Chapter 268 - 228: No Martial Virtue

Chapter 268: Chapter 228: No Martial Virtue

Lin Fan was certain they would accept this "shady group-buy" invitation.

It wasn’t that he had learned how to read faces; it was simply based on experience.

It was like sitting through a three-hour lecture for some free eggs, even paying a "security deposit," only for the manager to then tell you that all you had to do was fill out one more form to walk away with a barrel of cooking oil.

You’d have no reason to refuse.

Or, say you’ve already taken your dog to the vet and it’s on an IV drip. When the vet then says a tube of nutritional paste will speed up its recovery, you have no reason to refuse that either.

The young are easy to fool, but there are also scams tailored for the elderly.

The times have changed, but people haven’t.

Lin Fan rejected the call request, but the woman across from him had clearly been in contact with that "factory manager." Though he couldn’t hear what they were saying, he could guess it was nothing more than phrases like ’Test his mettle,’ and ’We need the goods, but he can’t be allowed to walk away with the money.’

Whether they truly wanted to pay to get rid of this god of calamity or were secretly dispatching axemen and waiting for the signal of a smashed cup, Lin Fan couldn’t care less.

Because as long as his opponents dared to stand still and let him make the first move, the rhythm of the battle was already firmly in his grasp...

Two Awakened Ones with around 1,000 Life Value each, and two heavy Mutated Zombies with 3,000 Life Value each. This was the strength they had out in the open.

Aside from the leader who had yet to appear, all the Awakened Ones in this factory were likely here. But there were definitely more high-level zombies than just these two.

Since that "factory manager" could control these monsters as if they were tamed dogs, then as a mastermind who valued his own life, he would have definitely kept at least two more of the same caliber by his side as "personal bodyguards."

Lin Fan didn’t for a second believe that the "factory manager," whose voice alone he found incredibly grating, would be naive enough to lay all his cards on the table.

Lin Fan wasn’t afraid of fighting one against many. Even if he couldn’t win, he was confident he could make a clean getaway.

Yet in all their probing back-and-forth, neither side had mentioned the little girl. As for the "Mutated Zombie" rumors that interested him, they hadn’t revealed so much as a single clue.

But the more brazenly they acted, even trying to win him over with "feminine wiles" and "crystals," the more curious Lin Fan became.

Besides, Lin Fan already had an answer to the question of whether ordinary people could become Awakened Ones.

He knew of at least two paths. But that was clearly contrary to their research method of "killing the hen to get the eggs."

"Talent" wasn’t the whole story.

Ye Qingniao and Wang Yuanhua had talent, but so did Su Qing and Chu Zhaozhao.

Neither group was superior to the other; their domains were simply different. If allowed to develop, any of them could become a powerful force for rebuilding order.

Among those ordinary people slaughtered like "fodder," there might have been a future Master of Superpower, an elemental wielder, or even a strategic-level talent with rare support abilities.

They were simply uprooted and thrown into the meat grinder before they even had a chance to sprout, ultimately becoming nothing more than a paltry twenty or thirty Life Value points for some random Awakened One.

This method of "sacrificing" countless ordinary people with potential just to produce crystals, then funneling that power into an Awakened One who may have awakened purely by chance... In Lin Fan’s eyes, the "bloated" Awakened Ones produced this way were useless.

Not only was it useless, but it was also incredibly wasteful and created a dangerous path dependency.

At this thought, Lin Fan’s mind drifted to Ye Qingniao, the girl he had brushed past while she clung to the side of an armored vehicle.

Pumping her Life Value up to 700 in one go had been an expedient decision at the time. ’Now, I wonder if I’ve actually harmed her,’ he thought.

An Awakened One who grew step-by-step, clawing their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, would never be so fragile. Lin Fan believed that in the same situation, Su Qing or even Chu Zhaozhao would have formulated a more solid battle plan. How could she have let herself get ambushed and critically injured by a mere gunman?

Lin Fan made a silent resolution: next time he saw those girls, he was going to put them through some hellish training.

As for the two people across from him, they were even more pathetic.

The woman across from him had completely transformed. Countless ghastly white, sharply barbed bone spurs erupted wildly from her shoulders, chest, elbows, and knees, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain!

The parts of her body not covered by spurs were now sealed shut by a thick layer of grayish-white bone. Her ribs flared outward and her spine bulged, while the once-seductive eyes behind her gas mask had turned blood-red.

Her already tattered clothes were now in even worse tatters.

In an instant, the vibrant, alluring beauty was gone, replaced by a bone fiend covered in barbs and radiating a terrifying aura!

Her hands were gone, replaced by two massive bone spurs. A white light coursed over them, and the energy felt somewhat familiar to Lin Fan—it faintly resembled that of a sharpness-type crystal.

But right now, she held the two bone spurs at her sides in an awkward stance, seemingly trying to guard against an attack from any angle.

When it came to a true life-or-death struggle, however, her posture was rather amateurish.

Behind her, Tao He was secretly flicking transparent droplets from one hand onto her bone armor and spurs. The droplets clung to the tips of the spurs, glowing with a faint green light.

If Lin Fan hadn’t noticed that Tao He’s Energy Value was slowly decreasing, he would have never even spotted the subtle movement.

Meanwhile, the two Mutated Zombies took a few steps back to the sides. They appeared to be clearing the battlefield, but were actually forming a subtle encirclement.

It seemed that, just as Lin Fan expected, they had no intention of docilely taking a hit. But he wasn’t intimidated. ’Besides, I never planned on striking just once anyway.’