Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System-Chapter 250: Fight or Flight

After becoming a Rank Seven Ruler, I gained an increased amount of territory that I could mark as my own. The amount of land I could convert now allowed me to cover an urban block—despite this, I am unable to cover the entire Jiang compound.

However, it gave me a choice.

To protect the people in the central mansion buildings, or the outer area where the soldiers and lower-ranked people close to the walls lived.

"Haa..." A sigh left my lips as I leaned against the backrest of my sofa.

Mu Qinglan and Jiang Roulan sat on either side of me while Shen Yifei lay on the opposite sofa, kicking her legs in a short skirt and loose t-shirt.

"Do you think we can win?"

"Nonsense, has John led us into danger before?"

"Mmm~ he has though, right? The mall was horrible." Yifei leaned on her side, her fangs nibbling her lips as she mumbled.

"Shut it dumb blonde!"

Jiang Roulan showed her concern as she leaned against me and ran her soft fingertips along my skin. I could feel the faint tremble from time to time while Mu Qinglan remained adamantly sure that I wouldn’t fail them.

The pressure from such blind faith was both supporting and a little overbearing. If I could show some weakness, they wouldn’t look to me as their rock. However, if I did that when the situation turned dire, the women would lose all hope and trust in me.

"John, what are your orders."

She looked at me with her crystal clear eyes, icy blue and filled with my reflection.

"We cannot abandon Roulan’s family, and the people here could help in the future. At least that’s my thoughts."

"..."

"Forgive me... if we didn’t come here, you wouldn’t be face with such a burden."

Jiang Roulan spoke softly, her head buried into my neck, the soft breath from her mouth brushing across my throat. "John, please don’t let them die. My mother... and grandfather."

"I can’t promise anything, you know that I am not some invincible hero."

Although I said that I would do everything possible to help, my priority isn’t her family, but the women who have shared the most time with me. I couldn’t help it, and the thought made a bitter taste spread across the back of my mouth. I was no hero, but the Jiang family wasn’t some ordinary family either.

"All I can promise you." I gently stroked her cheek, the softness like a cloud, "I will fight until the end, and keep you girls safe." Her eyes, half-lidded, fluttered as her gaze focused on me. "Do you understand, you are the most important to me... I cannot change that, no. I will not change that."

My words almost appeared to echo in the room, as the three women looked at me, with varied responses.

"..."

Qinglan’s smile grew, and her cheeks flushed lightly with a soft pink hue. While gently stroking my thigh, she turned away, as if too shy to look directly.

"Hmph, I knew you’d pick us..." Yifei rolled her eyes and leaned further into the sofa, her lips pouted, and her expression filled with a performative anger, but the curl of her lips and brightness in her voice betrayed her moody act.

Jiang Roulan clasped my hand against her cheek, "I know, if you can just try, that’s more than enough for me. John." She shifted and pressed her mouth against my palm, kissing me lightly. The warmth of her breath spread through, a soft and comforting scent of coconut from the shampoo she used.

"Mmm." A slight groan left her mouth as I brushed her silky lips with my thumb, squishing them like jelly.

"Then I should start preparing, we don’t have long left..."

My eyes flicked to the corner of my vision where the dreaded timer continued to tick, without caring for my current state or desires.

[Time until horde arrives: 32 hours]

"Phew... I would have liked to spend time with you three, but I have to visit the front walls."

With that sentence, the room became stiff, a sense of resignation and fear loomed in the air like a dark cloud, even though we had the bonus of time to prepare. The size and power of the zombie horde would cause catastrophic damage.

"I want you all to gather together, if things get out of control, I need you all to help each other, understand?"

He knew that these women fought behind his back, had little competitions about who would sleep in his bed, and if he gave one priority, the other two would team up on her... But with the addition of Tang Wei, the balance would soon start to shift.

"Where are you going?"

"I told you, to the front walls."

"..."

Qinglan seemed overly concerned; her eyes wavered, unlike usual. "Wanna come with me?" So I made an offer. Her expression lit up as she jumped to her feet, almost tripping on the coffee table, before stumbling to her feet and gripping Eternal Night in her right hand. "I’ll come!" She said with a sharp and enthusiastic voice.

"Good, let’s head out. We don’t have the time to waste."

I looked at Roulan, who watched me with a half-absent-minded expression, "Roulan, please gather our people, Zhou Xue, Chen Xun, Deng Hua, Liang Mei and Liang Qiu and have them eat, shower and prepare themselves. I will try to be back in the next twelve hours, brief them and have them start preparing their arrows, bullets and magazines."

Without something to keep Jiang Roulan occupied, I thought she might collapse or become depressed, so I gave her a job to do. She gave me a slight nod and stood up from the couch, looking at Yifei before heading to the door and opening it. "I will do it." With a determined look, she left the room with Shen Yifei in tow.

"Haa... so much work to do."

I had almost forgotten that Mu Qinglan was beside me and let my true feelings slip... a mistake.

"John...?" She watched me with concerned eyes, her voice wavering. "Will it... really be okay?"

"Who knows, but if it isn’t, then we’ll have tried everything and we’ll die together." I didn’t feel the need to hide my fear of the horde from her. Lan’er was my first girlfriend and the woman I trusted best.

"I will support you, what do you need? How can I help you? I can help arranging the people, form groups to restock ammunition, replenish food and support. Anything, have you forgotten who I am?"

A gentle and caring smile spread across her lips, and her eyes narrowed as she brushed some loose strands from her hair. "You are not alone in this. You have me, the others... even that Jiang Siwan."

The words sounded different from the usual Qinglan, almost nostalgic as she stared at me with a powerful glare. "Don’t forget who I am!"

"You’re right, I am stupid for forgetting why I fell in love with you in the first place... CEO Mu Qinglan, please offer me your expertise, if I step on the wrong path or make a mistake in your eyes." I took a deep breath, the cool air calming as it carried her scent. "Please speak up and guide me."

"If that’s what you want, I can do it." Her lips curled into a smile as she reached forward.

The softness of her palm caressed the back of my hand before her long, delicate fingers slipped into mine. She squeezed them tightly and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Then we have to prepare the defense first." A cold, but sincere voice reached my ears. "Come on, let’s go, John. We don’t have time."

I took her hand and headed toward the front wall, the main entrance to the compound, and where I expected the brunt of the horde to arrive. It would take a while, as we needed a small jeep to reach, but thanks to the meeting and my current status at the base, we borrowed one without any issues.

Although Tang Wei and Li Ya ended up tagging along.

***

"So, there’s going to be a huge horde coming?" Li Ya’s fiery red hair almost glowed in the sunlight, her red eyes scanning the horizon with a look of concern. "It’s a little scary. But also exciting!"

"You psychopath... haven’t you thought of how dangerous it’ll be?" Tang Wei peeked at me while refuting her sister in arms, both of them wearing the ECS-05 bodysuits.

While the two spoke about the upcoming battle and danger, I closed my eyes and swept through the System panels. All to prepare for the war, I needed more currency.

I would like to sell half my cores.

Because of the situation, I only gave a small fraction of cores to Jiang Siwan, who now understood the dangers of swallowing raw orbs.

With a Stage Four core in my possession and close to six hundred Stage Two cores... I planned to boost the base’s combat abilities.

[Confirmation]

[Sell 326 Stage 2 Cores for: 1,638,000 ZKP]

[Sell 32 Stage 3 Cores for: 320,000 ZKP]

[Yes | No]

’Sell them, and calculate the best possible way to empower the 250 soldiers I have just recruited... enough to fight a horde with an average level of Stage Two zombies.’

[Confirmed!]

[Analysing Request: ...1%]

Although this might help, I still needed something else. An important question remained at the back of my mind.

Because I couldn’t do everything, I needed help.

’System... Can i grant system access to Lan’er to help me?’