50: Chapter 50: Recruiting the good-for-nothing Su Xiaoqi, and then extorting her from her!

At the entrance of Gluttony Town, the air was thick with the scent of blood and decay.

The Jiang Consortium’s Shadow Unit squad had already lost two members; the remaining four stood back-to-back in a circle, their tactical knives chipped and worn.

In the center of the circle, the girl named Su Xiaoqi held her knees, the rumbling from her stomach louder than the roars of the distant monsters.

Chen Chen sat in the driver's seat, one hand resting on the steering wheel, as if watching a mediocre action play from the front row of a theater.

He was in no hurry to act.

He waited until the squad's formation was shattered by a Gluttonous Aberrant Pig and the captain was knocked to the ground with a bleeding gash on his thigh before Chen Chen leisurely opened his newly acquired silver-grade storage ring.

With a thought.

A piece of sizzling, oily roasted meat appeared in his hand.

It was the hind leg of an Aberrant Rhino he had killed earlier; the meat was firm and packed with energy.

It had been charcoal-grilled on the simple grill on the second floor of the RV until it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, sprinkled with a few precious grains of salt.

Chen Chen pushed open half of the vehicle's window.

*Sizzle—*

Fat dripped onto the scorching hot hood, making a soft sound.

An overbearingly unreasonable aroma of meat, mixed with the fragrance of char and grease, exploded across the Flesh Wasteland like an invisible bomb.

The moment the Shadow Unit members, who were still struggling to hold on, smelled it, their Adam's apples bobbed uncontrollably.

They had been eating moldy biscuits for three days.

But the one with the most intense reaction was Su Xiaoqi.

Her large, previously dull eyes suddenly lit up with a "shua."

It was the look of a stray cat that hadn't eaten in three days spotting a can of tuna—pure and burning!

She even forgot the monsters surrounding her, struggling to climb up from the ground, her nose sniffing the air forcefully.

Then, she saw it.

She saw that dark-colored steel beast, the hand reaching out from the window, and the golden, oily roasted meat in that hand that made her very soul tremble.

"Meat..."

Su Xiaoqi squeezed out two slurred words, saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Like a puppy abandoned by its owner, she scrambled on all fours, moving toward the RV.

"Xiaoqi! Come back!"

The Shadow Unit captain, his thigh still bleeding, looked on with eyes nearly bursting from their sockets.

He struggled to get up and grabbed Su Xiaoqi by the ankle.

Then, he looked up at the RV with a gaze mixed with anger and fear.

"Who are you, sir! Do not interfere in the internal affairs of our Jiang Consortium!"

He pulled out the tactical knife at his waist, held it in front of Su Xiaoqi, and roared, trying to use the Consortium's name to scare the other party off.

Chen Chen pushed open the heavy armored door.

His military boots stepped onto the dark brown, fleshy ground with a dull thud.

He looked down at the two people struggling on the ground and loosened his grip; the roasted meat, enough to drive any survivor mad, fell lightly onto the ground less than half a meter from Su Xiaoqi.

Dirt and bloodstains got on it, but the aroma only grew more intense.

"I'll give you two choices."

"One, let her eat her fill and come with me, and you all can live."

"Two, you die here with her, and I'll just scavenge the bodies after you're dead."

The captain's heart sank to the bottom.

This wasn't a choice at all.

In the fraction of a second that he was distracted.

Su Xiaoqi suddenly broke free from his hand and pounced like a bolt of lightning, grabbing the roasted meat off the ground and stuffing it directly into her mouth without even having time to brush off the dirt.

She devoured it ravenously, eating wildly with her cheeks bulging, letting out satisfied whimpers from her throat.

The massive energy contained within the high-tier aberrant flesh instantly exploded within her body.

SS-grade talent [Gluttony Evolution] activated!

A visible, terrifying shockwave centered on her petite body and boomed outward!

Just then, a Gluttonous Aberrant Pig roared and charged at her, its massive head like a battering ram.

While chewing the meat in her mouth, Su Xiaoqi swung a backhand punch.

That seemingly fair and small fist collided head-on with the pig's head.

*Bang!*

A dull, teeth-gritting explosion.

The half-ton aberrant pig's skull, hard as iron, flew off on the spot!

A mixture of red and white brain matter splashed all over Su Xiaoqi.

The power of this punch was several times more terrifying than any punch she had thrown before!

Inside the vehicle, Jiang Yanxue's pupils contracted sharply.

However, the cool moment didn't last three seconds.

After throwing that earth-shattering punch, the aura on Su Xiaoqi's body deflated like a punctured balloon, instantly becoming withered.

*Gurgle—*

Her stomach thundered once again.

Her legs went weak, and she collapsed directly to the ground, her small face pale, without even the strength to stand up.

"Hungry... hungry again..."

The Shadow Unit captain's face was filled with despair.

Chen Chen, however, smiled.

He took another piece of roasted meat from the storage ring.

It was even larger than the previous one.

Then a third piece.

He even took out a military canteen and unscrewed the cap, releasing a milky fragrance so thick it wouldn't dissipate—it was a nutritional fluid mixed from high-energy nutritional powder.

Faced with this overwhelming, unreasonable "resource suppression," the Shadow Unit captain understood.

They couldn't afford to keep Su Xiaoqi.

But this man could.

Chen Chen walked up to Su Xiaoqi, crouched down, and held the new piece of meat to her mouth.

"Get in the car, and you can eat your fill."

Su Xiaoqi had eyes only for the meat; she didn't even think before nodding frantically.

[Ding! New Beauty Karma bond detected!]

[Target: Su Xiaoqi]

[Beauty Assessment: 97 points (Top Tier)]

[Identity Determination: Special Constitution Wanderer (Carrier of Gluttony Providence)]

[Binding successful! Extracting exclusive Golden Entry...]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Golden Entry: Gluttonous Feast/Energy Feedback (Lv.1)!]

[Effect: When the Beauty Su Xiaoqi devours high-tier food, 2.5% of the energy can be converted into pure free attribute points and permanently fed back to the host!]

Chen Chen's eyebrow twitched.

This was practically a mobile attribute point ATM!

Just as Su Xiaoqi grabbed the roasted meat and prepared to follow Chen Chen into the vehicle.

*Beep—*

The communicator on the Shadow Unit captain's wrist suddenly lit up.

A holographic projection appeared in mid-air.

It was a woman.

A woman who, despite having a face covered in blood and standing against a background of burning mechanical ruins, was still aggressively beautiful.

The controller of the Jiang Consortium’s Shadow Unit, Jiang Jiuyou!

Her gaze bypassed her pathetic subordinates and locked directly onto Chen Chen.

"Chen Chen."

Her voice was as cold as ice. "Give Xiaoqi back to me. I will trade the coordinates of the Jiang Consortium's next safe zone plus a B-grade RV power system blueprint for her."

An astronomical price.

A temptation no survivor could refuse.

Chen Chen merely sneered.

Right in front of Jiang Jiuyou, he scooped up Su Xiaoqi, who was still gnawing on meat, and tossed her directly into the back of the RV.

Then, he grabbed a large pile of food from the storage ring and piled it next to her.

Su Xiaoqi immediately acted like a little mouse that had fallen into a rice granary, rolling happily in the pile of food.

Only then did Chen Chen turn his head and say leisurely to Jiang Jiuyou's holographic projection:

"I'm taking the person."

"If you want news of her, trade three sets of A-grade rare materials for it. Otherwise, she's mine from now on."

After speaking, he didn't give Jiang Jiuyou a chance to react and simply raised his hand, swiping the communicator.

Projection closed.

*Vroom—*

The engine of the Lv.10 mobile heavy fortress let out a sky-shaking roar.

Chen Chen sat back in the driver's seat and floored the accelerator.

Under the angry yet helpless gaze of the Jiang Clan Secret Department squad and Jiang Jiuyou on the other side of the projection, the thirteen-and-a-half-ton steel beast used its heavy serrated bull bar to forcibly grind a bloody path through the remaining Gluttonous Aberrant Pigs.

It sped away.