Kindness!

Eric's aura was fierce, yet his gaze held a peculiar quality. He hadn't expected that the one who would bring help to his group would be a mere youth.

His eyes flickered, and he turned to Yol, asking, "Miss Nun, is this young brother the companion you spoke of?"

Yol held her guns with both hands, remaining silent for a moment. She merely tilted her head to look at Merlin. Seeing this, Eric offered a wry smile to Merlin.

"My name is Eric. As you can see, I'm leading these brothers here, fighting desperately against those scoundrels. Since they want our lives, we'll take theirs in return."

"My name is Merlin."

Merlin looked at the people before him. Their exposed skin bore white patches, large or small. All of them were middle-aged or young adults.

"Are you all that's left of your group?"

Hearing this, a deep hatred flickered in Eric's eyes. He gritted his teeth and cursed, "Almost everyone in this city has been slaughtered by those beasts."

Merlin lowered his eyelids. "What are your plans now? Are you going to stay here and fight them to the death, or find a chance to escape and seek revenge later?"

As soon as he spoke, the survivors erupted into a clamor, their words filled with profound despair.

"The border is sealed, and their weapons and equipment are superior to ours. Can we even escape?"

"We all have plumbism. We don't know if it can be cured outside. They all say it's an incurable infectious disease, and they won't let us out."

"Our remaining bullets are dwindling. We can't hold out much longer."

"We just want to kill one of them for each of ours lost. Killing more is a bonus."

"..."

Merlin remained silent. This group was like cornered beasts, filled with despair, like barrels of gunpowder.

However.

"If I have a way for us to escape this place, will you cooperate with us?"

Merlin said this to Eric.

Eric chuckled at the words, his expression calming, and his tone flat. "Escape?"

"Alright, even if we can escape, given the current situation, even if we get out, with plumbism rumored to be an incurable infectious disease, how will we survive outside? Frevanz is surrounded by the very countries that are hunting us now?"

As Eric finished speaking, the survivors became agitated and noisy again.

Eric's eyes held a mocking glint. Merlin could tell it wasn't directed at him. He clenched his right hand behind his back, then looked up at Eric.

"I can cure it."

Eric's expression froze, and he fell silent. After a few seconds, he suddenly stepped forward, his eyes wide with disbelief as he looked at Merlin.

But at the same time, Merlin took a step back, raising his right hand in front of him. With his left hand, he pulled the pin of a grenade and said calmly, "Step back!"

Seeing this, Eric's eye twitched violently. He looked at Merlin, wanting to say something but stopping himself, and retreated. Yet, his eyes were filled with intense longing.

"Can it really be cured?"

Merlin didn't trust these people. Having experienced the slaughter of loved ones and friends, and with his own life constantly threatened, it was understandable that their minds might become unstable. Merlin looked at him.

"Yes!"

Without giving him a chance to speak, Merlin raised the grenade in his right hand and bit down on the pin.

"Give me your hand."

As he spoke, black flames rose from his left hand and extended outward. Eric, feeling an ominous sensation from the black flames, hesitated for a moment. Then, gritting his teeth, he reached out and grasped Merlin's hand.

The next moment, a black halo spread around him. Merlin sensed the familiar calamity of plumbism within him.

After several tens of seconds.

Merlin released his hand. The white patch on his left index finger became even paler.

Eric, stunned, extended his hands. He looked at the white patches on his arms, which had vanished. The pain he had felt since the white patches appeared was also gone.

He instinctively understood one thing: his plumbism was gone.

He looked at Merlin with excitement, his lips trembling. "My plumbism is really cured."

Instantly, everyone present became excited, looking at Merlin with fervent eyes.

"Young brother, please help me too!"

"Me too, me too! I don't want to die! Wuwuwu..."

"Brother, I, I, I..."

Beside them, Yol looked at Merlin with complex emotions.

At the same time, Eric looked at Merlin with anticipation, wanting his brothers to be healed as well.

But at this moment, Merlin raised his left index finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. They all understood the gesture, and immediately, they all quieted down. Merlin spoke:

"I ate a Devil Fruit. The Transfer-Transfer Fruit.

I can transfer negative statuses from others onto myself.

Look, has my index finger become whiter?"

Merlin looked at their expectant gazes and said:

"Of course, since I can transfer others' negative statuses to myself, I can naturally transfer this negative status of mine onto others.

However, currently, my ability can only transfer four portions. And now, including Eric, I am already carrying the negative status of plumbism for four people."

"The hope of survival, I give it to you. So, do you want to escape here with us?"

"I have a plan. If you all participate, our chances of surviving and escaping here will become much greater."

"The executioners from the neighboring countries killed our friends and family. I can transfer the plumbism I transferred from you onto them. What do you think?"

As his words fell...

Sharing a common enemy.

The eyes of everyone present lit up, and they all grinned sinisterly.

"Heh heh, that's exactly how it should be done."

"Don't they think plumbism is contagious? Then let them all contract this plumbism."

"That's right, brother Merlin, quickly tell us your plan. We will definitely listen to your every command."

Merlin heard their words and then looked at the leader of this group, Eric. Eric nodded heavily at Merlin:

"Brother Merlin, you are our savior. Tell us what to do, and we will do it."

Hearing this, Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. Misleading them by calling it disaster when it was transfer was also a way to conceal his ability.

Merlin didn't trust them, and this was the only way to make them obey.

By healing their leader, Eric, he showed them a glimmer of hope, and then used a common goal to win them over.

This way, before they escaped, they would follow his orders.

Next, Merlin explained his plan of feinting in the east while attacking in the west, and fighting to sustain the fight.

However, he only withheld the final breakout point from the back mountain.

He kept a card up his sleeve; there would only be one chance.

He couldn't reveal his entire plan to these strangers.

After listening, Thought flickered in Eric's eyes. He guessed that Merlin had hidden something in his words, but he had to admit that Merlin's plan was excellent.

At this moment, he asked, "So, will we be acting together from now on?"

Merlin shook his head. "The hospital ruins, the Church, and the city center fountain.

These three locations will be our rendezvous points. Every morning at nine, we go to the hospital ruins. In the afternoon at three, the Church. And at nine in the evening, the fountain. We will meet at these times and places.

When the time is right, I will lead you all to break through at a single point.

During this period, we will act separately. Our goal is to gather survivors and engage in street warfare with the executioners here to seize their superior weapons and equipment."

As he spoke, Merlin pointed to the surrounding soldier corpses and said:

"I'm taking the grenades. I'll leave the bullets and ammunition for you all."

Eric nodded seriously. "Okay, we'll all listen to you."

As he spoke, a strong light of hope already appeared in his eyes. Since they could live, who would want to die?

After parting ways with them.

The three walked down an alley. Yol looked at Merlin as if she had something to say but hesitated. Merlin saw this and said to her:

"Is there something you want to ask?"

Thinking about what Merlin had just said about transferring negative statuses onto himself, Yol's eyes showed some unease:

"Is what you told them about your Devil Fruit ability true? That it's transfer?"

Her gaze involuntarily shifted to the differences between Merlin's left thumb, index finger, and middle finger, and his other fingers.

Walking quickly, Merlin said calmly, "I don't trust them. That was all a lie to them."

Yol couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and then felt joy in her heart. Merlin was saying that he trusted her. But then she asked curiously:

"It was all a lie?"

"My ability was a lie to them. I only withheld the final step of my plan. The rest is true."

Yol looked at Merlin with bright eyes. "I knew you were very kind.

You're not as useless as you say you are. You are kinder than I am."

Hearing this, Merlin's lips twitched, and he gave her a helpless, sidelong glance.

"Can't it be that finding them as cannon fodder, giving them hope, and escaping with them will make us a little safer?

I'm not kind; I'm just using them and they're using me for mutual benefit.

If I were truly kind, I would have healed them all just now.

At most, it's hypocrisy."

Hearing this, Yol, who was following beside Merlin, remained unfazed.

"No matter what happens in the future, you are the one who gave them hope to live right now.

Isn't that kindness?

Hypocrisy is still a form of kindness."