Ashleigh and Derek were standing beside Rose.
Rose swept her gaze over the people standing in front of her before landing her sights on Team 5.
Nathan wasn"t there.
According to the reports she received, Nathan was last seen standing outside of the manor after jumping from the third floor. After that, n.o.body has seen him.
They also checked his room and found the radio.
With that, based on Nathan"s personality, she could only guess two things where he was.
One - He left to search for the Divine Tower.
Two - He"s waiting in the dark for something.
"My fellow brothers and sisters, some of you here may already know what had happened. But for the sake of clarity, I will explain everything to you all," said Rose.
Everyone quieted down and listened.
"I believe everyone here has received the messages from the System. Unfortunately, we are facing an unexpected threat. The captured 50 zombies kept inside the Training Facility in the Southeast of this town evolved into 3m-tall type zombies and are wreaking havoc as we speak."
Many people, especially the normal guards gasped in cold air. They started to worry and some even wanted to run away.
But who could blame them?
To the normal guards, not only did they have limited light source due to the loss of electricity and are merely relying on emergency lamps and flashlights, but they also had to fight 50 3m-tall zombies?
Forget about 50 3m-tall zombies, even killing one 3m-tall zombie without the use of high powered guns wasn"t an easy task during day time. Not everyone was like Derek who had high Str and Vit or Rose who could transform into crystal and alter the shape of her arms and legs.
In the case of Rose, she had no plans back down from the 3m-tall zombies that were currently wreaking havoc in the Southeast of Haven Town.
To her, it"s times like these as to why she increased her level, and set up this base and army. She will only abandon Haven Town once it becomes a fight that was impossible to win.
"But there is no need to worry, my fellow brothers and sisters! We have already developed a full-proof plan to immediately contain the situation! "
When they heard that Rose has developed a full-proof plan, some of their worries eased.
"Scavenger Teams, listen up!"
The Scavenger Teams stood in attention.
"Teams 1, 2, 3 and 4 will head directly to the Training Facility."
This batch will have Rose and Ashleigh.
"Teams 5, 6 and 7 will start from the South Gate and then make their way to the Training Facility."
This batch was supposed to have Nathan.
"Teams 8, 9 and 10 will start from the East Gate and make their way to the Training Facility as well."
This batch will have Derek.
"As for those who aren"t part of the Scavenger Teams, you will be scattered across town to provide support and maintain order. Remember, we need to work together in order to protect our family and friends!"
"Yes, Boss!"
With the absence of Nathan, she had to no choice but to group teams 1 - 4 together if she wanted to keep Ashleigh safe with her.
To her, aside from her family members, Ashleigh"s life was more important compared to the other Scavenger team members because of her powers.
She initially planned to have Team 2 on standby. However, to her surprise, Ashleigh flat-out rejected it and demanded to partic.i.p.ate in heading towards the Training Facility.
As for the reason of Ashleigh"s actions, Rose suspected that it was perhaps due to her experience with Nathan this afternoon.
After witnessing her teammates unmercifully getting beaten up by Nathan in front of her and doing nothing despite also being a Chosen One herself, she felt guilty and wanted to redeem herself.
Someone started clapping.
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
It was then followed by a man"s voice.
"Heh~ So teams 5 to 7 will combine?"
A man appeared in front of Team 5 and everyone"s eyes were on him.
It was, of course, none other than the beloved captain of Team 5, Nathan.
"Nathan, I"m glad to see you. I was worried about having you scout in advance for us at the Training Facility. I trust everything is okay?" said Rose.
Nathan raised an eyebrow before finally realizing what Rose was trying to do.
"Ah yes. Based on what I"ve seen back there, we can easily take those 3m-tall zombies with that full-proof plan of yours as long we work together."
Rose looked away from Nathan and stared at the rest of the members.
"Did he hear that my fellow brothers and sisters?! There is no need to fear! With our full-proof plan combined with strength and numbers, we can easily take down those 50 3m-tall zombies with ease! I hereby commence operation Night Hunt!"
"Yeah!"
Everyone let out a war cry and raised their weapons up in the air except for a handful of people who were aware of what Rose and Nathan just did.
Among them were Derek and Ashleigh.
Nathan stared at Rose"s outfit for a moment. This is actually the first time he saw her fully geared with System items. As for her weapons, she was carrying a shield and sword on hand, and a handgun and extra clips on her waist.
The normal guards started heading out to their a.s.signed positions as soon as they were given orders.
As for the Scavenger Teams, they grouped up with their a.s.signed teams first before heading to their designated positions.
Everyone was armed to the teeth, carrying both System and non-System items such as guns. And compared to the normal guards, all members of the Scavenger Teams were wearing night/thermal vision goggles.
Nathan stood with the members of Team 5, waiting for teams 6 and 7 to approach him.
He yawned.
An old man in his 50s approached him.
"Captain Nathan, I am Chet, the captain of Team 7. I look forward to working with you."
Nathan only spared him a glance before replying with a bored tone, "Yeah, sure."
What he failed to recognize was that this old man was one of Rose"s uncles.
The next person who approached was a woman in her 30s.
"I am the first lieutenant and acting captain of Team 6, R.R. I look forward to working with you all."
Rose was the official captain of Scavenger Team 1 and 6. Unlike the other teams, these two teams have a first and second lieutenant.
Chet turned to R.R.
"I look forward to working with you as well, Captain R.R."
Meanwhile for Nathan, with his name not specifically being mentioned, he didn"t bother to acknowledge or even look at her.
"Okay," Nathan clapped his hands. "This is the plan: We head first to Southwest and then move to the South Gate. And from the South Gate, we head to the Training Facility to reunite with the other teams."
"A good plan, Captain Nathan. But I cer—" Chet said but was interrupted by R.R.
"Excuse me, I believe we should directly head to the South Gate and immediately make our way to the Training Facility. With each moment we waste, the more damage those 3m-tall zombies will cause."
Nathan finally glanced at R.R.
She was a Caucasian muscular woman with a pixie haircut, around 30 years old and about 5"9" in height.
"Steroids?"
Chet noticed Nathan"s eyes looking at R.R.
As an old fox and the information he has gathered about Nathan"s personality, he immediately tried to get on Nathan"s good side. Despite his hatred towards him for killing one of his nephews, Lester, he knew when to fight and when to back down.
He waited to see how Nathan was going to react.
"LGBT-100, you and whoever wants to go with you are free to do whatever you guys want."
"What did you call me?"
"Captain R.R., what Captain Nathan is trying to say—" Chet tried to explain.
"Hey, I"m talking to you. Did you just f.u.c.king call me LGBT-100?"
Nathan rolled his eyes and looked at the rest of the members.
"Does anyone here have a crystal body like Rose, a crazy vitality like Derek, or G.o.dlike healing powers like Ashleigh? Or just some super OP power that can kill those 3m-tall zombies just like that?" Nathan snapped his fingers.
No one answered.
"I thought so."
Nathan walked away and turned on his night/thermal vision goggles.
He was headed to the Southwest of Haven Town.
"Wait! What about you said earlier back at the a.s.sembly? Didn"t you scouted the area and said that we can easily take down the 3m-tall zombies?"
"Go do whatever you guys think is right." Nathan nonchalantly waved his hand as he continued walking away.
He didn"t choose to ride a vehicle.
The members of Team 5 immediately followed Nathan.
They knew exactly what their captain was capable of. Two of them, the fatty and crawler, even experienced it firsthand.
If even their captain wasn"t confident to just waltz to the South Gate and head to the Training Facility, then what about them?
"Can you f.u.c.king believe that guy?! We"re in a f.u.c.king crisis and he just left like that! He should at least properly f.u.c.king explain himself! Aren"t we supposed to be a f.u.c.king team?!" R.R. roared.
"Captain, don"t mind him. From what I heard, that guy is not only an unreasonable murderer, but he also has his head way up to his a.s.s. We can do this on our own," said the second lieutenant of Team 6.
"What do you think?" R.R. asked Chet.
Chet was in deep thought when R.R. asked him.
From what he gathered from Nathan, although he was extremely arrogant, violent and uncooperative, he did have some strength.
One good example was last night when he singlehandedly caused chaos in this town.
But whether Nathan can kill a 3m-tall zombie all by himself, that"s still up for speculation.
And based on Nathan"s refusal to head directly to the South Gate, it shows that he isn"t confident in killing a 3m-tall zombie on his own.
After much thought, Chet finally made a decision.
"I suggest we follow him for now. It"s better if we stick together."
"Then what about what the Boss said earlier? We can"t waste any more minute. We need to head at South Gate immediately!"
"I will follow Nathan. You do what you have to do."
Chet and his team, Team 7, followed Nathan and Team 5 who were already far away.
"Captain, what do we do?" asked one of the members of Team 6.
"Captain, we will follow whatever orders you give," said another member of Team 6.
"No choice but to follow them," R.R. helplessly said.
As much as R.R. wanted to punch Nathan in the face due to his att.i.tude, she knew that going directly at the South Gate without Team 5 and 7 would no doubt put the lives of her teammates in grave danger.
But if Team 7 sided with her decision, she would"ve pushed the decision to directly head to the South Gate.
Author"s thoughts:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!
To those people who voted with their power stones, thank you for voting:
• 7Life7Sky
• sam0sa
• TrueDevilPath
• Bartandal
To those who want to become one of my Immortal Patrons at P-t-r-e-o-n and access the "chapter drafts" for only $5 a month, you can visit my P-t-r-e-o-n page:
•
Please note that those are only drafts. So when I will publish them here, there will be some edits.
By the way, I also just added the draft of [Chapter 72] there.
Moreover, I made a typo in the previous chapter. I wrote:
"The people gathered in front of the manor reached close to a hundred and consists of normal guards and people from the Scavenger Teams."
I changed "a hundred" to "three hundred".
I"m very, very sorry. I was so busy yesterday because I just got home from traveling for two days and I had a lot of workloads to finish from my other jobs. In fact, I didn"t even properly edit the previous chapter and just edited it today.
Thank you once again and I"ll see you in the next chapter.