Chapter 417: Beyond the Unexpected

Chu An's words just fell.

Suddenly, Lin An fixed him with an icy stare.

The atmosphere grew heavy.

The faces of everyone at the meeting stiffened.

Exactly, they had thought of this, but no one dared to mention it.

Not only would they not want to do such a thing, even if they did, Lin An would simply kill whoever suggested it first.

Only Chu An would dare say that.

Upon hearing this, Mo Ling trembled all over and clenched Lin An's small hand tightly.

Kill myself...?

That is indeed the simplest solution.

As long as I die, there naturally would be no possibility of destroying the core.

Lin An shot to his feet, his icy gaze vetoing Colonel Chu:

"Give up this idea!"

"Don't say I wouldn't agree to just kill Mo Ling! Even if you killed her, have you forgotten Mo Ling is an Undead Body?!"

"Once Mo Ling dies and becomes an Undead Monarch, who could stand against us?"

"By then, not only will Long'an Base be destroyed, but all of Linjiang and even the entire Huanjiang Three Provinces will fall!"

Chu An seemed oblivious to Lin An's anger, merely shaking his head slightly:

"Just use the Ghost Infant Transfer Formation to toss Mo Ling far away, then kill her."

"As long as she dies far enough away, even if she becomes an Undead Monarch, she poses no threat to us."

Finally, he looked at Lin An's clenched fists and calmly added:

"Throw her beyond the Huanjiang Three Provinces."

"An Undead Monarch... will not threaten us at least in the short term."

"Moreover, we can take the opportunity to destroy other nearby forces that threaten us, buying us time to develop."

"Long'an Base has a Doomsday Base Vehicle; give us enough time to advance our spirit-energy technology..."

"Whoosh!"

Lin An suddenly burst with killing intent, instantly appearing before Chu An and seizing his throat:

"I said..."

"Give up this idea!"

"If you dare kill Mo Ling, I'll kill you first!"

Compared to Chu An, Mo Ling, Jing Tian, Wen Ya, Zhang Tie and the others are the partners he truly trusts.

Xiong Hanzi is already dead, even if there were a chance to revive him.

But during this time, whenever he thinks back, Lin An always recalls Zhang Tie's final moments before death.

How similar they are.

Xiong Hanzi dying outside the Black Tower is just like how I once died outside the Safe House.

Both were devoured alive by zombies, both involving three people.

The difference is that Tang Wan inside the house deliberately watched me die, while he and Gao Tian were powerless to stop it.

In this world, Lin An truly has nothing worth caring about.

Even if others suffer hundreds of thousands of casualties, Lin An wouldn't even frown.

But his companions are different; without any one of them, Lin An could not have made it to today.

"You're still..."

"... so irrational."

Chu An, his throat gripped, managed to utter a few words, his face flushed red.

"Lin An!"

"Team Leader Lin!"

Gao Tian and Wen Ya, seeing this, instinctively tried to stop him, urging him not to act rashly.

In the standoff, Lin An forcibly suppressed his anger before slowly releasing his grip.

"Thud"

From being held high, he fell to the ground.

Chu An, expressionless, pushed himself up with his hands, then staggered to his feet.

He calmly adjusted his glasses, then sat back down in his chair.

"Since you disagree, we'll change our plan."

Lin An waved his hand to indicate he was fine, his eyes icy.

"Speak."

It's not irrational.

In fact, it's also due to overly suppressed emotions.

Chu An never considers emotions in his actions, always following absolute reason and the optimal solution.

Just like Zhang Tie's death.

To avoid risk, he essentially deceived everyone.

After a brief pause, Colonel Chu spoke:

"First, seal Mo Ling. Confine her."

As long as we beat her to a critically injured, dying state, theoretically we can prevent the incident from happening.

Of course, this method is also theoretically feasible.

We actually aren't sure how Mo Ling managed to destroy the spirit-energy core.

There are two risks.

1. Without Mo Ling's combat power, the difficulty of the corpse tide will increase. Moreover, if the serious injury and control aren't properly handled, her physique is very fragile.

Therefore, there is a small probability that she will transform into an Undead Lord.

After all, an Undead Body is essentially a half-alive, half-dead existence.

Lin An frowned after hearing that, then spoke up:

The next plan.

We can trap her, but beating Mo Ling to a critically injured state is pointless.

Perhaps it's precisely because we did this that Mo Ling was taken advantage of by hidden enemies.

They hardly considered the possibility.

Lin An hasn't forgotten the scene from Yun Lin's first precognition, in which he wondered why he himself turned into a "demon".

If it weren't to retrieve Zhang Tie's arm, he would never have risked letting the black dragon sleep and would have used the Causal Sequence to strike forcefully.

The cost was so great that even now there remain hidden dangers.

The black dragon had painstakingly accumulated its matured energy, but it was almost exhausted in that strike.

Even the Fearful Body was forced to be used to repair his body, resisting the Causal Sequence's drain on life.

Therefore, they simply cannot determine whether other actions taken against Mo Ling caused the incident.

That's the annoying part about foreseeing the future.

You really don't know whether your actions were already predetermined or not.

Upon hearing Lin An veto this plan, Colonel Chu showed no particular emotion.

Actually, he didn't favor this plan either.

After a brief pause, he proposed the second plan:

Then the final method is quite simple.

It's also the most foolish..

As long as you keep guarding the spirit-energy core, that's enough.

The spirit-energy core is on the second underground level, which is the core area of the fortress.

As long as you don't join the city defense and guard the fortress entrance, you will naturally prevent everything from happening.

As the base's strongest combatant, if even you can't stop it, then no one can.

Lin An hesitated after hearing that.

It really is the most foolish method.

No matter what happens, as long as I'm on the scene, I can naturally stop it.

Even if the most extreme situation occurs..

Mo Ling was controlled by some means and broke through others' defenses.

Facing me, it's probably also unlikely to break through my blockade.

Just..

"If I don't participate in the city defense, the base will struggle to resist the corpse tide."

Lin An let out a sigh and countered toward Chu An.

Without him, the base has no chance of holding out.

Unexpectedly, Colonel Chu shook his head and glanced at the distant wall:

"If you're not here, we really can't maintain the defense line."

"But we can buy time."

"First, the time when Mo Ling destroys the core doesn't necessarily coincide with the corpse tide's attack."

"If it's the second wave of the corpse tide, we might be able to drag it out until you solve the problem."

"Second, even if they overlap, we can retreat to the core fortress to defend, abandoning the outer line."

"After all, the mission requires us to guard the spirit-energy core and the Safe Zone's outskirts; losing them is just losing them."

"Destroyed buildings can be rebuilt quickly; if we retreat properly, there might not even be major casualties."

"Just..."

Chu An glanced at him and added:

"If we really do that, an accident is very likely to occur when we withdraw to the core fortress."

"When mutants attack and personnel are in chaos, accidents are most likely to happen."

Lin An listened and pondered for a moment.

He looked at the silent little Mo Ling beside him and secretly sighed.

"Let's choose the second plan."

"Other options have too many variables; I'd rather keep the initiative in my own hands."

After settling on the response, Lin An looked at the somewhat uneasy crowd and could only force a bitter smile:

"Don't think it's that bad."

"As long as it's a mission, there will be a way out."

"The future isn't necessarily unchangeable..."

"Perhaps we'll resolve things smoothly, and even the corpse tide might attack only after we've settled it."

The voice regained confidence.

Lin An took a deep breath, his eyes firm:

"We've overcome so many crises before; I believe this time will be the same!"

"As long as we get through the city defense mission, things will only get better from now on!"

"As for the city defense pressure..

Lin An looked earnestly at everyone present:

"Hold on, as long as we hold out until the day after tomorrow midnight, once the problem is resolved, nothing will be a problem!"

If not for Mo Ling's mishap, he originally wouldn't have worried about this city defense mission at all.

With Soul Shriek and Blood Abyss in hand, after continuously strengthening his strength, he is far beyond his former self who still worried about mutants!

As the greatest trial since his rebirth, Lin An has imagined it countless times in his subconscious.

The most important thing is that the Savior System has shown no abnormality.

Although relying on external forces is irrational, since his rebirth Lin An has always felt that the Savior System seems to be watching him.

Even the Amoeba Worm Dungeon, the system dares to go head-to-head with the Doomsday System..

In order to seize a sliver of hope, he forcibly 'stole' a key from the Doomsday System.

That makes no sense; there's no reason for it to show no abnormality at all in this incident!

As long as he completes this mission, his strength will undergo a qualitative leap!

If his former self was like a struggling fish in a puddle, then after completing the mission he will be like a dragon that has just emerged into the world.

The base is on the right track, having obtained Cain's Blade to make up for his strength, and he no longer needs to hide the base's existence due to mission pressure.

Then.

All the problems binding him will be resolved!

After the meeting, everyone waited with different thoughts for the next wave of corpse tide attacks.

On the high tower, after Chu An rearranged the defenses, he turned and calmly looked at Lin An standing at the fortress entrance behind him.

In the darkness, Lin An standing still was like a silent sculpture.

With his full attention, any abnormality near the fortress could not escape Lin An's mental perception.

But after looking at Lin An for a while, he suddenly let out a sigh.

His gaze was complex.

He knew Lin An was right.

The system mission must have a sliver of hope.

But if..

If, the scene of foreseeing the future..

Isn't it the city defense mission?