MMB Chapter 342: Merit and Stigma
Chapter 342: Merit and Stigma
"You’ve been through something like this too?"
Mordecai Quinn was a little surprised.
He walked over to his cabinet, intending to get something to drink for his guests.
But he found that the cabinet had been completely emptied.
He couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.
"Here, have a drink."
It was Nina Jacobs who pulled a few cans of coffee from her backpack.
"Miss Sutton and her daughter... my mother gave her life to save them."
But he never expected that Erasmus Sutton would drug his water at such a critical moment.
Meridia Base was currently facing a severe shortage of supplies. In just one month, over a hundred people had starved to death.
Hunting in Mornfell had indeed been his idea. Before entering the mountains, the only thing he drank was the water from his flask—water that Erasmus Sutton had specially prepared for him, claiming it was to replenish his electrolytes.
He couldn’t remember what happened after that. The next thing he knew, he was waking up, tumbling out of the python’s belly, and seeing Nina Jacobs.
"No wonder."
Nina Jacobs had been puzzled at the time. The man hadn’t seemed to know he’d been swallowed by a snake.
"Before the trip to Mornfell, we had successfully recovered a batch of supplies from Veridia,"
Mordecai Quinn said.
But Caspian Ziegler had just said that Daniel Lewis came back empty-handed.
He felt the answer was self-evident.
"The agreement wasn’t fulfilled. I will naturally step down from the position of base leader,
but anyone can be the leader except for Zachary Ziegler."
"Why?"
Nina asked.
"Because Meridia Base was entrusted to me by my father before he died,
and I don’t want to hand his life’s work over to someone like that,"
Mordecai Quinn replied.
"Even if not a single person in the entire base will speak up for you?"
After Nina spoke, Mordecai fell silent.
Even an outsider like Nina, who had just arrived, could see it. How could he not know?
He was willing to give his life for the base, but its people were ungrateful.
"Sacrifices aren’t always seen, but slander is always remembered."
In the midst of such suffering, no one sings praises of sacrifice.
Only those with full stomachs have the luxury of reminiscing about the past.
"I know."
’But... it doesn’t matter anymore.’
Mordecai Quinn stood up and said, "You two rest here. I’m going out for a bit."
"You’re going to look for that guy, Daniel Lewis?"
Nina asked.
"How did you know?"
Mordecai did indeed plan to find Daniel Lewis. He wanted to ask him what had happened to that batch of supplies.
"I suggest you give up. Even if you manage to find him, those people won’t let you get your hands on the supplies,"
Nina said.
It sounded like this Daniel Lewis fellow had already betrayed Mordecai Quinn.
But whether her guess was right or not, Mordecai was already making a desperate, final stand.
"I can’t just do nothing."
Mordecai knew his chances were slim.
But if he waited until tomorrow, he really wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.
"What if someone could sell you a batch of supplies?"
Nina asked tentatively.
"Not likely. Supplies are more precious than anything right now. Even if someone in the base has a stash, they probably wouldn’t be willing to part with it,"
Mordecai replied.
Trades for supplies were usually made with Crystal Cores and Gold. He wasn’t short on either, but in Meridia Base, there had long been a price for such things, but no market.
When faced with life and death, no one was willing to trade food for them.
"I know a friend. She can trade supplies. It just depends on what you’re offering,"
Nina said.
This was also the perfect opportunity for a supply trade.
"Are you serious?" Mordecai thought he must have misheard.
If those words had come from anyone else, he might not have believed them.
But the woman before him had a strange, inexplicable ability to inspire trust.
Besides... he figured he had nothing left to be cheated out of.
"It’s true. Of course, like me, she’s just passing through. If all goes well, she should arrive tomorrow morning,"
Nina said.
Mordecai looked at her, still seeming a bit skeptical.
But she was right. Just because Meridia Base was short on supplies didn’t mean everywhere else was.
"Logically, since Meridia Base has The Garrison, it shouldn’t be this short on supplies."
Nina was also curious. It was only the first year of the apocalypse, yet people were already starving to death inside a base. It was indeed strange.
Mordecai, however, pulled out a map. He pointed to it with a long, slender finger and explained in detail:
"Supply collection was actually proceeding steadily, but the road into the city was somehow destroyed two months ago.
We sent people to try and repair it many times, but they all ended in failure.
Two Intermediate Mutant Zombies have taken up residence there. As long as they’re around, we can’t possibly fix the damaged road."
Nina stared at the map, her brow furrowed slightly.
’That road is also the only way for me to get to Keldorn. It was destroyed?’
"Aside from that, the base’s current state is indeed my responsibility,"
Mordecai said.
Veridia originally had no base. It was Orson Quinn who founded it single-handedly after he retired.
To quickly provide a shelter for survivors, he chose this mountain resort.
There were indeed few zombies here, and its high altitude made it both defensible and a good staging point for attacks.
But it also had many drawbacks. For instance, the land was small for so many people, and the base had no warehouses.
Therefore, a portion of the base’s stored supplies could only be kept with a Space Superpower User.
"So the Space Superpower User ran off?"
Nina had already guessed what happened.
"That’s right. Vanished without a trace, dead or alive," Mordecai replied.
"Could he have been kidnapped?" Nina asked.
Mordecai shook his head. "Many people saw him walk out of the base on his own."
"Don’t you have a Space Superpower yourself?"
Nina asked.
Mordecai looked down at his hands. "I only awakened my Space Element Superpower a little over a month ago. My space isn’t very large, so I only store the base’s Crystal Cores and other assets in it."
’So that’s how it is.’
’Looks like I’ll only need to deal with Mordecai for tomorrow’s trade.’
Nina stood up. "We’ll go rest for now. We’ll take a look around the base ourselves tomorrow morning.
Oh, right. My friend only accepts Crystal Cores and Gold. I suggest you get them ready."
"Understood."
Mordecai watched as Nina and the other person went upstairs.
He could also tell that the man following Nina was likely her bodyguard or some kind of assistant.
’It seems Nina has been through a lot, to only have this one person by her side...’
He didn’t sleep a wink that night, and even prepared himself to go and kill Zachary Ziegler.
As for the trade the next morning, he had originally thought it would only be for a small amount of supplies, just enough to serve as a cover.
Until a strange woman appeared at his door.
The woman had phoenix eyes and a cool, detached expression. She wore a baseball cap, and her sneakers were dusted with dirt, giving her a travel-worn appearance.
"Claire Warner?" Mordecai remembered that this was the name Nina had given him before she left that morning.
"Mhm. Is everything ready?"
Seeing Mordecai step aside, Claire Warner walked in.
The trading spot was an empty room on the second floor.
When Claire walked in, she saw that the tables in the room were already covered with box after box of Crystal Cores.
They were even sorted into regular Crystal Cores and Mutated Crystal Cores.
On a long table at the very back, Gold Bars were stacked into a small mountain.
The four windows in the room were all shut tight, with heavy curtains drawn.
Claire Warner was very satisfied.