Chapter 74: Chapter 63: Level 2 Fire Element Superpower

Suddenly, the Korean girl let out a scornful laugh. She looked at Flora Bloom’s group with a proud, childish expression and said,

"So you just want to follow our team to Azuregard City? You make it sound like you’re so tough."

Flora Bloom shot the girl a look one might give an idiot and didn’t deign to reply. This, in turn, left Sienna Kensington unsure of what to say next, so she could only glare at Flora with hatred.

’Koreans will be Koreans,’ Flora thought. ’Even a little girl has such a dark heart. No wonder they’re so shameless, even daring to claim the Dragon Boat Festival as their own. If you ask me, your Korean ancestors probably came from our Veridia. You’re all just a bunch of mutated Veridian traitors!’

Evan had been discreetly observing Flora Bloom’s group from the moment they appeared. ’Six people, and one of them is a child.’ In the apocalypse, a group of five adults with two women was already at a disadvantage for survival. Bringing a child along was like carrying dead weight—they were practically asking to be killed.

And yet, looking over the six of them, every single one was practically spotless, especially compared to his own group, who hadn’t bathed in days. The girl who had spoken, in particular, looked very young—even younger than Cynthia Grant.

Yet, she seemed to be the leader of their six-person team.

Putting aside everything else, he couldn’t underestimate them for the sole fact that they’d managed to stay so clean in times like these.

Seeing that the girl had rendered Sienna Kensington speechless, Evan finally spoke up. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Do you really have a way to get through?"

’I really can’t stand people like Evan,’ Flora thought. ’He’s been pretending to be all cool and aloof while secretly watching us for ages, only to speak up now. It makes him seem calculating and difficult to deal with.’

So, she snapped, "Believe it or not, it’s up to you. We are going to Azuregard City, no matter what. As for you all, you can follow us, but let me make one thing clear: if you come, you follow my commands."

Evan fell silent. He didn’t dare pin all his hopes on a young girl who was a complete stranger.

Just then, Cynthia Grant pulled Flora aside and whispered conspiratorially, "Are you sure you have a way through?"

Flora Bloom nodded. ’Thirty-odd zombies? Other than being a delivery service for Crystal Cores for me and my pets, they’re no challenge at all. The only real problem is that Second-level zombie.’

It was high noon, the time of day when sunlight had the strongest debilitating effect on the zombies. These people were too afraid to go, but Flora and her group had no time to waste on them.

"Mom, Dad, Mr. Wallace, Old Monroe, Caleb, let’s go."

Flora’s group of six already followed her lead, and since this was the only path to find Joel Bloom, they had no choice but to press on.

And so, at Flora’s command, the six of them started down the road without a single glance back.

When Evan saw that they were really leaving, after a long silence, he finally decided to take the gamble.

"Wait. We’ll go with you."

The moment Evan spoke, he was met with objections from Sienna Kensington and her two companions.

"Major Evan, you can’t gamble with our lives like this! Those things over there will kill us!"

"That’s right, Major Evan! We are special foreign guests from Korea. If anything happens to us, how will you answer to your superiors?"

Evan frowned as he listened to their garbled, broken Veridian. "My mission is to bring you back," he said impatiently. "My superiors never specified you had to be alive. If you don’t want to go, you can stay here."

Evan’s words made the three Koreans fly into a rage, and they began bombarding him with a torrent of complaints.

As expected of a major, Evan listened to their incessant chattering without so much as batting an eye and offered no reply. He simply ordered his men to follow him and catch up to Flora’s group.

The three Koreans grew anxious. ’This lowly Veridian soldier actually dares to be so disrespectful to us!’ they thought. ’Once we’re safe, we’ll make sure he pays for this.’

But for now, survival was the top priority. If they left this group, even with Sienna Kensington being a Second-level Superpower User, who knew what they might encounter? It would be incredibly difficult for the three of them to survive on their own.

So, the three of them hurried to follow.

"Captain, are we really going to trust that little girl? She looks even younger than Cynthia."

Charles Sawyer, the team’s vanguard, was an expert in front-line defense, close-quarters combat, and various melee weapons. He thought Flora looked too young to be reliable and couldn’t understand what had possessed the captain to trust her.

"Exactly, Captain. There are so many of us, and we couldn’t get through. How can you believe them? It’s just five adults and a child."

The speaker was Holly, a woman who had awakened a Water Ability. Back at the base, she had always been in logistics. After coming out on this mission, she had awakened her Water Ability by a stroke of luck and had been responsible for providing the team with water ever since.

"But I don’t think Flora was lying."

Cynthia Grant didn’t know Flora well, but the way Flora had shut down the three Koreans had won her over, and she’d instinctively taken a liking to her. Besides, her intuition told her that there was more to this girl than met the eye.

"Oh, please, Cynthia. How long have you even known her? Don’t be surprised if you get betrayed and thrown to the zombies without even knowing how you died."

Holly’s words were harsh, but the other two women on the team silently agreed.

Lily was the team’s scout, responsible for reconnoitering the area and identifying safe routes. Sandra was the sister of the vanguard, Charles Sawyer.

Meanwhile, the ever-silent Frederick Lyon continued walking without a word.

When Flora saw Evan’s group catch up, she suddenly stopped. Vert and the Golden Cicada had already briefed her on the situation in the strange forest ahead.

Flora turned to Evan, her expression serious.

"Since you’ve decided to come, you’ll follow my orders from here on out. Any problem with that?"

She glanced over at Sienna Kensington’s trio, who had also tagged along. The sheer force of her presence made even Evan, a professionally trained soldier, feel a sense of pressure.

He couldn’t figure this girl out.

Upon hearing this, Sienna’s two companions looked indignant and were about to say something, but she stopped them. Though Sienna herself was a Second-level Superpower User, she sensed a threat coming from Flora.

The sight of the three of them, fuming but too afraid to talk back, was incredibly satisfying for Cynthia Grant, and her opinion of Flora improved even more.

"Flora, the area I was talking about is just ahead," Cynthia said. "The road is completely blocked with cars, and the zombies are hiding among them. The strange forest to the side is even more dangerous. We’ve already lost a comrade in there—his body was completely mangled."

After walking another hundred meters, they finally saw the zombies hiding in the distance.

Flora looked and saw that, sure enough, hidden among the thirty-odd Level-one zombies was one with its limbs and face still perfectly intact. And it had spotted them.

For her group, now equipped with weapons enhanced by Caleb Bloom, thirty-odd zombies were no problem at all.

The only real problem was the Second-level zombie.

After assessing the situation, Flora turned to Evan.

"Captain, these thirty-something regular zombies shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?"

"That—That’s over thirty zombies! Do you think there are only three of them? If it’s so easy, why don’t you go deal with them yourself?"

"It’s not that I’m looking down on you," Holly shouted at Flora, "but it’s impossible for our team to hold off thirty-something zombies. The Koreans won’t lift a finger to help, which leaves just the seven of us. Even if we add your group—let’s be generous and count you as five people—that’s twelve of us against more than thirty zombies. You’re dreaming!"

Flora was taken aback.

’Did I overestimate these soldiers?’ she wondered. ’Thirty-odd slow-moving, Level-one zombies, and at high noon, no less. How could this many people not be able to handle them?’

Seeing the shocked expressions on Flora’s group, Evan looked a bit embarrassed and explained,

"You don’t understand. These zombies seem to be under the command of that Second-level one. Their attacks, retreats, and defenses are all well-organized. If we press the attack, they just fall back. There are only ten of us, and we have no idea what’s waiting beyond that pileup of cars, so we can’t risk charging in blindly." What he didn’t say was that the biggest reason they were afraid to advance was the Second-level zombie itself.

And he was right. Vert and the Golden Cicada had told her that in addition to the thirty-odd zombies in plain sight, there were at least thirty more hiding in the shadows behind the car pileup. They couldn’t detect anything beyond that.

As for what lay within the strange forest, Flora was curious but didn’t dare venture inside to find out. In the apocalypse, the scariest things weren’t just zombies, but all the other zombified and evolved creatures.

"Captain," Flora said, "how about this: you just need to keep these zombies busy for fifteen minutes. Leave the Second-level zombie to me. What do you say?"