SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire
Chapter 270 - 270 268 Well-Organized Development_1

Chapter 270: Chapter 268: Well-Organized Development_1 Chapter 270: Chapter 268: Well-Organized Development_1 “I didn’t steal it, I caught it myself!”

The child retorted with a slightly hoarse and childish voice, their little hands involuntarily squeezing tight, the mole’s tongue protruding out.

Colin was about to comfort the child when he suddenly paused:

“You… huh? You’re a girl?”

The kid wasn’t even 1.2 meters tall, with no hint of development, dirty and unkempt. Colin had assumed the child was a boy both times he had seen her, not realizing she was a girl until she spoke.

“Okay, fine, I apologize, I misunderstood you…”

“Ah…” The little girl, about to say something, froze, having braced herself to be hit. She never expected an apology from the other party.

You see, for someone like an “important person,” right or wrong, daring to talk back could even get you killed!

“Hehe, I know what it’s like to be wronged, I went through it myself when I was young. Okay, I offer you a sincere apology, and here’s my apology gift.”

Colin spoke kindly, reaching into his pocket and taking out a milk-flavor candy, stuffing it into the little girl’s mouth before she could react.

He actually always disliked annoying kids, but the well-behaved and sensible ones were a different matter…

And the little girl, just processing what happened, felt the sweet dissolving in her mouth, her whole jaw turning sour—she had never tasted anything so sweet!

That unfamiliar milkiness and sweetness…

“All right, your injuries are not too serious.”

Colin stood up after roughly treating her main wounds, pointing towards his domain in the direction of the small town:

“Would you like to come with me? I’ll provide you with food and shelter. As long as I live, I’ll save more children like you who have nowhere to go, teach you some knowledge, help you grow up, and then, the future is yours to choose.”

This time was different from making empty promises to the employees; Colin truly intended to do this, reminded of his own childhood by these children.

From a broken small family to the large family of the old dean…

Colin felt he had been quite fortunate.

Now, he planned to extend that luck a little longer.

The little girl followed his gesture, seeing only mountains vaguely in the distance a few kilometers away and nothing else, then turned her gaze back to Colin’s side profile, staring at him blankly.

After a while, she suddenly said with dejection,

“But we don’t have any money…”

She looked awkwardly at the two moles in her hands.

Although they were indeed fat, clearly, they could not pay the price, not even enough for the sweet thing in her mouth.

This kind of “good fortune” frightened her…

Yet, feeling the tone in Colin’s words, she didn’t run away as she would have in the past.

“Your growing up will be my reward.”

Colin smiled, reaching out to ruffle her hair. Ever since he had come to “World Code-13,” he had been completing tasks numbly, but having found something he wanted to do, he felt his mood had improved a lot.

And it was then that he turned to look behind him:

“Are those your friends?”

At this moment, those children had moved a bit closer, each carrying a stone as if prepared to give him a hard time.

‘Young in age, but certainly not in courage,’ Colin mused to himself.

“Um… could you take them with you?” the little girl tentatively asked.

“Of course, call them over.”

At his words, the little girl’s eyes lit up; her dark pupils appeared to redden with the change in emotion. Realizing something, she quickly averted her gaze, cocking her head to the side, sneaking another peek at Colin. Seeing that he seemed not to notice, she breathed a sigh of relief.

‘There’s indeed something not quite right with this child, those eyes,’ Colin thought with a hint of suspicion. However, having just comforted her, he didn’t rush to inquire immediately, to avoid upsetting her.

“By the way, what’s your name?” Colin asked again.

Upon hearing the question, the girl first shook her head, then said in a low voice, “I don’t have a name, but they all call me ‘Red’…”

No name; that must be a nickname then?

Colin was not overly surprised by this, as many refugees indeed did not have names or the privilege to have one; they often just had nicknames.

“Then I’ll call you Little Red.”

Without dwelling on the matter, at Little Red’s beckoning, the children who had wanted to “rescue” her jumped out. After Colin explained the misunderstanding, he took out the “Smiling Mountain of Corpses.”

In the next instant, the corpses on the ground melted away, and a huge Black Flesh Orb rose from the ground.

After briefly calming the shocked and frightened children, Colin led them to climb the Corpse Mountain, heading toward his domain:

“Pipi Ball, let’s go!”

The Corpse Mountain extended its thick arms in place of legs, carrying the group towards the domain. Thanks to Colin’s use of the “Emblem of the Humility Knight,” they didn’t cause much of a stir along the way—

It just always felt like something was missing.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, Colin slapped his forehead, remembering that he had yet to pick up the “Heroes” sack he had tossed on the ground. He commanded the Smiling Mountain of Corpses to return to the original spot to collect them before finally heading back to his territory.

After more than a day’s travel, everything in the territory was normal, except for a slight increase in the population.

However, soon Colin noticed that in addition to the refugees, there were several hundred soldiers he had never seen before…

After Colin’s return, Li Ming quickly received the message and temporarily put down his work to come over.

“Those soldiers are brought by Calder’s nephew. They say they’re here to help, but I feel like they harbor ill intentions. Should we drive them away?”

“Drive them away? Why?” Colin was surprised.

“Well… There are traitors among them.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re indeed short on labor right now, especially the kind that can understand orders. I reckon these ‘traitors’ will probably work harder than other soldiers to gather intelligence.”

Colin waved his hand dismissively, showing he wasn’t too concerned, his strength giving him the confidence to speak like this.

What Li Ming saw as traitorous soldiers were just another source of labor in Colin’s eyes…

“Alright then.” Li Ming nodded, then turned to look at the few children following Colin and at a sack of people being carried by a few “Money Slaves” handed over by Colin.

“These are ‘Heroes’ that I’ve just rescued…”

“You mean those poor sods are them?” Li Ming exclaimed in surprise.

Colin had told them the story of these unlucky “Heroes” before; Li Ming hadn’t expected that Colin’s recent outing was for this reason.

However, upon further thought and rubbing the dark circles under his eyes, Li Ming suddenly got excited, “Then, are they…?”

Having experienced nine years of compulsory education, acting as high-quality labor and contributing to their own well-being shouldn’t be a problem!

“Don’t think about it for now; they didn’t come through official channels and aren’t employees of the Bonfire Company. There’s a language barrier, and they’re injured. Right, their wounds need tending to. Later, ask Lin Yilan to come over.”

“Okay.”

Li Ming resigned himself to the fact and then turned to look at the few kids beside Colin, “By the way, who are these few?”

“You’re not thinking of having them help you with work, are you?” Colin asked with an odd expression.

“No, just asking.” Li Ming shook his head.

Noticing his gaze, Little Red nervously hid behind Colin, anxiously clutching the hem of his clothes.

Her eyes started to turn red again, perhaps due to the emotional changes.

Although there was no evidence, Colin had a premonition that if her eyes remained red, bad things were likely to happen.

‘It seems I’ll have to take care of her myself, otherwise there could be trouble.’ Colin thought to himself, his face betraying nothing as he spoke:

“Well, they’re a few homeless children; I’ll arrange for them to stay in the church for now.”

Colin patted her head to reassure her, made the arrangements, and then casually asked about the others—

Lin Yilan and the Nun were together rescuing people, while Tang Ken had gone out with a group of people to fabricate some basic tools and then attempt to reclaim farmland and develop wasteland.

In this world, there are actually quite a few people who know how to reclaim land and farm, but most of the time, they can’t do so.

Because reclaiming land in such times is heavy labor. Without enough food and protein support, a thousand refugees would go out to reclaim wasteland, and without food or tools, half would likely die from exhaustion or starvation in a few days.

Food and such are controlled by the nobles, and only when they wish to reclaim wasteland, can ordinary people do so.

Colin’s territory was also short on food, but he had that batch of several hundred 25s whose physiques were several times stronger than an ordinary person, so the problem wasn’t too severe.

After getting a brief understanding of the territory’s situation, Colin nodded with satisfaction.

In the following days, just as he had imagined, the 25s worked much harder than ordinary people. With their selfless dedication, the territory finally began to recover some order from the chaos.

Three days passed in an orderly fashion…

But looking at the increasingly dark circles under the eyes of Li Ming and the others, Colin suddenly felt a bit guilty and some ideas began to emerge—

“Is there a way to let them work continuously for seven days without reducing their work efficiency due to fatigue?”

As he pondered, Colin somewhat had a few ideas.

“Now they still need rest, but it’s time to enhance their strength. If they could get injected with F Level Gene Compensation Medicine and combine it with ‘Colorless Crystal,’ even if they work continuously for seven days, they probably won’t develop dark circles.”

In this way, his conscience would also feel much better.

However, just as Colin was thinking of going out to improve his employees’ strengths, Sister Vanessa suddenly rushed over excitedly and told him some big news—

Sometime soon, the highest-ranking figure in the “Light” Church, the first person under God, the Saint walking the earth, may be passing through this area!

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ps: Seeking a monthly ticket, let’s see if there’s a chance for a thousand monthly tickets to fulfill the dream of surpassing a thousand monthly tickets after many years of struggling to write.