They had stayed with the Werewolf Race for quite a long time, mainly because Daniel hadn't succeeded in seizing power, and Chloe and her companions felt awkward about leaving first.
Those generals had some decency at least, keeping their fighting grounds far from the royal city to avoid harming ordinary citizens. However, when facing Daniel, they would fight a bit dirty. There was no help for it; to them, Daniel, the only son of the old marshal, was a formidable opponent no matter how you looked at it.
Chloe and her other young friends spent their days glued to the television, occasionally venturing out to help rebuild the damaged Werewolf Race royal city.
As time passed, the Werewolf Race citizens began to recognize Chloe and her friends' faces. Some of the younger children would even scamper over to give them flowers when they saw them.
After receiving the flowers, Chloe wouldn't throw them away. Instead, she'd trim off part of the stems and place them in vases filled with nutrient solution, allowing them to last a bit longer.
One afternoon, Chloe was feeling particularly bored and dashed out again.
Along the way, she'd lend a hand to anyone who needed help, which made for a peaceful outing.
During her walk, she encountered the little girl she had given a butterfly to before.
The girl seemed a bit shy when she saw Chloe.
After hesitating for a while, encouraged by her parents, she was gently pushed forward, walking step by step towards Chloe.
Seeing this, Chloe raised an eyebrow slightly, waiting until the girl was right in front of her before crouching down and asking with interest:
"What brings you here? Have you come to bring big sister some food?"
The girl shook her head, her chest heaving dramatically, likely from nervousness.
After a long moment, she pulled out a picture frame from her pocket and handed it over.
Chloe took it and looked closely, discovering it was a framed butterfly specimen.
After giving the gift, the girl's face turned bright red, and without saying a word, she ran back to her parents, burying herself in their embrace.
Chloe stared at the butterfly specimen for a long while, eventually storing it in her space ring. Then she called out Kewen's name.
As soon as she finished speaking, Kewen appeared out of nowhere, holding a bottle of ice-cold beer:
"What can I do for you, young miss?"
Chloe jerked her chin towards the girl and said:
"Go and help them out a bit. Give them some money."
After a pause, she added:
"Be careful and discreet about it. Don't let anyone notice."
Hearing this, Kewen downed the entire bottle of ice-cold beer in one go:
"You got it."
Chloe looked at him speechlessly and commented: "Booze hound."
Kewen put on a hurt expression:
"Hey, don't be like that, young miss. You know I'm a well-behaved drinker."
Whether his drinking behavior was good or not, Chloe certainly didn't believe it.
After sending Kewen away, Chloe resumed her aimless wandering.
Walking like this, about half an hour passed.
She looked up and realized she had arrived at Brut Military Academy.
It seemed that classes had been suspended and the school was on holiday.
But that made sense. Brut Military Academy had relied on old wolf king Benny, and with Benny dead, the academy was naturally in dire straits.
Chloe stood at the gates of Brut Military Academy for a moment.
Two seconds later, she decisively took two steps back, started running, grabbed the fence wall with one hand, and swung herself nimbly onto the top of the fence.
Looking down from here, there was indeed not a single person inside.
Chloe thought for about three seconds, then finally jumped down from the wall and walked into Brut Military Academy.
From what she could see, the environment of Brut Military Academy was quite nice.
It had the same natural, primitive style as the outside, but with a strong technological flavor. The campus roads were deathly quiet, without a single person in sight.
This suited Chloe just fine, allowing her to move about freely.
From the moment she arrived at Brut Military Academy, she was no longer wandering aimlessly.
Chloe's first stop was the research center and laboratories of Brut Military Academy.
As she had expected, there were some remnants of human experiments and genetic modification experiments here, but not many. They must have been hastily cleaned up when the war began, or when the videos from the central research institute were leaked.
Unfortunately, the war broke out just as the videos were leaked, and the teachers and students here were busy evacuating, so no one had time to thoroughly clean up the lab remnants.
Chloe even saw a petri dish where a ball of flesh-like monster was almost fully formed, twisting and turning in the nutrient solution.
She stared at the flesh ball for a while, then flipped open a nearby notebook and took a look.
She immediately understood.
This monster was a new weapon they had cultivated.
Without a second thought, Chloe used her Soul Fire to burn the flesh ball to ashes.
Only when the monster was reduced to a pile of ash did she finally stop.
After ensuring the monster posed no threat, Chloe got up, took photos and videos to preserve the evidence here, in order to facilitate a major reshuffle of Brut Military Academy's top leadership.
Just then, she seemed to hear some faint sounds of struggle.
Chloe frowned, first sending the photos and videos to the cloud and Xavier's side for backup, before walking towards the source of the sound.
Walking a bit further, she discovered there was actually a hidden door in the corner.
After the war, some places were without electricity, and the lights at Brut Military Academy were not very reliable. The light was dim, and when the wind blew through the window cracks, it made a sound like a ghost's wail.
It was quite eerie.
But Chloe seemed not to hear it.
She pressed down on the door handle.
Just as Chloe was preparing herself to see some horrifying monster, what appeared before her was a person.
A werewolf, bound from head to toe with ropes, looking extremely disheveled.
At the same time, Chloe felt the wind behind her grow stronger.
The werewolf in front of her widened his eyes in terror, suddenly standing up and knocking Chloe down!
There was a muffled thud of something heavy falling behind her. It seemed that having missed their target, the attacker grew frustrated and resorted to using a sedative.
In her semi-conscious state, Chloe saw the rope-bound werewolf clutching her hand, crying his eyes out.
Chloe: "..."
...
Darkness, solitude.
This was Chloe's first impression when she woke up.
She looked down and found that her wrists were shackled.
The shackles were silver, a bit dazzling in the dim light.
Chloe's lips curled into a slight smile as she carelessly rattled the shackles, then turned to look at the werewolf beside her.
She couldn't see clearly earlier, but now Chloe realized who he was.
It was the young werewolf they had captured in Pahol Palace before.
This werewolf seemed very frightened, curling up in the corner and trembling.
Seeing this, Chloe patted his shoulder:
"Hey, why so withdrawn?"
The werewolf raised his head trembling, and upon seeing Chloe clearly, he exclaimed joyfully:
"You're awake!"
"Of course I'm awake," Chloe found it puzzling, "It's not like I couldn't wake up from a nap."
After saying this, she tilted her head slightly, looking intently at the werewolf in front of her:
"If I remember correctly, you were the one who saved me earlier, right?"
