Huff! Huff! Huff!

Qin Hua panted, catching her breath as she eyed the rat meat in front of her. In the short time, she had been downstairs, she had already learned so much!

But how did these people discover all these details and even the information about mana cores and mana zombies?

Something told her that the group had a leader of sorts and that person might be a formidable one based on everything that was happening around her and how he had brought everyone under his control.

She paused her movements and did a quick check-in with the shadow clone, perceiving everything through the clone's body, but there wasn't any change at that end. Su Yan was still in his deep slumber, his breathing slow and steady.

[Growl! It looks like I have to deal with this myself somehow. Where is Lu Chen?] Qin Hua looked around but the aroma of the meat was too tempting!

[Ummm? Let me eat first?] She licked her lips in frustration, being very careful not to accidentally drop her drool somewhere. She first wanted to confirm if the meat was indeed edible.

[Inspect]

<Ding. Mutated Pig Meat; Level 5>

<Ding. Mutated Rat Meat; Level 3>

<Ding. Mutated Dog Meat; Level 2>

Qin Hua's eyes bulged out and she swallowed hard especially looking at the last part. [Fuck! If I am caught, then I am definitely dead meat. Woof!]

[System, can I safely eat this mutated beast meat?]

<Ding. Non-poisonous mutated beast meat can be consumed>

Qin Hua shook her head and then directly leaped into a shadow closer to the tray of the cooked meat.

Though the women worked like drones, they were quite inattentive, so she was easily able to swipe a tray down and gobble up a few chunks of the roasted meat, completely unnoticed.

When the bunch of women turned around to look, responding to the loud clattering sound of the tray, she was already gone back into the darkness.

Qin Hua calmly dug into and chewed on the meat in her mouth. More than anything she was curious if the meat could make her stronger.

The fatty piece of roasted meat almost melted in her mouth, filling her with energy with every bite, and surprisingly system notifications started rolling in as she swallowed the mouthful of meat.

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

…

…

Qin Hua's eyes immediately sparkled as she knew how she was going to reach level 10. She was currently at level 9 and she only needed a few more experience points to reach the next level.

Since she was up against people whose powers she wasn't completely aware of, she decided to strengthen herself first as much as she could.

So the big black husky started swiping the meat trays one by one and in the span of a few minutes, completely licked clean the entire thing.

In fact, after the first few times, she didn't even bother hiding any longer as the women showed absolutely no reaction to seeing her. They continued doing their job like mindless robots which were programmed only to do one thing or rather follow one command.

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

<Ding. 5 Experience points gained>

…

…

While Qin Hua was quickly gulping down the meat, she suddenly heard a loud rumble, followed by a jumble of voices at a distance.

She immediately threw all the remaining roasted steaks and skewers she could grab inside her space vault and dove into the shadows to hurry over to the source of the noise.

[Lu Chen! Woof!] She braked her paws as she saw the young man's familiar figure and silently observed everything that was happening.

She quickly understood what he was trying to do and made sure not to expose his ruse. She sneaked into the shadows and silently slipped next to him, once again starting to munch on the roasted meat.

She hadn't thought of any plan yet and wanted to wait until she leveled up and took a look at the new skills gained if any before deciding a course of action.

Also… Does Lu Chen know about the leader? Qin Hua was not sure.

She knew that she had to somehow alert Lu Chen about the possible mind-controlling capabilities of one of the people around them or perhaps the leader… but she didn't know how to.

No matter which angle she thought things through, a mind-controlling ability, even a weak or a partial one was truly a scary thing!

The best-case scenario would be for her to assault whoever had this particular ability before they could realize what was going on.

It was of the utmost importance that this needed to be a one-shot kill because she might not get a second chance, but none of her current skills were strong enough to accomplish such a thing.

Qin Hua silently growled pondering how to prepare for such an attack.