Night silently passed by.
The next day, as soon as dawn broke, the flickering flames in the ruins of the wilderness gradually dimmed until they completely disappeared and Fang Li and Alisa emerged from the ruins, gazing at the still pitch-black sky, and took a deep breath.
"Alright, I have to continue on my way," Fang Li said, turning his head to look at Alisa, asking, "And what about you?"
Alisa didn't answer immediately. She remained silent for a while before finally responding, "I'll go too."
"Is that so?" Fang Li showed no sign of surprise or accident, merely nodding in acknowledgment.
Everything Fang Li needed to say had already been made clear and Since Alisa hadn't given up on her own purpose and wanted to continue seeking revenge, Fang Li had no reason to intervene any further.
After all, it was Alisa's decision to make and Alisa herself was well aware of this.
"No matter what, my destination won't change," Alisa seemed to have regained her composure, her tone returning to its initial coldness, as she said, "Even if it's for the sake of survival, I have to go there. Otherwise, staying in this wilderness without food will only lead to my death in the end."
"But going over there doesn't guarantee rescue," Fang Li turned his gaze to the other end of the wilderness and said, "That place is going to be the most dangerous place in this war. It would be better to stay here and wait for rescue rather than take unnecessary risks."
"You can do that if you want," Alisa glanced at Fang Li, speaking unemotionally, "But I don't want to stay here waiting for someone else to save me."
After speaking, Alisa passed by Fang Li and walked ahead.
Seeing this, Fang Li spread out his hands, wearing an indifferent expression, and followed suit.
Before long, the figures of the two began to accelerate, gradually sprinting forward at a speed unmatched by ordinary people, disappearing into the forest.
…
After a night of rest, both Fang Li and Alisa had recovered to varying degrees in terms of their injuries and condition.
Therefore, today, they were able to travel much faster than yesterday.
Coupled with their extraordinary stamina, they could continue traveling even while constantly sprinting like this.
In any case, one of Fang Li's equipment effects was to restore one-tenth of his stamina every ten minutes so as long as he didn't push himself to the limit, he could keep running like this by calculating his stamina properly.
And Alisa is a God Eater so she possessed incredible regenerative power due to Oracle Cell within her body, so she had no disadvantage compared to Fang Li.
Thus, for a whole hour, Fang Li and Alisa continued to sprint at a speed that appeared astonishing to ordinary people, running tirelessly across the wilderness.
They finally stopped when they encountered another group of Aragami forces. Amidst faint roars, a swarm of Ogretail Aragami appeared, running across the wilderness just like Fang Li and Alisa.
Before Fang Li could react to the sight of those Ogretail Aragami, Alisa spoke up. "This time, I will join the battle as well."
Saying so, Alisa gripped her God Arc without even glancing at Fang Li, taking step by step forward.
Just as Alisa was about to charge out, Fang Li spoke up. "Can you do something for me?"
These words made Alisa halt her footsteps and she looked at Fang Li with surprise in her eyes.
Clearly, Alisa hadn't expected Fang Li, who had always been so dominant in front of her, to suddenly say such a thing.
Ignoring Alisa's astonished gaze, Fang Li straightforwardly expressed his thoughts.
"I need Aragami cores, as many as possible," Fang Li looked at Alisa and said each word distinctly, "If you participate in the battle, I hope you can help me devour the cores of those Aragami."
"Cores?" Alisa immediately furrowed her brows.
For a God Eater, Aragami cores were not unfamiliar. Retrieving Aragami cores was also an important part of a God Eater's work.
As the most crucial part of an Aragami, the cores had many functions.
They were used for weapon development, ammunition manufacturing, equipment refinement, item production, and any engineering that required Oracle Cells could utilize Aragami cores as materials.
To put it bluntly, the abundance or scarcity of cores even affected the size and combat strength of a base.
Even God Arcs, the biological weapons created using Aragami cores as materials, would significantly decrease in performance without them.
Therefore, most of the missions for God Eaters were related to retrieving cores, and most of the time, they had to undertake missions to hunt Aragami in order to obtain cores.
As for the method of retrieving cores, there was a simple way.
That was devouring.
Close combat type sword-shaped God Arcs had the ability to devour. By activating the God Arc, it could consume the target and through this method, close combat God Arcs would usually use devouring to extract the cores from within the Aragami's body.
Alisa, as a user of the New-Type God Arc, could also use devouring in sword form.
Fang Li wanted Alisa to help him retrieve Aragami cores and thus complete the Second Main Quest.
Unfortunately, cores were extremely valuable resources.
As a God Eater from the Russian Branch, Alisa had no reason to assist Fang Li, who belonged to the Far East Branch.
Therefore, Alisa directly asked, "Why should I help you?"
Fang Li didn't answer and simply opened his palm in front of Alisa. In Fang Li's hand lay a packet of broken biscuits.
Seeing this, Alisa fell silent.
Only at this moment did Alisa realize a problem.
Without the food provided by Fang Li, she would probably be hungry right now, right?
And if Fang Li didn't continue providing food, she might really starved to death on the battlefield.
In other words, Fang Li had already paid his dues.
If Alisa chose to ignore it, then the biscuits from last night were equivalent to feeding an ungrateful person.
How could Alisa, who had a strong sense of pride, bear that?
"…I understand," Alisa tightly focused her gaze on Fang Li and said, "I will give you all the cores I retrieve during this period of time. That way, I won't owe you anything, right?"
"That's right," Fang Li shrugged and said, "Although the remaining biscuits can only sustain the two of us for another 3-4 days, it should at least help us get out of the wilderness, right?"
"Understood," Alisa turned around and looked at the group of Aragami ahead.
"Then let's begin."
...
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