"Shh, shh, shh—!"
The other Nikkes raised their guns and aimed at Snow White.
The atmosphere instantly turned tense.
Mo Chen reached out to press down Ludmilla's weapon, signaling the other Nikkes to lower their weapons. Under everyone's gaze, he walked straight up to Snow White and pulled out a cream-filled pastry.
"Want one?"
Everyone's hearts jumped. They stared at Mo Chen in shock.
What is the Commander doing? Is he provoking her?!
No one could tolerate such an insult!
Sure enough, Snow White's eyes shifted. Her golden pupils moved from Mo Chen's face to the cream pastry in his hand, suddenly becoming sharp.
Everyone tensed up: a fight was about to break out!
Then, under everyone's eyes—
Snow White lowered her gun, casually took the pastry, and stuffed it into her pocket.
She even said, "Thanks."
Everyone was dumbfounded.
The contrast was so quick that for a moment, no one could believe their eyes.
Mo Chen pulled out another cream pastry and waved it in front of her.
"Want another one?"
Snow White's hand moved like lightning. The pastry was gone in the blink of an eye.
Everyone: "..."
The shift was so fast that no one understood what had just happened.
"Queen, what are they doing? Why is Rabbity giving her food?"
Curious little Alice asked the question that everyone was thinking.
Ludmilla gently stroked Alice's head and replied softly, "Rabbity has rescued another lost lamb."
"Wow! That means the Queen has another follower now?"
Alice cupped her hands and hopped around happily.
"I mistook you for someone else earlier."
Snow White quickly stashed the pastries into her pocket and sincerely apologized to Mo Chen. "I apologize for my recklessness."
Good thing she was hungry.
Mo Chen let out a sigh of relief.
Otherwise, they might've had to fight.
Still, it seemed she had really mistaken him for someone else.
However, he had definitely felt the killing intent from her earlier.
"Can we talk about that Commander?"
Mo Chen was quite curious about the first-generation Commander.
In the original story, there wasn't much detail about him. He had commanded a few battles, but later disappeared for unknown reasons.
Even during Red Hood and the others' fight against Cinderella, he was nowhere to be seen.
Something must have happened.
Everyone was startled.
What a sensitive topic to bring up!
Given Snow White's earlier reaction, there was clearly bad blood.
Snow White was silent for a moment.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Mo Chen took out another cream pastry.
Snow White held up two delicate fingers.
Two.
Mo Chen took out another one.
Snow White quickly stuffed the pastries into her pocket, as if afraid he might take them back.
Everyone exchanged bewildered looks.
They couldn't reconcile the powerful figure who had just taken down a Tyrant-class Rapture in a few shots with the food-obsessed person now standing in front of them.
"So, can you talk about it now?"
Mo Chen's curiosity was piqued. This was a story that didn't even exist in the original.
Under Mo Chen's expectant gaze, Snow White parted her lips and uttered two words.
"I forgot."
"?"
"I can't remember."
"…?"
You can't remember?
Mo Chen was stunned, staring suspiciously at Snow White.
"You're not messing with me, are you?"
Even a scam usually comes with some bait.
This is straight-up daylight robbery!
Seeing Mo Chen's doubtful expression, Snow White immediately clutched her pockets, took a few steps back, and stared at him defensively.
"These are mine now. No take-backs."
Mo Chen: "..."
Great. Like throwing a bone at a dog—no chance of getting it back.
Determined to salvage something out of this situation, Mo Chen decided to dig for other information.
Seeing that Mo Chen didn't seem inclined to snatch her pastries back, Snow White relaxed a little. But to be safe, she quickly stuffed one into her mouth, eating while speaking through her bites.
"You asked… why I'm here?"
"To find clues about the Rapture Queen and eliminate her."
"Returning the surface to humanity is my mission."
Mo Chen nodded slightly.
In the original story, after being betrayed by humans, Snow White had roamed the surface for decades, hunting Raptures, gathering intelligence, and fulfilling her vow to reclaim the Earth.
Mo Chen then asked about the strange, infected Nikkes they had encountered earlier.
According to her, this wasn't something recent.
It had already started decades ago.
"Decades ago?"
Mo Chen froze for a moment.
This was completely different from his earlier theory.
Previously, Mo Chen suspected that his presence—and the use of the Punishing Virus and Blacklight Virus—had caused the infection to spread and mutate, leading to the aberrant behavior of dead Raptures and Nikkes on the battlefield.
But now it seemed this phenomenon had existed for decades.
"It's like this," Snow White said as she devoured the cream bread, finishing it in just a few bites. She then took out another one, tore the packaging open with her teeth, and continued, "Specifically, it started after the Ark's lockdown."
"For some reason, those things have started to reawaken recently."
The Ark's lockdown had occurred nearly a hundred years ago.
Mo Chen wasn't even born back then.
Snow White finished three cream breads in under a minute, even licking her fingers as if she still hadn't had enough. Only then did she turn to Mo Chen, her expression filled with doubt.
"Why are you all here? Did something happen that made you desperate enough to come?"
In this region, resources were extremely scarce, and the harsh cold was unbearable. Unless someone was coming to die, there really didn't seem to be any other explanation.
Mo Chen stated the purpose of their journey.
"We're here to find someone."
"Human," Snow White said seriously, adjusting the strap of the weapon slung over her shoulder. "Let me give you a piece of advice—leave this place. It's not somewhere you should stay."
"You'll just end up as food for those monsters."
"There are too many of them, and they're very hard to kill."
Mo Chen countered, "Then why are you here?"
Snow White turned her head, gazing at the endless snow-covered landscape. The howling wind bent the trees under its weight, as if it would crush them at any moment.
"I'm here to complete my mission."
Mo Chen responded, "So am I."
Snow White turned back and looked into Mo Chen's eyes, her gaze scrutinizing, as if she were trying to determine whether he was lying.
After a long pause—
"Alright."
She could tell he wasn't bluffing.
"I'll escort you part of the way, to the nearest outpost. There's an old rail system there. It's outdated but still functional. You can use it to transport your wounded. After that, you're on your own."
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me. I just don't want you dying here and turning into one of those things. That would only give me more enemies to deal with."
Snow White spoke calmly, her tone indifferent.
After finishing, she turned and began walking toward the exit of the tunnel.
"Daylight's coming soon. We should travel while it's bright. It'll be harder for the Raptures to detect us using their thermal sensors."