Chương 169: A Little More Sincerity

"He's dead..." Vince's words fell like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the unrealistic fantasies flickering in everyone's hearts. But this was expected, so everyone just sighed silently. Evelyn quietly tucked the epaulet back into her pocket.

"I killed him..." Vince's voice rang out again. It wasn't loud, but it echoed like a thunderclap inside the military tent. Every single gaze in the tent instantly snapped to him, each pair of eyes brimming with a bizarre mix of disbelief and shock. To prove their sincerity, none of the veterans were carrying firearms. Hearing those words, Marcus and Raven instantly clenched their fists.

A faint blue glow gathered over Marcus's knuckles, while microscopic arcs of electricity danced across the surface of Raven's skin. Sparks of fury ignited in their irises. Even Zoe and Claire, standing beside Vince, were caught off guard. Vince had only told them about encountering a severely injured old man in the APC, and how a monster attacked shortly after. When he went back later, he only took the man's gun, never mentioning this. They stared at him in utter astonishment.

But they never doubted Vince for a second. Sensing the rapidly tightening atmosphere, Zoe didn't care what anyone else thought. With a sharp shwing, two flying swords shot out from her waist, suspended in mid-air, their icy tips pointed directly at the veterans. Claire didn't have her spear, but her shield was strapped to her arm. Knowing the opposition had no firearms, she simply raised her shield slightly, ready to step in front of Vince at a moment's notice.

Though they moved instinctively, their eyes remained fixed on Vince. They trusted that he had a specific reason for saying this. Vince's expression didn't change in the slightest. He simply continued in the same detached tone.

"He asked me to kill him... A monster had infected him. Before he died, he begged me to pass this on to you, and to tell you: 'His mission is complete. The hope... is now in your hands.' So, I honored his final request and ended his suffering." Hearing the full story, the palpable tension in the tent immediately deflated into deep sorrow. While not everyone had personally put a bullet in a comrade to spare them from turning, every single one of them had witnessed it.

"So that's what happened..." Even the oldest among them, Marcus, released his glowing fist in dejection and rubbed his eyes. Seeing the situation stabilize, Zoe and Claire stowed their weapons. This was the first time they were hearing this part of the story too, and they couldn't help but feel their own spirits sink alongside the heavy atmosphere in the tent.

"Raven, tell me. How do you feel right now...?" Seeing his objective achieved, Vince's lips curled into a faint smirk as he looked directly at the young girl. He could tell she was the most heartbroken out of all of them.

"I... I don't want to answer that." Raven kept her head down, refusing to meet his gaze.

"There you go. That's how it should be. A little girl like you should be sincere. Compared to all those meticulously crafted, sweet-talking titles from earlier, I think the way you look right now is much more genuine." Vince then raised his head, addressing the rest of the group.

"If I had just come out and said, 'Colonel Zhou was infected by a monster and begged me to end his suffering. I brought back his belongings and his final words for Evelyn,' would you guys still feel this terrible right now?" At his words, everyone aside from Evelyn looked slightly uncomfortable. They turned their heads away, seemingly ashamed that their emotions had been manipulated so effortlessly.

"The exact same facts, presented in different ways, elicit entirely different reactions. So, let's agree to drop the convoluted schemes and be a little more sincere with each other. How does that sound?" Since no one else would look at him, he directed the question straight at Evelyn. As he spoke, the faint smile had completely vanished from his face, replaced by a calm, almost brutally honest stare. He casually spread his hands and continued addressing the room.

"Let's turn the page on what happened earlier. I'll set the example first by giving you guys the basic rundown of our group..."

"Five Awakened!?" Vince gave them a rough overview of his survivor community and their combat capabilities. When he got to the Awakened, everyone in the tent jumped. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Vince's tone was completely earnest. Recalling their earlier analysis and schemes against him, and now getting kicked back down to earth by him, they actually felt that Vince was being incredibly genuine.

The lingering tension dissolved, and they finally relaxed.

"Mother of God, what kind of blessed Feng Shui does that place have..." Wyatt muttered in sheer disbelief.

"Plus one." Holden raised a hand, echoing Wyatt's sentiment.

"There were hardly any civilians left at the Jishan Quarantine Zone. Even after the garrison consolidated its forces, we only had about four hundred people left... Yet we only ever had one Awakened: Raven." Evelyn was utterly shell-shocked. Even after picking up Travis and Harvey on the road—proving that Awakened weren't entirely unique—they were still incredibly rare. Even assuming some Awakened had died during the initial chaos, the ratio among survivors was still well under one percent.

If calculated based on the pre-apocalypse population, the odds were roughly one in ten thousand! She glanced at Raven, who was still looking deeply depressed. The girl stood with her head bowed, she gripped the hem of her tactical uniform. Evelyn sighed inwardly. Their parents had died in the line of duty when Raven was very young, so they had been raised by their grandfather. And Joseph Zhou was the child their grandfather had adopted. He was a dozen years older than Evelyn, and over twenty years older than Raven.

To Evelyn, he was an older brother. But to Raven, he was a father figure. By using this information to inflict emotional retaliation on them, Vince had hit Raven the hardest. Yet Raven also knew that Vince had genuinely done Joseph a final kindness. Her profound sadness wasn't directed at Vince; it was directed entirely at herself. Vince's sheer, overwhelming presence had forced her to confront her own weakness.

The fact that Vince had brought back Joseph's belongings was the exact reason she had been so desperate to investigate the explosion site last night. She resented her own powerlessness. Evelyn understood all of this, but there was nothing she could do. After all, she wasn't even an Awakened herself. Yet in some average, run-of-the-mill, older residential neighborhood—which held maybe four or five thousand people at max capacity—there were five of these incredibly rare Awakened?

While the veterans were astounded, how the others besides Vince and Bruno had actually Awakened remained a closely guarded secret. So, Vince simply let them marvel without offering any confirmation or denial. Thankfully, Marcus's existence provided a perfect distraction.

"Zoe's situation is exactly like Major Wang's. She Awakened after getting severely injured and consuming a crystal..." Vince reached behind him with his left hand, grabbing Zoe and pulling her forward to introduce her to the group. Since she had been injured in front of a crowd, and they now had Marcus as a prime example, there was no need to hide it. He casually steered the conversation in that direction.

"Colonel Lin, running a pet clinic in an old neighborhood was truly a waste of your talents," Holden muttered in awe.

"Colonel Ye and her team only managed to deduce that zombie infection triggers a specific, hyper-active state in the human body. But they never had a clue on how to transition from that state into a true Awakened... It actually requires a zombie crystal? And it must be a round one, if I remember correctly..."

"Those round crystals evaporate within 48 to 168 hours..." Since the topic shifted into her professional domain, Evelyn naturally picked it up.

"The duration of evaporation corresponds to the strength of the monster. The longest-lasting crystal we ever recovered vanished after exactly 168 hours, though we can't rule out the possibility of stronger ones lasting longer.

"They are incredibly difficult to acquire and impossible to preserve. After wasting several trying to test different preservation environments, any round crystals we managed to get our hands on were immediately fed to Raven." She looked up at Vince, her eyes filled with genuine astonishment.

"Are you implying, Colonel Lin, that you have a way to preserve these crystals?" Vince knew she would ask this, and he had no intention of hiding it.

"Yes. It's tied to my ability. I wasted one early on too, but I eventually discovered that as long as I keep them on my person, they don't evaporate." He reached into his pocket and, as casually as if pulling out a piece of candy, retrieved a round crystal, displaying it to the group.

"Like this."

"No wonder you had the opportunity to figure out the key to Awakening..." Evelyn nodded, falling into deep thought without a shred of doubt. Whether it was Raven, Marcus, Travis, or the young girl standing next to Vince who had just flashed her telekinetic blades, there was an endless variety of bizarre abilities. Vince being able to preserve crystals wasn't all that outlandish.

"By the way, didn't we just agree on 'a little more sincerity'? Why are you guys still calling me 'Colonel Lin'?" Vince pocketed the crystal and looked at Evelyn in confusion. He could tell these people had genuinely relaxed around him. Logically, this fake title used to fool the outsiders should have been dropped behind closed doors. After all, it offered him no real benefit in private. Yet they kept addressing him as Colonel Lin with every other breath, and it was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"Because this title might be the most valuable gift we can offer you." Evelyn answered Vince's question with absolute seriousness.

"This title isn't just to fool the people outside. Even when we reach the Quarantine Zone...

"Our military authentication comes directly from the Jishan Garrison. The chaos only started spreading two weeks ago; human civilization hasn't completely collapsed yet. This identity will still be valid when we enter a major Quarantine Zone. It guarantees you and your people the treatment you deserve.

"But Raven was right earlier. Your strength is beyond anything we could have imagined. Perhaps the identity we arranged for you is somewhat redundant...

"Your power, and the fact that you can preserve round crystals, is enough to get you whatever you want. But that path isn't safe.

"We still firmly believe that as long as human civilization endures, there will be continuous efforts to rebuild order.

"It hasn't even been half a month since the outbreak. It's almost guaranteed that all the major Quarantine Zones will be established on the foundations of the military or the pre-existing government framework. Having the rank of Colonel will, at the very least, save you a massive amount of trouble when it comes to acquiring resources inside the Zone.

"The apocalypse is an equal-opportunity disaster. It doesn't discriminate based on intelligence or strength. Therefore, the larger the Quarantine Zone, the more certain it is that the old bureaucratic systems will still exist. It's inevitable.

"Being 'Dr. Lin, the immensely powerful Awakened' and being 'Colonel Lin, the immensely powerful Awakened' are two entirely different things.

"A powerful, high-ranking military officer from a fallen Quarantine Zone is naturally far more likely to be accepted into the core of the power structure and granted authority to mobilize resources than an overpowered stranger with an unknown background.

"Those people in power are incredibly short-sighted. Since you haven't lived in a Quarantine Zone, it might be hard for you to understand...

"Unless a super-powered individual with no official status is literally strong enough to slaughter everyone and wipe out the world on their own, it will still be incredibly difficult for them to smoothly acquire the resources and positions they want.

"We've analyzed this. If this rank isn't backed by actual strength, its value will depreciate over time. But in the short term, it's invaluable.

"So, this title isn't a mockery or a scheme. It's genuinely the best gift we felt we could give you and your people."