Old Tan, You'll Regret This!

A shadow flickered across Tan Jie's eyes. As the commander of the East District, he was like an ant in the eyes of a behemoth like Dawn City. If war came, Gray Soil Town would be no different from cannon fodder.

King Snake continued, "Have you ever considered that the Hyena Pack's sudden appearance might be connected to Dawn City?"

"Oh? How so?"

"Deputy Commander Bai has arrived!" A loud voice rang through the Tire Tavern.

Dozens of eyes turned toward the entrance in unison. Bai Ye, looking weak, slowly walked in with the support of one of the underlings.

The underling supporting him flushed red and whispered, "Deputy Commander Bai, I shouted exactly as you instructed. Don't forget to reward me with a piece of meat later."

Feeling the attention of the entire tavern, Bai Ye patted the underling's shoulder in satisfaction. "Don't worry. I've already forgotten."

"Huh!?"

"Deputy Commander Bai, you're finally here. How are you? Are you all right?" Tan Jie approached with a broad smile and personally helped Bai Ye to his seat.

"Do I look all right to you?" Bai Ye glared at Tan Jie in displeasure.

Tan Jie was not angered. Ever since accepting the fact that Bai Ye was insane, his mindset had become surprisingly good.

Let alone being cursed at by Bai Ye, he had not even gotten angry after being slapped more than a dozen times before.

"Sit down, sit down."

Bai Ye sat directly between Tan Jie and King Snake, looking every bit like the boss.

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and bring the wine and meat!"

Before long, the wine and meat were served. The roasted meat was blackened, prepared without any culinary skill and relying entirely on the most primitive ingredients.

Yet Bai Ye ate with great relish. It could not be helped—this body had barely eaten a full meal in its life.

"Eat slowly. Don't choke." Tan Jie smiled as he poured him wine. Watching Bai Ye eat meat no longer pained him; he practically wished Bai Ye would eat more to replenish his blood and vitality.

This kid really fought like his life depended on it!

Bai Ye chewed on the meat and said indistinctly, "What were you two talking about just now? Were you secretly badmouthing me behind my back?"

"How could that be? You're our great hero. We couldn't praise you enough."

"We were just discussing the Hyena Pack." King Snake picked up the conversation. "They appeared so suddenly that I suspect it has something to do with Dawn City's recent movements."

"Oh?" Bai Ye raised an eyebrow. "Tell me more."

Naturally, he had heard of Dawn City. More accurately, almost no one in all of Gray Soil Town had not heard of it. It was a holy land in the hearts of Gray Soil Town's residents.

Legend had it that everyone there had food to eat and schools to attend, and even clean water to bathe in every day. The women were all exceptionally beautiful, with delicate, fair skin unlike wastelanders, whose skin was rough from constant exposure to the wind and sun.

"It's like this." King Snake gathered his thoughts before speaking slowly. "Recently, Dawn City has frequently dispatched its army and slave-catching teams to plunder the populations of major settlements on a massive scale. It seems they are preparing for war."

Bai Ye nodded. Dawn City was not the only major city in this wasteland. A century had passed since the Great Cataclysm. Over those hundred years, humanity had recuperated and multiplied, and major cities had risen one after another across the wasteland. The great powers competed against one another, with warlords dividing the land.

"What does that have to do with the Hyena Pack?"

"As far as I know, the Hyena Pack originally occupied the area near Black Mountain. Though they mutated into aberrant beasts, their animal instincts remained. They were territorial and would not normally leave Black Mountain.

"Now that they have suddenly appeared in Gray Soil Town, I guessed something must have happened at Black Mountain. When I went to Dawn City to trade for supplies before, I happened to hear people from Dawn City talking about how the Dawn Army had repeatedly entered Black Mountain. So I think Dawn City wants to occupy Black Mountain's strategic terrain in preparation for war," King Snake explained.

"Does it necessarily mean they're going to war? Maybe Dawn City is trying to clear out the aberrant beasts on Black Mountain?"

Tan Jie sneered. "Deputy Commander Bai, you think too highly of Dawn City. You've never been there, so you don't know what those people are like. Compared to wastelanders who live by the blade, the people in the city are the ones who truly devour others without spitting out the bones.

"Those bigshots will never do anything without profit. If the major powers had united to deal with the aberrant beasts, those damned monsters would have gone extinct long ago.

"Precisely because they are constantly fighting among themselves, no one is willing to waste troops clearing aberrant beasts beyond their own territory.

"Some powers even deliberately keep aberrant beasts around, using them as buffer zones between themselves and other factions."

Bai Ye smiled faintly. Very good. It fits my stereotype of humanity perfectly.

"Enough of this." King Snake changed the subject. "These are matters for the bigshots. We can't do anything about them. The urgent matter is dealing with the Hyena Pack first.

"Deputy Commander Bai, can you continue fighting tomorrow?"

"Yes! I absolutely can!" Bai Ye had been impatient for it for a long time.

"No, no, no..." Tan Jie hurriedly stopped him. "You expended too much today. You should rest another day. Gray Soil Town's food can still last for a few days, so there's no need to rush."

He was genuinely afraid Bai Ye would die halfway through the battle. Who would shoot the Hyena King then?

Couldn't he see that Bai Ye needed someone to support him just to walk now?

"Old Tan!" Bai Ye slammed the table, his voice loud enough to drown out the tavern's noise.

Everyone in the tavern stopped what they were doing and looked toward the three commanders. The atmosphere abruptly fell silent.

Seeing that familiar posture, Tan Jie immediately felt a headache coming on. "Deputy Commander Bai, you..."

"What about me! As the old saying goes, one burst of effort, then decline..."

"Stop, stop. You have too many old sayings. I can't argue with you, but don't forget that I'm the commander! You must rest tomorrow!" Tan Jie said firmly.

Bai Ye stared at Tan Jie and said, word by word, "Old Tan, you'll regret this!"

With that, he picked up the wine and meat and turned to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey! You there, hurry up and support Deputy Commander Bai!"

Night fell.

Bai Ye lay comfortably on his bed, but his mind kept replaying today's conversation with Tan Jie and King Snake.

War was coming!

A sense of crisis immediately arose. War was not a dinner party—it involved real guns and live ammunition!

He could stop time, but the question was whether he would have time to do so.

Bullets traveled faster than his thoughts. If war truly broke out and tens of thousands of soldiers opened fire, even one minute would not be enough for him to run off the battlefield.

Besides bullets, there were cannons, sniper rifles, tanks...

In the chaos of battle, he could not keep time stopped forever. He did not have enough time for that.

Gray Soil Town nominally fell under Dawn City's sphere of influence. Once war began, would people from the other factions spare Gray Soil Town?

What if, one day while he was sleeping, several shells suddenly fell from the sky? Before he could even stop time, he would be dead. Who could he reason with then?

Even if he remained vigilant at all times and assumed he was perceptive enough to detect every attack in advance, using time stop to evade them, how many times could he evade? He could not waste all his time on that, could he?

Damn it, no! The wasteland was far too dangerous. He had to find a safe place so he could accumulate time more effectively!

With that thought, Bai Ye began to consider Dawn City. If he could enter Dawn City, it would at least be much safer than the wasteland. Even if war broke out, and even if Dawn City lost, the city's civilians would be the last to suffer.

When that time came, he could flee in advance instead of living in constant fear on the wasteland as he did now—facing aberrant beasts today, guns and cannons tomorrow, and food shortages the day after.