"Give me a reason."
"I feel like I could be of some help. Consider it compensation for my past behavior."
The armored man spoke in a low voice.
He couldn't exactly tell the other man that he'd been starving since yesterday and wanted some meat, could he?
That would be so embarrassing.
Of course, what he'd said wasn't entirely false. He'd been working hard to help, so he deserved some preferential treatment, didn't he?
[Based on your judgment of his words, you think what he said was more or less in line with what he was thinking, but he was hiding some of his thoughts.]
[However, those thoughts are unimportant.]
"What's your name?"
Colin rubbed his chin and asked, "And tell me what you're planning to do. Let me see if you can actually be of any help."
"Li Hang. If my guess is right, you have some way of seeing through the fog. Otherwise, you wouldn't have sent them out, and you wouldn't have blocked our path so coincidentally."
Li Hang briefly explained his thoughts in a quiet voice.
In the end, Colin nodded and agreed to let him join the second group. He also told them they could follow Li Hang's advice.
"I'll wait here. I hope you can give me a satisfactory report."
Before long, the group of over a hundred people hurried off in the direction Colin had pointed out.
If all went as expected, they'd run into the Survivors who had come sniffing around his mine in about five minutes.
Once they were gone, Colin quickly put away the table and the other things. He planned to follow them in secret.
"Weren't you going to train them to handle problems on their own?"
Shana looked surprised. The church had this kind of trial, too. She'd thought Colin really wasn't going to get involved.
As he packed away the things he'd just taken out, Colin replied unconcernedly, "I was joking. They're my men. I'd hate to see even one of them get hurt, let alone killed.
"I want them to gain experience, not die."
In the fog, four lights moved through the gloom, with shadowy figures beneath their glow.
"Brother Huang, do you have any porn? Bah, I mean, Brother Huang, are you really sure about this? There are piles of Aberration corpses along this road. They seem pretty strong."
The owner of one of the lamps spoke up. There was blood on his clothes; they'd encountered several Aberrations on the way here.
Huang Weiyang walked on, lost in thought. "They're just ordinary Aberrations. A few hard swings will kill them. At worst, you'll get hurt.
"So whoever killed them can't be all that strong.
"There aren't that many Colins in this world.
"If I'm right, that person only just made Black Powder. He's got four or five people at most.
"The first explosion was loud enough to carry a long way, so it must've been quite powerful. That means there must be plenty of raw materials, probably an entire mining area. That's why he's been so wasteful.
"Unfortunately, he's too green to know how to keep a low profile or think things through. Plenty of people in the channel were planning to come here. The few smaller explosions we just heard mean they've already clashed.
"Not even fifteen minutes have passed. They're probably still fighting, so now's the perfect time to go!"
"Brother Huang makes a good point," another Survivor said, agreeing with his reasoning.
A mine as big as the Niter Mine ought to be shared!
This time, they followed a trail of footprints for only a short while before a bright lamp suddenly appeared ahead.
The four of them started and quickly huddled closer together.
Seventeen people. They didn't seem to be hiding themselves, but why were their lamps so bright?
Huang Weiyang and the others exchanged glances and held their ground.
Their reasoning was simple: there were nineteen of them, while the other side had seventeen. They were evenly matched, maybe even had the advantage. Why would they retreat?
Just as he was about to speak, the Survivor up ahead walked over. As the lights met, they couldn't help but freeze again.
Why were the other side's lamps so bright?
"Are you here for the Niter Mine?"
Number Two asked in a low voice, without the slightest fear of these lords.
After all, they'd just dealt with nine of them not long ago.
Other than Colin, they wouldn't fear any of these people again.
How arrogant! Huang Weiyang glared at Li Han, who stood beside the Servant. So what if their lamps were brighter?
He couldn't be bothered to answer. They could always fight.
What the hell does that have to do with me? They're not my men. Feeling Huang Weiyang's displeased gaze, Li Hang grumbled inwardly.
Then he said, "Why are you looking at me?
"I'd advise you to cooperate. Otherwise, things will end very badly for you."
He glanced to either side, then suddenly grinned.
"I'm waiting for the ambush. What are you waiting for?"
Li Hang remembered what Colin had said when he'd blown him up earlier, and couldn't resist borrowing the line.
"Hah." Huang Weiyang scoffed. "I thought you had some kind of trick. Turns out you just have more people. What does it matter if a useless guy like you has twice as many?
"I'll show you soon enough that numbers aren't everything!"
He'd dared to come here because he had confidence in himself.
But just as he finished speaking, a lamp suddenly lit up nearby without warning.
Sixteen people.
Huang Weiyang frowned, but so what?
The next second, another Hurricane Lamp appeared.
Then another.
32, 48, 64, 80
A total of nine dazzling Hurricane Lamps lit up around them!
There was nowhere left to run!
Huang Weiyang went numb. The hand gripping his axe was trembling.
There were a full 145 people, every one of them holding an axe and staring at him.
Huang Weiyang didn't move a muscle. He barely dared to breathe, afraid that one wrong move would make them charge in and kill him.
"Are you sure you want to resist?"
Number Two glared at him.
"I was joking, I was joking! I'm a man who believes in peace, too. I don't like using force."
"But you said your lord—"
Huang Weiyang glanced at Li Hang in confusion. He wanted to ask, Isn't your lord right here?
But he couldn't. That would be the finishing blow.
They'd be finished.
"What are you looking at? He's not our lord!"
Number Two barked at him.
Li Hang shrugged along with him. "Don't look at me. If I were you, I'd cooperate and behave. The nine of us just got flattened by our boss. You four think you can turn the tables? That's hilarious."
A lot of people knew this, but overlooked it: the light from Hurricane Lamps could be hidden.
It was simple: just have your subordinates surround them. That wouldn't interfere with the Gray Fog's effects.
But this was like being blind to what was right under your nose. Most people had seen it, but hadn't realized it could be put to use.
Colin had given Li Hang a chance because, after interacting with him, he'd realized the man was indeed observant.
It was something Colin himself hadn't even noticed.
After all, the main enemy of Survivors right now was the Aberrations, not other Survivors.
Li Hang had used this trick, together with the "wallhack" Colin had provided, to have nine teams surround them and cut off their escape route.
Before you continue