Chương 164: Colonel Lin

Originally, Vince had planned to just stand there and nonchalantly say, "You guys keep going, just pretend I don't exist." He just wanted to see what exactly they were up to. But now, looking down at the two men prostrating themselves before him, he suddenly felt like a green recruit, momentarily at a loss for words. On the other side of the clearing, Travis and his soldiers were completely dumbfounded. They had absolutely no clue who this new kid was.

Even more baffling was the behavior of the elite spec-ops—guys who usually wouldn't even give them the time of day. Even Travis kept darting his gaze back and forth between Evelyn and the new young man. He was an Awakened. Even though his Awakening ability lacked direct combat power, his enhanced Constitution and recovery had still kept him alive through the early days of the apocalypse. It had also allowed him to help quite a few people along the way.

Most of the men standing beside him right now were the same ones who had joined the convoy with him. Relying on his firearms experience and his Awakened status, he had been drafted as armed personnel when the convoy was short on manpower, eventually earning the rank of squad leader after a few battles. Bringing his own loyal crew and possessing a unique Awakened ability meant that his position remained completely secure, regardless of whether Joseph Zhou was in charge or Chester took over.

But today, he was anxious. Because after Joseph's vehicle was swallowed by the zombie horde yesterday, Chester had been the first to make a move. If the two main factions had a shootout, Travis—who lacked Chester's numbers and Evelyn's raw power—might have actually had a chance to reap the spoils of their mutual destruction. However, Evelyn's immediate capitulation and the total lack of resistance from her veteran soldiers had dashed those hopes.

He had no choice but to fall back into his original role, continuing as a simple squad leader under Chester. But now, Chester and his core cronies had all vanished without a trace or a sound. He didn't know the process, but he was looking right at the result. This terrifyingly efficient, unknown "purge" sent a bone-deep chill through him. He realized that both he and Chester had vastly underestimated Evelyn and the special forces operators acting as her personal bodyguards.

He didn't know why Evelyn had suddenly struck, nor did he understand what made this morning any different from last night. But the exact moment this young man appeared, the moment those two operators suddenly kowtowed in submission, he felt like he finally grasped a thread of the truth.

"Everyone, put your guns down!" Travis raised a hand. No matter what, showing goodwill first was the priority. He let out a dry chuckle, his face instantly plastering on a slightly stiff but incredibly enthusiastic smile. All his previous bravado vanished as he spoke to Evelyn in a low tone.

"Colonel Ye, who might this be?" While he didn't know what the hell had happened overnight to shatter the convoy's internal balance, he wasn't stupid. He could clearly read the attitude Evelyn's faction had toward this young man. Those guys who just fled back were the ones Ron had taken to back up the supply team this morning. Travis had caught the gist of their frantic, disjointed stories. Good lord. Executed seven men using some kind of witchcraft without even blinking.

And then strolling right into the gas station with his crew, making it blatantly obvious he had Chester completely dead to rights. Evelyn's sudden mutiny was clearly an inside job coordinated with him! Thinking it through, everything clicked. Travis decisively abandoned his short-lived illusion of being a chess player and firmly planted himself back on the board as a pawn. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Evelyn had naturally heard the accounts of the five survivors as well, secretly marveling at the young man's ruthlessness. This was her first time actually seeing Vince. Even though his name had echoed through her mind countless times from last night until this morning, seeing his face in person still felt a bit mismatched. The man Wyatt described, and the one Holden profiled, felt like they should have a much sharper, more dangerous edge than the person standing in front of her.

But that didn't affect her ultimate judgment of him. So, she stepped forward slowly, delivering a light, calculated kick to Holden, who was still prostrated on the ground. She gave Vince a polite nod and a smile, then ground out a whisper through gritted teeth at the two men on the pavement.

"You two... fall back in line." Holden and Clint instantly scrambled up, flashing Vince a goofy grin and a textbook military salute. They then jogged right back to the rear of the formation, looking as natural as if absolutely nothing had happened. Evelyn turned around and took a deep breath. She extended a hand toward Vince, announcing to the entire crowd gathered in front of the gas station lobby:"This is an old friend of mine. From the Mount Ji Biotechnology Research Institute—Colonel Vince Lin..."

"Pfft..." Zoe, standing directly behind Vince, suddenly snorted, quickly stifling the rest of her laugh. Even Claire, standing beside her, was visibly trembling as she fought to hold it in.

"Uh... Colonel Ye, what exactly is this?" Even Vince had been completely blindsided by this rapid-fire combo. The question marks in his head were gone, replaced by an overwhelming torrent of conflicting 'information' and 'possibilities' that essentially caused his brain to blue-screen. He instinctively turned to the female officer for an explanation. She looked exhausted, her face smudged with dirt and her expression carefully neutral, yet her eyes remained incredibly bright.

Based on everyone's reactions and the epaulets on her shoulders, it was obvious she was the much-discussed Evelyn Ye. Before heading out, Vince had gleaned the basic structure of their convoy from the surviving soldiers. He knew a guy named Chester had leveraged his superior numbers to usurp Joseph's command, so he had made some preparations for the upcoming conflict. Chester—judging solely by his actions—was a clear-cut opportunist and schemer.

However, since he was ordering his men to massacre civilians and plunder supplies, he was no different from a bandit. Vince just had to find a way to kill him. But by doing so, Vince's sudden arrival as an overwhelmingly powerful outsider would inevitably force the remaining armed personnel to band together with the previously marginalized Evelyn. The opposing side had dozens of men, dozens of guns, Awakened among them, and an armored vehicle.

Vince might win in a direct, head-on clash, but how many of the people following him could survive a sniper's bullet from the shadows? Unless he slaughtered every last one of them, or managed to forge some kind of alliance with Evelyn, what happened last night to Marcus and Wyatt—getting pinned down by a zombie horde—would just be a prelude. Not to mention, Ben's crew didn't even have twelve people who knew how to shoot. Relying entirely on a handful of Awakened to protect an entire convoy was impossible.

To avoid being held hostage by the situation, he had prepared strategies to dismantle and assimilate the various factions within the convoy, even planning exactly how to intervene in their internal power struggles. But right here, right now, all those plans had turned to dust. For the first time, he actually felt like the situation had slipped entirely out of his control. Hearing Vince's words, Evelyn completely ignored the astonished stares from Travis and the men beside him.

She gracefully turned around, offering no verbal reply. Instead, she simply looked at him in silence. Her eyes were as clear and deep as a pristine mirror. Vince could even see his own reflection in them. This Colonel Ye was a woman whose aura was drastically different from Claire's, yet perhaps even a fraction more beautiful. And the moment she opened her mouth, she had solved every single problem.

With a single sentence, she had granted him unquestionable legitimacy to take over the convoy, and absolute "legal authority" for his brutal purge of the squad's scum earlier that morning. If he was an outsider and killed seven of their men—even if those men were murderers and arsonists—it would be seen as vigilantism. He would be the demon. The remaining soldiers would band together to fight him just to protect their own lives.

But if he suddenly transformed into a 'Supreme Inspector,' then he was an impartial enforcer of military law, bringing down the hammer of justice. The others would only think, Heh, thank god I wasn't there. Better keep my head down from now on. By instantly shifting the nature of the conflict from a "bandit vs. tyrant" turf war to "allied forces meeting a newly assigned commanding officer," she completely flipped how the remaining armed personnel and ordinary civilians would perceive Vince.

By publicly declaring Vince's identity in this moment, Evelyn had handed the absolute legal authority of this entire convoy directly into his hands. Aside from Chester, there would be absolutely zero resistance to him assimilating the troops... Realizing all this, Vince looked back into Evelyn's crystal-clear eyes, only to realize that they were, in fact, unfathomably deep. And in an instant, the way he looked at her changed. The vigilance was gone. The probing was gone.

What remained was a complex sense of genuine appreciation. He suddenly felt that the woman standing in front of him was far more interesting than anyone he had met so far.