What did I do wrong to make you disrespect me so much?

Clang!

The sound of a metal sword hitting the ground suddenly rang out.

"I surrender."

The man wearing metal armor on his upper body dropped his sword decisively, raised his hands high, and faced Colin.

The gap between the two sides was not just a small margin; it looked like they had the numbers and held the "crushing" advantage.

As a result, less than a few minutes into the fight, half of their men were already gone.

That "mage" had even had his head blown apart on the spot, dead as could be.

They had suffered such heavy losses, while the other side had, at most, only a few servants with minor injuries.

This battle was impossible to win.

Following his surrender, the others also responded, dropping their weapons one after another, terrified that if they held onto them for even a second longer, Colin would kill them as enemies.

Moreover, seeing Shana's performance, they also gave up on the idea of running away.

There was simply no escaping her.

"I thought you guys would be a bit tougher."

Colin smiled. After Shana had charged out, the "battle" on their side had slowed down.

After all, Shana's fighting style was far too violent and eye-catching; given the overall progress of the survivors, almost no one was her match.

To stand against her, only someone summoned via a "Special Talent Recruitment Card" could possibly do it.

Unfortunately, they didn't have one.

Collecting his thoughts, Colin's gaze turned colder. He walked over carrying his lantern and said in a deep voice, "Subdue them."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Hearing this, Number Two immediately led his men to charge forward, subduing all four of the remaining lords who were still standing.

Under Colin's arrangement, regardless of gender, their hands were forced behind their backs, with knees pressed firmly against their spines and necks.

With their lungs compressed and their oxygen intake restricted, they couldn't muster the strength to resist any further.

This technique was something Colin had learned from the Lighthouse Nation; it worked perfectly on them.

Of course, compared to that more "liberal" method, Colin still let them breathe.

"Be quick. Hand over the servants to me, then open your backpacks and let me see."

Colin walked over slowly and spoke without a hint of politeness.

"Isn't this going too far? We've already surrendered. I can offer you compensation. Besides, we haven't harmed your interests in the slightest, we didn't even find your mine, and I wasn't the one who advocated for this course of action."

Hearing this, one of the women immediately raised her head, trying her best to distance herself from the responsibility.

In her mind, she hadn't done anything; she wasn't the one who said those things, she wasn't the ringleader, and she had surrendered without resisting. A bit of compensation should be enough, or at most, she'd be detained for a while.

However, the other party's words clearly meant he intended to take everything she owned.

Even one of the most important things for a lord: the "Parchment"!

This was unacceptable!

Hearing this, Colin narrowed his eyes. He didn't interrupt her, but an uncontrollable surge of irritability and violence welled up in his mind.

It was one thing for these guys to find him and want a share of the Niter Mine, but they had even wanted to kill him to divide up his spoils.

If he hadn't been strong enough to defeat them, all of this likely would have happened!

Colin didn't speak. He raised the axe in his hand and struck with the flat side, hitting her so hard she became dizzy and blood began to stream down her face.

"Do you feel like you've been wronged?"

Colin squatted down, grabbed her hair to pull her up, and looked at her face, half-stained with blood, as he said with a completely emotionless tone:

"I understand. You feel that although you participated in the operation, you didn't contribute much, so you think you bear no responsibility.

"But in my eyes, since you didn't try to stop it, you can't be called innocent. Furthermore, you participated personally; you weren't even just a bystander. If Miss Shana had been a little weaker, or if we hadn't blocked your attack, I probably wouldn't even have the chance to surrender and kneel on the ground right now. You would just be standing over my corpse, 'sharing' my loot while mocking me for overestimating my own strength.

"As it happens, you lost, and now you're telling me: friend, even though I just wanted to kill your family, rob your property, and take everything you have, I actually didn't have any malicious intent.

"Lady, what exactly did I do wrong to make you disrespect me so much?"

The woman opened her mouth, but she felt the cold chill in Colin's eyes. In the end, she said nothing and released all her permissions.

Her intuition told her that this man, who didn't look like a pushover, would not give her another chance to bargain.

Compared to the things in her backpack, her life was more important!

Before long, Colin had taken everything they had, including the fifteen servants belonging to these five people.

This time, his team had suddenly expanded to twenty-nine people!

Most importantly, he had obtained four Hurricane Lamps, a Synthesis Table, and the Parchments from the others!

With these items, Colin would soon be able to organize a full platoon.

This haul was, in the truest sense, a massive windfall!

As for those four people, the reason Colin neither killed nor released them was simple: every survivor was, in a sense, a mobile, humanoid warehouse.

Colin would give them a chance at redemption, an opportunity to continue contributing to humanity and shining bright.

For instance, by going to mine.

With humans transported to a place like this and order collapsed, Colin had already resolved to contribute to the restoration of human glory.

To that end, requisitioning a few special talents was not excessive, right?

I am just so kind today.

Colin muttered to himself, briefly checking the few Parchment scrolls in his backpack, when he suddenly remembered the headless corpse in the dense forest.

So, where did her Parchment and Synthesis Table go?

Without dwelling on it, Colin walked toward the guy lying on the ground; this fellow could be considered the unluckiest, having stepped directly onto a powder keg and had a leg blown off.

"Don't, don't kill me, big brother. It was me, Mawen, who didn't know any better just now and offended you. Please don't mind it. All my things are yours, my life is yours too, I am willing to serve you!"

Seeing Colin walking slowly toward him and looking at this large group of people, he was instantly scared out of his wits. His subordinates had just been casually taken down by Shana and couldn't help them at all right now.

Even if they hadn't been taken down, they wouldn't have been able to help anyway.

"Very sensible."

Colin praised with a smile, "If everyone were like you, I wouldn't have had to lose my temper just now."

"Yes, yes, those blind things actually dared to provoke you. Big brother, you are..."

He suddenly saw that after Colin took all his belongings and had people drag away the servants that once belonged to him, he didn't seem to have any intention of taking him along.

"Bi-big brother, what are you doing?"

Since the other party was greeting him with a smiling face, Colin naturally wouldn't make things difficult for him, and he wore his usual gentle smile as he said:

"Let's see if you'll die in the Gray Fog."