Katherine Dannah never expected that the method used by the Beast Continent to increase the birth rate would be so simple and crude, and she couldn't help but freeze on the spot.
Beside her, the Red Panda glared at her coldly, baring its teeth:
"You clearly know that males are in a disadvantaged position. Once a contract is formed, it's very difficult to break it. Are you trying to provoke us to death by saying such things on purpose?"
Crimson lifted his eyelids, gave Kathy a lukewarm glance, and then spoke to remind the Red Panda:
"Duncan, your injuries haven't healed yet. The person who helped treat you last time warned that you cannot use your Supernatural Ability again in the short term."
"What else can I do?"
Mentioning this, the Red Panda's gaze toward Kathy became even more resentful.
"Just because it might aggravate my injuries, should I let you be dragged down by some weakling and killed by a Mutated Beast without taking action?"
Kathy, 'Some Weakling,' couldn't help but frown.
True.
She didn't want to live with this group of weak men whose Supernatural Abilities were only level 6 or 7, and she certainly didn't want to take the risk of her own abilities and supplies being discovered.
Most importantly, since her Supernatural Ability and space supplies had traveled through the book with her, she wasn't sure if her current fertility value was still zero like the Original Owner's.
The Beast Continent valued reproduction; if a fertility value exceeded 50, everyone would target them.
Even the Original Book's Female Protagonist, who had eight powerful Beast Husbands and was at level 17 herself, strictly concealed her fertility value of 80.
Especially now, she found that a large portion of her space and the supplies within were locked and inaccessible.
Even her Supernatural Ability and Spiritual Power had been severely downgraded.
Without getting rid of outsiders, it would be hard for her to safely check her own anomalies.
So, after careful consideration, she asked seriously:
"Can I send you back to your original female masters without breaking the contract, and then just wait out the Contract Dissolution Cooling-off Period?"
"Kath. Er. Ine!"
The Red Panda was so angry his fur stood on end, and the sound of his teeth grinding filled the car.
"What are you plotting now? how can you be so vicious?! You clearly know that a male who has been contracted by another Female will never be wanted again. It's not enough for you to torture us alone; you want to send us back to our original female masters to be tortured, don't you!"
This time, even Quinlan, who had ignored her from the beginning, stared at her coldly through the rearview mirror.
Fine then.
Kathy could only temporarily shelve the idea of dealing with these weaklings and chose to wait and see, returning to the Temporary Camp with the three of them to meet the other Beast Husbands who stayed behind.
But she never expected that the place these three weaklings called a 'Temporary Camp' was just an abandoned building full of holes and leaks.
From a distance, she could see the flickering shadows of a zombie swarm inside.
In a hidden room on the second floor, their faces darkened as they saw the clutter strewn across the floor.
Quinlan picked up a bloody wooden shard from the ground and pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose with his middle finger:
"That Mutated Bear has companions. Bears are solitary animals; they only exhibit social behavior during the breeding season and... when food is scarce."
Although the Original Owner's Six Beast Husbands didn't know each other before, they clearly understood that they had to trust and help each other to survive because they had to protect their weak and helpless female master at all times.
The Red Panda was the worst at hiding his emotions; his face turned slightly pale, and his ears twitched:
"They couldn't all have..."
The other two men looked at the messy camp in silence, their expressions pained.
Crimson and the others were all Beast Husbands snatched by Katherine, and their talent and strength were top-tier among their peers.
That was why Crimson dared to lure the Bear Beast away alone, and why the Red Panda and Quinlan became the ones to rescue him.
The other three, who weren't as strong, stayed behind here for safety, but they didn't expect the Bear Beast to have accomplices.
"With the strength of those three, I'm afraid..." Quinlan lowered his head, the white light reflected off his glasses obscuring his gaze.
For a moment, the atmosphere was heavy.
"The blood is still warm; this happened less than ten minutes ago. If we chase now, we might make it in time."
Kathy knelt down to examine the traces on the ground, rubbing the red marks between her fingertips, her tone calm.
However, after she finished speaking, she received no answer. When she looked up, she found the three Beast Husbands staring at her as if they had seen a ghost.
The Red Panda was the most direct and spoke without thinking:
"Didn't you used to faint at the sight of blood and hide from injuries? How can you judge the time of an incident by bloodstains?"
Uh...
Actually, this was a basic skill for anyone surviving an apocalypse.
Otherwise, if you couldn't judge how close danger was even after seeing blood, you might as well lie down and let the zombies bite you for a quicker end.
The people here have built large safe zones; it seems their survival skills have degraded quite a bit...
Kathy didn't know how to explain it to them, so she shamelessly pinned the blame on the expert:
"When that Wood Element Ability expert killed the Mutated Bear, she taught me, so I'm not afraid now. Oh, she also taught me how to identify bloodstains."
"Were we unconscious for that long? We haven't even encountered a Mutated Beast attack yet; our luck is pretty good..."
The Red Panda, Duncan, didn't suspect a thing. He rubbed his chin with one hand and put the other on his hip, muttering quietly.
The other two men glanced at him and tacitly remained silent.
Kathy stood up straight and looked at the three men who would become the biggest drivers of her future 'confinement play':
"They ran toward the north. Are we going to chase and save them?"
The Red Panda's airplane ears popped out in anger as he shouted:
"Those three are your Beast Husbands! They're in danger because they were protecting you, and you're actually hesitating about whether to save them?! Katherine Dannah, you are simply worse than a beast!"
Quinlan gave her a cold, aloof glance as if it were none of his business, and his gaze drifted elsewhere.
Crimson frowned. After a sharp gaze swept over Kathy, he took the lead on the path to the north.
The other two Beast Husbands followed closely behind Crimson without consulting Kathy at all.
Only the Red Panda thoughtfully warned her before leaving:
"You burden, just stay here by yourself and wait to be torn to pieces by Mutated Beasts."
Kathy was speechless. Looking at the supernatural energy in her body that had been mysteriously consumed by more than half, she could only follow them.
She had lived in the apocalypse for too long; she didn't have the heart of a saint to save people.
If she had encountered this alone, she would have turned and left immediately.
Thinking of this, Kathy felt annoyed again by the presence of these three eyesores.
However, to her surprise, after only two steps, the Red Panda suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and collapsed heavily to the ground...
At the same time, a crackling static sound rang in her mind:
[Congratulations, host!]
[System successfully bound!]