ren xiaosu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the storyteller’s words. since when did he get any ideas about his granddaughter? that was absolutely untrue, alright!
but at this moment, the two of them noticed the intensity of the battle in the stronghold did not decrease even after such a long time. instead, it seemed to be getting even more intense!
ren xiaosu understood that the previous battle at stronghold 63 had only ended so quickly because of his sudden involvement. after all, the members of dusk were not weak. if typical superhumans encountered them, they might even end up dying at their hands.
the pyro company’s fighting forces had always had a huge advantage due to their numbers, probably because they could mass produce them.
ren xiaosu suddenly sighed and said, “an eye for an eye makes the world go blind.”
but the storyteller, who was listening intently to the sound of the fighting, replied with a serious look, “this is not about vengeance but a struggle between the ideals of those two organizations. you have to understand that without their ideals, they would not be known as an organization.”
ren xiaosu was stunned. perhaps that was the source of qing zhen and the saboteurs’ conflict as well. qing zhen saw nuclear technology as a gift from nature and felt that humans should make good use of it. however, the saboteurs felt that humans should not possess a weapon that was powerful enough to destroy themselves with. that was because there were no bounds to humanity’s greed and they would never be satisfied with what they had. even if qing zhen could ensure that he would not use them, could he do the same for his descendants?
if those gruff men of fortress 178 did not have the belief to guard their stronghold, they probably would not have such strong willpower either.
however, it was not something ren xiaosu should be considering right now. he never got the idea of establishing an organization before, so these were not things he needed to care about.
the battle was getting louder and louder. it was so loud that even the refugees in town stopped in their tracks outside the stronghold walls to watch what would happen next.
a raging fire was burning inside the stronghold. the blazing flames in the sky were so bright that the red glow illuminated the faces of the refugees dressed in rags.
“it seems the anjing house has not gained the upper hand in the battle yet,” the storyteller said with a sigh.
ren xiaosu asked, “grandpa, are you on the side of the anjing house?”
the storyteller said with a smile, “normal people would find it very difficult to have a good impression of organizations like the pyro company. no matter how good they might have been in the past, the current pyro company has already gone astray on the path of genetic evolution.”
“do you mean that the pyro company used to be good?” ren xiaosu asked.
“apparently, even though they were also somewhat extreme during the pre-cataclysm times, they would still show some restraint in their behavior.” the storyteller said, “when the world lost order after the cataclysm, their ambitions started growing too rapidly.”
ren xiaosu muttered, “but it doesn’t feel like they’re that powerful….”
the storyteller was left speechless for a moment. he snapped, “how can you say that they aren’t powerful when they’re an organization that controls ten strongholds and has a ripple effect on the entire alliance of strongholds? you only think that they aren’t powerful because you’ve killed several of their members before. but what if you’re facing a 100 members of their advanced fighting forces? an organization that can mass produce super soldiers should never be judged based on the strength of an individual soldier. you have to multiply that by the numbers they have.”
ren xiaosu smacked his lips. “alright…”
as soon as his voice trailed off, ren xiaosu suddenly heard the voice from the palace state, “quest: take in an injured person for three days.”
ren xiaosu was stunned. it had probably been two months since he heard the palace assign him a quest. as a matter of fact, ever since he encountered the superhumans who could manipulate metal and summon a painted dragon at stronghold 63 a few days ago, he became really eager to learn their powers.
if he had that dragon painting power, it could come in quite handy to entertain his children with in the future! ahem, perhaps he had gotten a little too far ahead of himself.
even though he wanted to learn those powers, he could not do anything without a perfect skill duplication scroll. hence, the palace’s quests were essential.
but there had to be a reason why the palace would suddenly assign him a quest to take in someone who was injured.
ren xiaosu got up to leave. the storyteller asked from behind him, “where are you going? didn’t you say that you don’t want to get involved in that mess?”
ren xiaosu snapped, “i’m going home to sleep!”
he wasn’t looking to get involved in any chaos, but based on what the palace had said, it was a clear sign that trouble had come looking for him instead!
on his way back home, ren xiaosu kept walking past other refugees who were watching the ruckus from town. as the refugees did not have any activities to keep them entertained at night, they really hoped the fighting would go on for longer when they saw a battle going on in the stronghold.
after all, those big shots responsible for stirring up trouble had always looked down on the townspeople. even if battles broke out occasionally, the hostile forces would not do anything to the refugees. that was because they still needed refugees to work for them as they could not let the factories go unmanned!
when ren xiaosu arrived at the entrance of his home, he first checked the main door and found that the padlock was still intact. however, he caught a whiff of a sweet, metallic odor coming from the inside the house through the gap in the door. it was the smell of blood.
he opened the door with his key calmly. but as soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a pathetic figure attack him with a dagger from inside the house. to ren xiaosu’s further surprise, two vines sprouted out from the ground as though they were trying to grab ahold of his ankles.
but the attacker seemed to have aggravated a wound with this surprise attack on ren xiaosu. this caused the attacker to lose control of their movement, and the vines that sprouted out of the ground also withered away.
ren xiaosu easily grabbed the attacker’s wrist that was brandishing a dagger at him. however, he gasped when he realized the wrist was very slender. it turned out this was a woman’s wrist.
however, ren xiaosu was not really someone who would go soft on women. he immediately landed a knifehand strike on the attacker’s carotid artery so he could properly size her up afterwards.
however, he was surprised by what he saw. the attacker turned out to be an old acquaintance of his!
zhou yingxue!
why would that yang consortium spy, who had tried to get close to him by seducing him at stronghold 88 only to end up jumping rope with him, appear here? and she even looked like she had been seriously injured?
when stronghold 88 was destroyed, ren xiaosu had also apprehended zhou yingxue. but at that time, she had anxiously pleaded with him to allow her to go save her mother. as such, he let her off after some consideration.
he had not expected to encounter her again here.
ren xiaosu carried zhou yingxue to the backyard and saw the potato shooters were putting on their best behavior. zhou yingxue probably escaped being attacked by the potato shooters due to her power to manipulate plants.
zhou yingxue had even controlled two vines on the ground to attack ren xiaosu.
ren xiaosu snapped at the potato shooters, “did y’all not attack her just because she can manipulate plants? why are y’all so useless?”
the five potato shooters gently spat out a few potatoes as though they were trying to get back into ren xiaosu’s good books. ‘here, have some potatoes.’
ren xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. what the hell was this?
he looked at zhou yingxue, who he had thrown to the side. then he listened to the gunfire that was still ringing out in the stronghold. the wang consortium’s troops had probably been alerted now since the gunfire seemed to have only gotten even more intense.