Chapter 170 - 169: A Little More Sincerity

Chapter 170: Chapter 169: A Little More Sincerity

"He’s dead..."

Lin Fan’s words were like a bucket of cold water, shattering their unrealistic hopes.

But this was to be expected, so everyone just sighed quietly. Ye Qingzhou put the epaulet back in her pocket.

"I killed him..."

Lin Fan’s voice, though not loud, was like a clap of thunder that rocked the military tent.

Every eye in the tent snapped to him. Every gaze was filled with a mixture of disbelief and shock.

As a show of good faith, none of them were armed.

The moment he spoke, Wang Zhong and Ye Qingniao clenched their fists. Blue light coalesced on one’s fist, while faint electrical currents arced across the other’s skin. Fury ignited in their eyes.

This included Chu Zhaozhao and Su Qing, who were standing right beside him. Lin Fan had only told them that he’d found a gravely wounded old man in the armored vehicle. He’d said that after a monster attacked, he went back and only managed to retrieve the man’s gun. He had never mentioned this part of the story.

Now, hearing him say this, they stared at him in shock.

But they never doubted Lin Fan. As the atmosphere grew tense, Chu Zhaozhao—indifferent to how it might look—acted. SWISH! Two Flying Swords shot out from the small of her back, tracing arcs of cold light as they hovered in the air, aimed directly at the group opposite them.

Su Qing didn’t have her spear, but her shield was always with her. Since their opponents weren’t armed with guns, she simply raised her shield slightly, ready to block at a moment’s notice.

Though they had reacted instinctively, their eyes were fixed on Lin Fan. They trusted he had a reason for saying what he did.

Lin Fan’s expression remained unchanged. He simply added calmly:

"He asked me to do it... He was under the monster’s control. Before he died, he entrusted this to me for you and asked me to tell you, ’My mission is complete. The hope... now rests with you.’ That’s what happened. Then, at his request, I gave him peace."

After hearing Lin Fan’s explanation, the group opposite them slumped in dejection. Putting a comrade out of their misery... while not everyone had done it themselves, all of them had witnessed it.

"So that’s how it was..."

Even Wang Zhong, the oldest among them, unclenched his fists in dismay and rubbed his eyes.

Seeing the situation de-escalate, Chu Zhaozhao and Su Qing retracted their weapons.

This was the first they were hearing of it too, and the somber mood in the tent inevitably began to affect them.

"Cyan Bird, tell me, how are you feeling right now...?"

His goal achieved, Lin Fan let a corner of his mouth twitch up. He directed his question to Ye Qingniao, as he could see she was the one taking it the hardest.

"I... don’t want to answer."

Ye Qingniao kept her head down, refusing to look at him.

"That’s more like it. It’s better to be sincere. Compared to those meticulously planned honorifics, your current state feels far more genuine to me."

Lin Fan then looked up at the others.

"If I had started by telling you that Colonel Zhou was controlled by a monster, asked me to put him out of his misery in his dying moments, and that I brought back his belongings and a message for Ye Qingzhou, would you still be this upset?"

At his words, everyone except Ye Qingzhou looked away awkwardly, seemingly ashamed at how easily their emotions had been stirred.

"The same facts, told in different ways, elicit different reactions. So, how about we cut the games and be more sincere with each other?"

Since the others weren’t looking at him, he spoke directly to Ye Qingzhou.

As he spoke, the trace of a smile vanished from his face, replaced by a calm, almost sincere gaze.

He spread his hands slightly and continued, addressing the whole group:

"Let’s put the past behind us. To lead by example, I’ll start by telling you the basics about my group..."

...

"Five Awakened Ones!?"

Lin Fan gave them a brief overview of the survivor community’s basic situation and the composition of its fighting force. His mention of the Awakened Ones startled everyone.

Lin Fan spoke with sincerity. They recalled their own analysis and ploys against him; getting a taste of their own medicine somehow made Lin Fan seem more genuine. Their anger dissipated, and they began to relax.

"My god, what kind of ridiculously fortunate place is this..."

Zhang Wenyuan remarked quietly.

"Plus one."

Hu Chen also raised a hand, falling in line with Zhang Wenyuan.

"The Jishan Isolation Zone didn’t have many civilians. By the end, the garrison had gathered just over four hundred people, but as for Awakened Ones... Cyan Bird was the only one."

Ye Qingzhou was utterly shocked. Even though their convoy had later picked up Tan Wei and Liu Hui on the road, proving that Awakened Ones weren’t one-of-a-kind, they were still exceptionally rare.

Excluding any Awakened Ones who might have died in the initial chaos, the rate among survivors was less than one percent. Calculated against the pre-disaster population, it was just a few in ten thousand!

She glanced at Ye Qingniao beside her. Her sister was still dejected, her head bowed. One hand gripped the corner of her combat uniform, knuckles white, as she secretly wiped away tears. Ye Qingzhou couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Their parents had died in the line of duty when Cyan Bird was very young, so the two had always lived with their grandfather.

And Zhou Chaoxian had been a child their grandfather adopted.

He was over a decade older than her and more than two decades older than Cyan Bird. To Ye Qingzhou, Zhou Chaoxian was an older brother, but to Cyan Bird, he was practically an uncle.

Now, Lin Fan had used that information to emotionally retaliate, and Ye Qingniao was the one suffering the most.

And yet, she knew Lin Fan had actually helped Zhou Chaoxian. So, her dejection wasn’t aimed at Lin Fan—it was aimed at herself.

Lin Fan’s existence made her realize her own weakness. Furthermore, the fact that he had brought back Zhou Chaoxian’s belongings was one of the main reasons she had insisted on going out to investigate the night before.

She was resenting her own powerlessness.

Ye Qingzhou understood all this, but there was nothing she could do. After all, she wasn’t even an Awakened One.

’But for something as rare as Awakened Ones... this ordinary, remote, old residential complex, one that would only house four or five thousand people at full capacity, had actually produced five of them?’

Although Lin Fan could see their astonishment, the truth of how the others—aside from himself and Wang Yuanhua—had Awakened was a secret he intended to keep. So, he remained noncommittal in the face of their amazement.

Fortunately, Wang Zhong’s case provided a convenient distraction.

"Zhaozhao, like Major Wang, Awakened after being injured and consuming a crystal..."

Lin Fan reached back with his left hand, pulled Chu Zhaozhao forward to his side, and introduced her.

After all, everyone had witnessed her injury. Now, with Wang Zhong as a precedent, there was no need to hide it. He might as well use it to steer the conversation.

"For Colonel Lin to be running a pet clinic in this old neighborhood... what a waste of talent,"

Hu Chen remarked under his breath.

"Colonel Ye and her team had only figured out that zombie infection puts the body into a special, hyperactive state. They never had a clue how to get from that state to becoming an Awakened One... Turns out it requires a crystal, and it has to be a round one, if I recall correctly..."

"Those kinds of crystals dissipate within 48 to 168 hours..."

The conversation had entered Ye Qingzhou’s area of expertise, so she naturally took the lead.

"The time it takes to dissipate depends on the monster’s strength. The longest-lasting crystal we ever found disappeared after 168 hours, but we can’t rule out the possibility of crystals that last even longer.

They’re difficult to obtain and impossible to preserve. After wasting a few trying to find a way to store them, we ended up feeding any round ones we found to Cyan Bird."

As she said this, she looked up at Lin Fan, a surprised expression on her face.

"Colonel Lin, are you saying you can preserve these crystals?"

Lin Fan had known she would ask this. With no intention of hiding the truth, he answered candidly:

"Correct. It’s related to my ability. I wasted a crystal once, too, but I later discovered that crystals I keep on my person don’t dissipate."

As he spoke, he reached into his pocket and, as casually as if pulling out a piece of candy, produced a round crystal for everyone to see.

"Just like this."

"No wonder you had the chance to experiment and figure out this key..."

Ye Qingzhou had no reason to doubt him. She nodded, lost in thought.

Between Ye Qingniao, Wang Zhong, Tan Wei, and now Chu Zhaozhao who had just revealed her own sharp talents, all sorts of bizarre abilities were emerging. The fact that Lin Fan could preserve crystals didn’t seem so strange in comparison.

"But didn’t we just agree to be more sincere? Why are you all still calling me Colonel Lin?"

Lin Fan put the crystal away and asked Ye Qingzhou, a confused look on his face.

He could feel they had relaxed. Logically, a title meant to fool outsiders should be dropped when they were among themselves. After all, it offered him no real benefit.

But they kept calling him "Colonel Lin," which made him a little uncomfortable.

"Because this might be the most important gift we can give you."

Ye Qingzhou replied to Lin Fan’s question with grave seriousness.

"This title isn’t for fooling outsiders. Even if we reach an isolation zone...

Our certification comes from the Jishan garrison. The chaos only began to spread a few days ago; civilization hasn’t completely collapsed yet. This identity will still be valid, even in an isolation zone. It will guarantee you and your people the treatment you’re entitled to.

But Cyan Bird was right today. Your power is beyond what we could have imagined. Perhaps the identity we arranged for you was somewhat redundant...

Your power, and the ability to preserve those round crystals, could get you anything you want. But that path isn’t safe.

We still believe that as long as human civilization survives, there will be constant attempts to rebuild order.

It’s been less than half a month since the disaster struck. Any large-scale isolation zones will almost certainly be built on the foundations of the military or the old government framework. In that context, the rank of Colonel will, at the very least, save you a great deal of trouble when it comes to acquiring resources within a zone.

Disaster is an equalizer; it doesn’t discriminate based on intelligence or power. That means the larger an isolation zone is, the more certain it is to have an old, entrenched bureaucracy. It’s unavoidable.

Being the powerful Dr. Lin is not the same as being the powerful Colonel Lin.

A powerful, high-ranking military officer from a now-defunct isolation zone will naturally be accepted into the core of power and find it easier to mobilize resources than some powerful stranger with no background.

Those people can be very short-sighted. You haven’t experienced life in an isolation zone, so it might be difficult for you to understand...

A powerful individual with no official standing—unless they’re so strong they could kill everyone, possessing the world-ending might of a one-man army—will still have a hard time getting the resources and position they want.

We’ve analyzed it. Without real power to back it up, this identity’s value would diminish over time. But in the short term, it’s solid.

So, this title isn’t us mocking you. We truly believe it’s the best gift we can give to you and your people."