Two days passed peacefully, and unusually, the Raptures did not attack the temporary outpost during this time.
Snow White took the Mass-Produced Nikkes out to gather supplies.
Due to Kai’s instructions, although not too many supplies were gathered—just barely enough—it was more important that they all returned safely.
During these two days, Kai and the five Nikkes who remained—Dorothy, Rapunzel, Scarlet, as well as Pinne and a Mass-Produced Nikke sister—repaired some of the areas that had been bombed by artillery, in addition to standing guard during the day.
At night, Kai would also tell the Nikkes his own modified fairy tales.
That afternoon, Snow White and the Mass-Produced Nikkes returned, luckily, with a full bounty.
“Wow, Snow White, you caught another big deer,” Scarlet commented upon seeing Snow White’s haul, “Snow White, you’re practically a deer slayer.
We still have some venison left from before; Commander can’t eat any more.”
“I just happened to encounter them a few times.”
The first time Snow White hunted a deer, she used her ship-mounted rifle, and one shot shattered it.
That day, she almost returned empty-handed.
The returning Nikkes chatted happily, awaiting the evening storytelling session.
The Nikkes all consumed only the minimum calories to sustain themselves, leaving as much food as possible for Kai.
Kai did not refuse; he knew the Nikkes could endure much more than him, but he also didn’t eat excessively, instead hoarding easily storable foods like canned goods.
He had just been drying venison jerky.
Pinne was still processing the venison when she suddenly noticed a bite mark on it.
“Huh?
Who did this?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Snow White admitted directly, “It was me.
I hadn’t tried raw meat yet.
I remembered I seemed to have wasted some on my first hunt.”
“It doesn’t taste as good as cooked meat.”
Pinne hadn’t expected the idol Goddess Squad to have such a “cute” side, so she smiled without speaking and continued processing.
Watching everyone enjoying themselves, Dorothy also smiled.
At this moment of humanity’s complete defeat, they at this outpost were still filled with hope.
And all of this happened within just a few short days; ever since Kai arrived, everything seemed to have hope.
The erosion that had once left them helpless was easily resolved by Commander.
With his assistance, even battles against the Raptures became so simple.
Even during the Goddess Squad’s heyday—when Liliweiss and Red Hood were alive—they didn’t bring as much laughter to everyone as they did now.
How she wished Liliweiss and Red Hood could also meet Commander.
Kai was originally squatting beside Pinne, admiring her excellent knife skills, when he suddenly felt a certain power on his body disappear.
“Doro’s beginner protection period must have expired.
But he didn’t care too much.
“I’m protected by a bunch of Pilgrims now!
Do I still need to avoid the Raptures?
No way.”
Soon, night fell, and everyone had finished dinner.
“By the way, today I and my other sisters discovered several usable passages.
After we complete our mission, we can use these passages to quickly withdraw to the Ark.”
“Tomorrow, we will explore and confirm the safety and accuracy of these passages.
We might be a bit far from the temporary outpost tomorrow, so you need to be careful.”
Dorothy nodded.
Given the current situation, the mission of guarding the Ark could be easily completed, so it was indeed time to plan the retreat route early.
Once the Ark was sealed, her Goddess Squad could safely return to the Ark with the Mass-Produced Nikke sisters and Commander, becoming heroes of humanity.
“Okay, I’ll be careful tomorrow.”
“Hmm.
I’m going on guard duty.”
“Eh?
Aren’t you going to listen to Commander’s story?”
“It’s not far anyway; I can hear it.”
With that, Snow White jumped directly onto the watchtower in front of the temporary outpost, preparing to multitask.
Amidst everyone’s anticipation, Kai stood alone by the campfire, with Rapunzel, Scarlet, and Dorothy of the Goddess Squad seated around him.
The remaining Mass-Produced Nikkes also gathered tightly in a circle, creating a very atmospheric scene.
“Ahem!” Kai cleared his throat a few times.
The Nikkes all sat properly, not a single one speaking.
Even Snow White, on guard duty, leaned her body over a little.
“Today I’m going to tell an Andersen fairy tale.”
“Once upon a time, there was a princess who was born on a snowy night, and her skin was as white as snow, so her father named her Snow White.”
The Nikkes’ eyes lit up.
“This is good!
Snow White is good!”
“But she had a wicked stepmother, a queen whom the king married after her mother passed away.
“And all this was because the new queen was jealous of her beauty, so she made Snow White go to the woodshed to boil water.”
“As a result, Snow White’s skin was blackened by smoke and no longer snow-white, and with all the dust in the woodshed, she became Cinderella.”
The Nikkes: “Something seems off again?”
“Snow White—Cinderella went to the river to wash the dust from her face.
She saw in the river that she was no longer snow-white, and as a princess, she had fallen to her current state.”
“So she cried sadly, and her tears turned into pearls and fell into the river.”
“At this time, the River God appeared.
He held a golden rifle and asked Cinderella: Is this golden rifle what you dropped?”
“Cinderella shook her head and said no.”
“Then the River God took out a silver rifle and asked Cinderella: Is this silver rifle what you dropped?”
“Cinderella still shook her head and said no.”
“The River God said, ‘You are truly an honest child, I will reward you.'”
“So the River God rewarded Cinderella with an ordinary rifle.”
“Then Cinderella shot the River God in the head, and in this way, she got another golden rifle and a silver rifle.”
“From then on, Cinderella, with her three rifles, grew stronger and stronger, went home and blew up the Queen’s dog head, seized the King’s throne, and became the Queen of the country!”
“From then on, Cinderella washed away the stains and became Snow White again, doing whatever she wanted and eating whatever she wanted!”
The Nikkes: “This, this isn’t right, is it?”
Snow White: “It seems someone is slandering me?”
But can she really eat whatever she wants?
She touched her ship-mounted rifle; its power was much greater than an ordinary rifle.
Kai: “In short, this story tells us that power comes from the barrel of a gun!”
A Mass-Produced Nikke, who believed it to be true, asked, “Commander, is this the original story of the fairy tale Nikke Snow White?
It’s really so moving!”
This was not strange; the Nikkes’ brains were truly human.
Some had human memories after becoming Nikkes, while others did not.
This moved Nikke likely no longer had her human memories, and she also trusted Commander.
In fact, a bigger reason for her reaction was that Commander was willing to tell stories to them, the Mass-Produced Nikkes.
Kai thought to himself that this was the first time he had heard this story himself; it was fresh.
Finally, the dissatisfied Scarlet pulled Kai to tell a few more fresh stories before they dispersed.
Tomorrow they still had to “go to work”—scouting and fighting Raptures!