Chapter 275: Chapter 263: Rebuilding the Base
Yue Mao froze. ’Alright, it seems I thought too highly of myself.’ Suddenly, his lips trembled and his eyes welled up. He squatted on the ground, looking pitifully at Flora Bloom. "Miss, please just take me in! I’ll be your enforcer! I’ll do anything you ask! Robbery, swindling, cheating—you point, and I’ll strike!"
Flora Bloom studied Yue Mao’s face for a long time. From their last encounter, it was still covered in marks and scars from her bees and a dagger wound from The Crown Prince.
This Yue Mao was truly too weak compared to people like Lex Cross, but on her own team, he would be an ace in the hole!
Mr. Wallace’s Fire Element was powerful; Yue Mao would be no match for him in a head-on fight. But Yue Mao was a Hidden Ability user, an assassin-type who was impossible to defend against. If he joined her team, he would absolutely become a major secret weapon.
"It’s not out of the question for you to join my team. However, Yue Mao, there’s one thing I must make clear," Flora Bloom said. Her words made Yue Mao suddenly break into a wide grin.
"Just say the word, Miss! As long as you let me join your team, I’ll agree to any condition!"
"When I, Flora Bloom, choose teammates, I never look at their power. A lack of strength can be improved, but a lack of loyalty is irreversible."
After the Three-Eyed Gorilla’s demolition-style rampage, nearly everyone in the base was left homeless. The few remaining houses were quickly seized by the various teams of superpower users.
The base’s main gate was gone, and more than half of the original perimeter wall had collapsed. If ordinary people wanted a place to stay, they didn’t dare move too far from the residences of the superpower user teams.
The superpower users could still hunt zombies for Crystal Cores during the day or venture into the outer regions to gather what little food and supplies they could find to fill their stomachs.
But these ordinary people were left with no means of survival. Compounding this, the base no longer had a water source, and the people, tormented by hunger and thirst, had reached their limit.
Just then, word came from Sepherdine’s team, which had moved into a small villa, that he was widely recruiting new members. He personally took a handwritten sign to the center of a densely populated safe zone, and a large crowd immediately surrounded him.
"Team expansion? Superpower users prioritized? Ordinary people with special skills may also be accepted?" someone read from the recruitment sign for Sepherdine’s team. Its contents drew in another huge crowd, especially the ordinary people.
"Hey, everyone, come look! Captain Sepherdine’s team is recruiting, and even those of us without superpowers can join!"
"Captain Sepherdine, if I join your team, are food and lodging provided?" a young man asked cautiously, terrified of hearing a "no."
Sepherdine smiled. "As you can see, the base is a wreck. Even I have only managed to find a temporary place to stay. However, as long as you join my team, I can guarantee one meal a day for ordinary members and two meals a day for superpower users!"
"Really?! Then... then I want to sign up!"
"Me, me, me! I want to sign up too!"
"Um, Captain Sepherdine, I’ve awakened a Water Ability. I’d like to join. Can my little brother join with me?"
"Yes, of course. Superpower users get priority, especially those of the Water Element. Every superpower user can bring two other people with them." At that moment, a man from behind Sepherdine stepped forward, pen and paper in hand, and began to take down names.
It wasn’t just Sepherdine. Even Zane Locke, after escaping through a secret tunnel while seriously wounded, began to expand his team’s roster. Although his team currently lacked a recruitment advantage, he did have a Middle Level Water Ability User.
With this Water Ability User, combined with his team’s original strength, his recruitment speed was surprisingly on par with Sepherdine’s.
After leaving Flora Bloom’s territory, Azure Leroy successfully joined Seth Warren’s team as a Second Level Water Ability User. Seth Warren was, of course, aware of who Azure Leroy was, but he was even more aware that she was a woman who knew how to read a situation.
’Zane Locke and Sepherdine appear to be on peaceful terms, but in reality, both of them have their eyes on the top leadership position of the safe base. By not joining either of their teams, I am also staying out of the fight for control of the base.’
’And by staying out of that fight, I won’t make an enemy of Flora Bloom.’
’With Morgan Sterling dead, my whole self-injury gambit was a complete waste. Not only did I fail to infiltrate Flora Bloom and Lex Cross’s team, but I was also imprisoned in a villa by Flora the entire time, only allowed to sunbathe in the yard every day.’
’If I made the slightest move, that swarm of bees would threaten me, their wings trembling as they let out a terrifying BUZZ.’
’Being free now is like a rebirth for me. I have to increase my own power! We’re both Water Ability Users; I refuse to believe I’m any worse than Flora Bloom.’
’A man like Lex Cross... I must have him. I’ll make him fall at my feet. A man that powerful isn’t just about prestige; he’s my support for the future.’
’As long as I don’t die, a little hardship is nothing. The day I finally get Lex Cross, none of this suffering will have been for nothing.’
After getting out, Tianna Bloom also returned to Seth Warren’s team. But when she got back, she realized something was wrong. Her mother, Sharon Caldwell, was missing. Not only that, but to prevent the dead from being infected by the virus and turning into zombies, Stephen Bloom had been incinerated by a Fire Ability User after he died.
After Seth Warren told Tianna Bloom about Stephen Bloom’s death, he expected her to be inconsolable, or at the very least, to go to the quarantine gate and demand an explanation from Flora Bloom. But she did neither. Strangely, Tianna Bloom became quiet, composed, and a woman of few words.
While Seth Warren’s team was recruiting, Tianna Bloom served as a living billboard of sorts, drawing in quite a few new members.
Setting aside the grudge between Tianna Bloom and Flora Bloom, Tianna herself was an Ice Ability User, a mutation of the Water Element. Even at only the Second Level, she was extremely formidable. Not only was her Ice Element powerful offensively, but she could also freeze enemies, immobilizing them for a period of time.
Furthermore, even when water was scarce, a Fire Ability User could melt the ice she created to provide the team with drinking water.
It was safe to say Tianna Bloom was incredibly valuable.
Although Seth Warren knew about the grudge between Tianna Bloom and Flora Bloom and hadn’t originally wanted to keep her on the team, the base had been destroyed and too many people were displaced. Since he could use this opportunity to expand his own team, he wasn’t about to shy away from using every person at his disposal.
Besides Flora Bloom’s team, three other factions had now arisen in the former Morhaven Safe Base. After several days of recruiting new members, they had made a powerful emergence.
Sepherdine’s faction was the most powerful, followed by Zane Locke’s, with Seth Warren’s faction in third.
In addition to these, some of the ordinary, non-superpowered people in the base had also begun to band together for survival, forming a faction of their own. In terms of numbers, they were actually the largest of the base’s major powers.
What no one could have expected was that the person who had organized this group was none other than Morgan Sterling’s former subordinate, Quinn.
Just then, news of a mutant monster attack suddenly swept through the base. Whether it was Sepherdine, Zane Locke, Seth Warren, or Quinn, the leader of the commoners’ group, the four factions gathered together to devise a plan to kill the monster hiding within the base.
