Shang Jianyao jumped up and ran to the window, trying to locate the source of the bell.
He looked excited, his curiosity undisguised.
This made Jiang Baimian feel like he was only ten years old.
She followed him to the window, judging from the reactions of the pedestrians on the street that the bell was something the locals were used to, not worth making a fuss about or being highly vigilant about.
However, she didn't turn her head to tell Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to turn on the lights to dispel the twilight in the room.
She remained standing there, looking towards the source of the bell like Shang Jianyao.
This was a folklorist's self-cultivation.
Soon, Jiang Baimian confirmed that the bell came from Gestalt Castle. As the tallest building here, it seemed to have a large bell installed on its top floor.
Not long after the bell subsided, bicycles poured out of the factory area and into the streets and alleys of the settlement.
They were like white doves freed from their cages, except their colors weren't so uniform.
On these bicycles of various styles, workers either looked delighted, filled with the desire to go home, or excitedly exchanged gossip with their fellow riders.
Compared to their counterparts in "First City," they had similar dark skin, often with traces of sun and rain, smoke and fire, and they couldn't hide their fatigue, sweat occasionally dripping down their cheeks, but they were more "lively," without a sense of numbness.
After the bicycles had mostly left, a tide of people walked out of the factory area.
Their clothes were either gray-white or blue, the texture quite rough, full of stains and sweat marks. Their expressions were similar to those on bicycles, with few looking dejected.
"So it's the bell for the end of work..." Shang Jianyao suddenly realized.
Speaking of this, he, Long Yuehong, and Jiang Baimian, who came from "Pangu Biology," were no strangers to it.
At the same time, some elderly residents and those with obvious disabilities flocked to the gates of the castle, where soldiers in linen-colored thick clothing were handing out black bread and other food, preparing to distribute it.
"There are fewer elderly people than I expected," Jiang Baimian muttered to herself thoughtfully.
She originally felt that, given the White Knights' habit of providing relief to the poor and their expertise in biological and medical research, the number of people over fifty in Gestalt Castle would be only slightly less than at Pangu Biology.
But now it seemed to be about the same as First City.
"The factory must also be quite hard," Long Yuehong had his own explanation for this.
Genaeva, who was charging, interjected at the right time:
"Before the Old World was destroyed, the area occupied by the White Knights was not very suitable for planting and herding."
"I also heard at First City that the living conditions on the White Knights' side were relatively poor," Bai Chen nodded, adding, "They rely entirely on abundant mineral resources and advanced biotechnology to exchange for materials that meet basic needs."
At this moment, Shang Jianyao withdrew his gaze, touched his stomach, and said:
"The White Knights are distributing food, we should also consider what to eat tonight."
He used gestures to indicate that he was hungry.
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and said:
"Old Ge, continue charging. We'll go downstairs and ask the front desk what kind of food we can get in the hotel, trying not to go out."
This hotel, called "Fire and Iron," didn't have wired phones in the rooms, or rather, most places in Gestalt Castle didn't have this facility.
"Okay!" Shang Jianyao was the first to leave.
He stomped down from the third floor to the ground floor and asked the man at the front desk:
"Can we order food?"
"Order food?" The man seemed not to understand why one would order food at a hotel. "Shouldn't you go to a restaurant for that?"
"You guys!" Shang Jianyao said with heartache, "How can such service develop and grow? In the Old World, in other places..."
He babbled on and on, finally making the front desk understand what room service was.
The blond man shook his head and said:
"Our hotels here don't have such service."
He had no intention of improving, instead persuading Shang Jianyao:
"It's very boring and dull to stay in the room all the time. It's better to go to a restaurant or cafe.
"If the weather weren't still relatively cold, I wouldn't want to do this job. Carrying a hunting rifle and hunting on the ice plains, searching for relics along the way, is what a descendant of a knight should do."
Although not all, this should represent a certain style of the White Knights... Jiang Baimian nodded imperceptibly and asked before Shang Jianyao could:
"Which restaurants are nearby, and can we order by phone?"
"There are no phones," the front desk shook his head again.
In Gestalt Castle, there were very few places with telephones.
This area where people lived wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. Twenty or thirty minutes was enough for a healthy person to walk to any destination.
"Then we can only go out to eat," Jiang Baimian frowned, "Or bring some canned food from the car and make do with a few meals?"
Thinking of eating canned food again, Long Yuehong instinctively showed a difficult expression.
Shang Jianyao then said righteously:
"The latter plan has a problem."
"What problem?" Jiang Baimian asked, amused.
Shang Jianyao glanced at the front desk and walked a few steps towards the hotel entrance.
After Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen followed, he lowered his voice and said:
"There's not much food left, and if we consume it for a few more meals, it will definitely run out.
"At that time, we'll have to go out to purchase supplies. With Little Red's fate, this is also likely to cause accidents and chain reactions. And if this forces us to leave Gestalt Castle, then not only will our batteries not be fully charged, but we won't have much food, which is even worse!
"So, we must ensure that our food reserves are above the safety line."
"It's clearly your fate..." Long Yuehong retorted in a mutter.
Apart from that, he actually felt that what Shang Jianyao said made some sense.
Jiang Baimian, who was being attacked by Shang Jianyao with his own spear, was momentarily speechless.
Although the "Old Task Force" didn't have as little food left as Shang Jianyao said, it was indeed not much after so many days of consumption.
After considering for a while, Jiang Baimian sighed and said:
"Hey, go upstairs and tell Old Ge to rest assured and charge, we'll go find something to eat nearby."
"Yay!" Shang Jianyao looked delighted.
Based on caution and fear of causing accidents, the "Old Task Force" found a restaurant nearby on the street where the "Fire and Iron" hotel was located.
It was called "Old Henry's," and only two lights were on in the store, the light was very dim.
Just as Shang Jianyao and the others were looking for a seat, they suddenly saw the waiter serving four dishes to a table of guests.
One of the guests, with light yellow hair and a hooked nose, pointed to the strangely shaped meat in front of him and said:
"Is this steak?"
"Sir, it is indeed steak, but you should be well aware that most of the steak you can eat in Gestalt Castle is of the mutated variety, and the price also reflects this," the waiter replied calmly.
"Mutated?" The hooked-nosed guest was taken aback.
Could this be eaten?
The waiter immediately showed a wary expression:
"You're not one of the White Knights?"
The hooked-nosed guest was confused for a few seconds and said:
"We're from a ranch in the south, and we've recently joined the White Knights. We heard that there are many job opportunities in Gestalt Castle and that we can earn a lot of supplies, so we came over."
Like other large forces, the White Knights could only rule the towns on the transport routes. There were still human or subhuman settlements of all sizes in the mountains, wilderness, and Gobi Desert in this area.
The waiter's expression softened:
"No wonder you don't know about mutated species.
"A long time ago, a kind of cow mutated and became suitable for the environment here, and it can reproduce relatively well. The White Knights used this as a blueprint and used gene technology to breed this kind of cow. It has a lot of meat, is cheap, and is the first choice for most people."
"Why is it cheap?" The hooked-nosed guest asked.
The waiter smiled and said:
"Eating too much can easily cause yourself to mutate and get various malignant diseases.
"Don't worry, eating it a few times won't cause any problems. When you find a job and save enough money to buy gene improvement potions, you won't be afraid. The cheapest X-3 potion will give you the ability to resist this type of mutation..."
This not only made the guests look at each other in dismay, but even Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen looked at each other, feeling a strange sense of magic.
In terms of biotechnology, the White Knights and Pangu Biology seemed to be heading in different directions due to different environments.
The four hesitated for a moment, but still found a table to sit down and waited for another waiter.
—There were quite a few people from other places in the White Knights here, and the restaurant business was still good, enough to hire three or four people.
Jiang Baimian suppressed Shang Jianyao's idea of trying mutated species and ordered a bunch of normal meat, which was not cheap.
After she finished, Shang Jianyao, who finally found an opportunity, looked at the waiter, lowered his voice, and asked mysteriously:
"Do you, do you have that?"
The waiter's expression changed, he looked left and right, bent down, and asked in a low voice:
"Are you talking about that?"