Clyde returns to the motel with Asqa and Sonya next to him. His face looked flat without any emotion.
On the other hand, Asqa was still feeling a bit uneasy about what happened a few minutes before.
She felt quite sorry for those people.
The figure of the girl who seemed to be not far older than them looked full of hope that they could join Clyde.
But once again Asqa remembers that here, she doesn't have many places to ask for more than she already has.
After all, Clyde's considerations also had a point. The more people in a community, the greater the risk of error.
Asqa knows very well about that. The group of girls she was part of in school always praises her.
They say that she is a beautiful, smart, and kind girl.
Asqa had heard various kinds of compliments that were liked by young girls like her.
However, all of that complement is only given on the surface. They only praise her when she is present among them.
When they found out that Asqa was not around, they began to insult and ridicule her.
But Asqa can only pretend not to know. Because if she showed her feeling for them, they would go. That would make her lose her friends.
And for Asqa, losing friends is something scary.
So for the current situation, she chose not to say anything to refute Clyde.
The state of the world is much more different than it used to be.
So the risk of being shunned in Clyde's group is far greater than simply being shunned by her peers.
On the other hand, Sonya no longer cares about the group they met before.
She also agreed with Clyde's statement that having many people in a group was a dangerous thing.
Once they arrived at the motel, they ate with the Regressors while discussing important matters.
The important matter is none other than what will happen tomorrow. In the of this damned apocalypse.
"So what happens tomorrow?" Clyde asked while shoving a cake into his mouth.
"What's happening tomorrow is something quite unique," Rodney replied. "We will face a scenario about hunger."
Clyde, Asqa, and Sonya stared at the food on the table. And they also realized that they already had a few refrigerators stocked full of food in the abandoned rooms.
"Then we'll be fine, right?" Sonya said with a happy tone.
The Regressors looked at each other. Their faces looked troubled about something.
"No?" Sonya asked. "Oh, damn. Tell us what happened."
"Well," Reed replied. "We are indeed lucky because we have gathered food supplies for ourselves. Because food that is still out there and has not been... touched.. by players, will immediately rot."
Clyde frowned. "Rot?"
Reed nodded. "Yes. When tomorrow's Second Chapter starts, all the food that the Player hasn't touched will rot as I said earlier."
"Then all the animals will also suddenly disappear. As Rodney said earlier, what will happen tomorrow is quite unique and terrible."
"What about plants?" Asqa asked.
"Plants are still there. But you can't eat all the plants, can you?" Mona replied. "And we're in town so there's no farm."
Sonya just shrugged her shoulders with a calm expression. "We don't need to worry since we've stocked up a lot of food, right?"
"That's not quite true."
Rodney's words made Sonya turn her head with a surprised look.
Not only her but Asqa and Clyde also stared in confusion.
The three of them originally thought that the Chapter about hunger wouldn't be something dangerous since they already had plenty of supplies.
However, Rodney's words broke their expectations.
"What do you mean?" Clyde asked.
"Tomorrow, our hunger will increase many times over. So, maybe our supplies won't last long enough."
Hearing Rodney's explanation, Sonya took a deep breath.
"They won't make things easy, huh? Even when our Levels are high, they bring out monsters so strong that we find it difficult with our current strength," Sonya said.
Clyde chose to remain silent.
"Actually..." Asqa said in a low voice. "Who are 'they'?"
Slowly, Asqa's eyes turned towards the Regressors in the hope that they would say something.
"We don't know either," Mona answered with a shake of her head.
"Throughout our Regression turns, not once did we get a clue as to who was responsible for all this event," Eric continued.
Asqa then became silent because she really had nothing to think about.
Her facial expression that already looked melancholy looked more sad.
Clyde also chose to remain silent. He felt that the time was not yet right to say about those entities who called themselves World Masters.
So now Clyde will keep it to himself. He also didn't know whether he would ever say anything about that or not.
"That's not important now. Let's think about how to continue surviving." Clyde broke the silence between them.
"Will there still be monsters appearing tomorrow?" Clyde asked.
"Of course," Rodney replied. "Monsters that arise from unstoppable hunger. They originate from humans who die from hunger."
"However, they don't just die and lie there. They will rise again and become creatures that hunt to satisfy their bottomless hunger."
"Just like the zombies?" Sonya asked.
Rodney shook his head. "Similar. But not necessarily the same."
Rodney turned to the others to continue because he wanted to eat a cake in his hand.
"They're called Wendigos. Maybe you guys have heard of that somewhere."
"Wendigo..." Clyde tried to remember if he had ever heard or read about it.
Not long after, his eyes widened as he remembered that name.
"That creature has a gray and thin body?" Clyde asked.
Reed nodded. "Yes. That's their characteristic. But, do you also know about their strength?"
"They are very fast and can move silently. They also can trap their prey in some kind of hypnosis."
Reed nodded again. He seemed impressed by Clyde's knowledge.
"You know quite a lot. I didn't even know that until I got back to Regress."