life.
A faint smile touched her lips as she looked at the familiar sight from her mories.
She decided she would put down roots here and build a life for herself.
"But first, I need to treat my stomach to a good al."
With that thought, Stella Sterling sat down inside the cave and took a previously prepared chicken from her spatial inventory.
Back when she was gathering supplies, she had collected a lot of office furniture and wooden restaurant chairs. They would be perfect for firewood now.
After starting a fire and setting up a spit, she decided to roast the chicken herself.
Back at the base, she had often snuck extra als for herself, but she could never eat to her heart’s content.
Now, she was all alone and free to do as she pleased. The thought alone was exhilarating.
On her first day, Stella Sterling set up a simple camp in the cave and let the day pass.
Early the next morning, she took out her yacht and began exploring the surrounding area, embarking on a new supply run. She collected everything she could find, useful or not, storing it all in her inventory before hauling it back up the mountain.
She scoured all the deserted areas nearby. Having a spatial inventory was a massive advantage. She could instantly store things others couldn’t possibly carry, making things incomparably more convenient for her.
She didn’t spare the hard-to-reach places others couldn’t get to, either; she always found a way to loot them clean.
After several days of this massive scavenging spree, her haul had grown considerably. Useless items that had been abandoned in the cities were now being reclaid by her.
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