Chapter 843: Rift

~Meeting ended.

Zhang Tie, with AnXia bouncing and jumping, went to look for his own sister.

As he said, he has no brain; Lin Dui tells him what to do and he does it.

After great difficulty the trial ended, he could no longer restrain his desire for beer and barbecue. As for whether he was dragged away by AnXia jumping or went voluntarily, that's unknown.

Gao Tian then went to the back mountain with Liang Shaoguang; according to him, he always felt that Liang Shaoguang's legends about the shady mountain gave him an inexplicable feeling.

The two wanted to search, to see if they could find any traces where the moon wolf fang was discovered.

As for Wen Ya and Jing Tian, they continued to handle base affairs anxiously.

In the brightly lit room, only Lin An, Mo Ling, and... remained.

Chu An.

Opposite them, Lin An helplessly glanced at the stubborn Mo Ling who refused to leave, then silently looked at Chu An.

There are some things, some matters, that he actually doesn't want everyone to know.

He said.

"What exactly do you want to do?"

The two made eye contact; Lin An spoke to break the silence, but the calm in his tone made Mo Ling beside him feel something odd.

Something feels off.

What else do they have to say?

Gazing at the tightly shut meeting room door, Mo Ling, lost in thought, moved closer and sat beside Lin An.

It's warm...

"Nothing."

The two seemed to be playing a riddle; Chu An gently lifted his glasses frame and slowly spoke:

"I need the B-rank permit you obtained."

Head lowered, Mo Ling, without changing expression, leaned in closer to Lin An by two points.

Smelling that familiar scent, and noticing that Lin An did not despise the mutant aura clinging to her, this made her feel a little better.

She was in too much of a hurry; during this time, to help the base repel the corpse tide, she simply had no time to change clothes.

Pricking up her ears, her little head couldn't help but wonder what was going on between the two, why she sensed a whiff of gunpowder.

Just now, hadn't we already settled the matter?

Moreover... Lin An also greatly agreed with Colonel Chu's perverted idea.

In the midst of thought.

A flash of white light, Lin An casually took out the permit and tossed it onto the table.

A golden ball of light overflowing with rule power instantly enveloped the entire meeting room in a strange hue.

Lin An lightly tapped the table with his fingertip, gazing at Colonel Chu's expressionless poker face, as if trying to see through his thoughts.

"You should know what I want to say."

"The rule permit can be given to you."

He paused a moment.

"But why are you luring me?"

"I admit the problems you mentioned earlier are serious, but that's from the perspective of the whole situation."

"I don't believe you, Chu An, could fail to think of the optimal solution, could fail to foresee the true consequences."

His thoughts raced.

Under hyper-effective thinking, Lin An clearly noticed that all of Colonel Chu's previous statements were mixing up concepts.

Exactly, the food crisis. If the meme spread isn't resolved, many will die.

Whether planting food or establishing an early-warning system, both seem utterly correct.

But that's the affair of the entire Huaxia war zone, of the military, of every individual!

Speaking selfishly, what right do Lin An and the Long'an Base have to bear all this alone?

Does the military lack a Third Rank, or is it that the entire war zone cannot find a single "Deng Xiang"?

Having taken first place in the trial, he has already won the best outcome for the entire Huaxia war zone.

Lin An did not hide anything, directly stating his thoughts:

"The food problem.."

"Planting spiritual-energy crops is correct, but the best short-term solution isn't to select who deserves to live?"

"I founded Long An not to raise a bunch of good-for-nothings. If I have to act like a nanny to feed them, what's the point of founding Long An?"

"The essence of the current problem is simply too many people."

"One, ten, a hundred, a thousand people... I have the ability, it's not that I can't save them."

"But that's tens of millions, hundreds of millions!"

"Putting aside other matters, once crops are planted, the Long'an Base will greatly reduce its spiritual-energy reserves and slow its upgrade progress."

"Once the news spreads, in a few months countless hungry survivors will swarm in, treating the Long'an Base as a lifeline straw!"

"Spiritual-energy crops can certainly be planted, and must be planted."

"But the problem is, Chu An hasn't mentioned any confidential contingency plan; even the so-called military satellite surveillance of gathered survivors, the implication is actually to promote it widely."

"Only by telling everyone that Long An has food will they need to worry about a sudden gathering, a huge influx of survivors rushing toward the Long'an Base!"

The atmosphere suddenly grew tense.

After hearing that, Mo Ling suddenly realized why Lin An had become so cold all of a sudden, and why he wanted a private talk with Colonel Chu the pervert.

It seems planting spiritual-energy plants is fine, but doing so would be tantamount to putting the Long'an Base over a fire to roast.

The news basically cannot be kept secret.

The food crisis will inevitably break out; by then, the starving crowd will be more terrifying than the zombie tide.

By then, Long An will not even be able to avoid "saving people".

Faced with Lin An's questioning, Colonel Chu gave no response at all.

He simply lowered his head like a machine, unknown what he was thinking.

He sighed.

Lin An looked at Chu An with a complex expression:

"You can imagine that."

"Once we cannot produce that much food, tens of millions of survivors will regard us as a blood-deep grudge; they will break through our defenses, grit their teeth, and hate us for not wanting to 'lend a hand.' Even if we are unable to."

"They will attract endless zombie tides, and among them will be mixed a large number of 'monsters'."

Word by word:

"You say, if we really reach that step..."

"Am I to kill... or not to kill?"

In the silence, Chu An raised his head, his expression unchanged:

"Believe me, that will not happen."

Those few words fell into Mo Ling's ears, yet carried a sense of helpless justification.

"Won't it?"

Lin An gave a light chuckle, his body slightly leaning back.

In his past life's memory, he had indeed known quite a few examples.

Even, he had personally seen a safe zone, after planting crops, kindly take in survivors and distribute food.

But in the end, more and more people swarmed in.

In the apocalypse, kindness is always taken as weakness.

After food could no longer supply everyone, the angry crowd destroyed the entire safe zone, eating everything in sight, even the seeds obtained at high prestige for the next planting, which were also devoured.

No one cared about the future; no one could remain rational.

Most people only cared whether they could survive today.

In the end, that safe zone dubbed 'hope' left only ruins and corpses strewn across the ground.

"Chu An, I have always told you: I never intended to save anyone."

"I am not that great, and I cannot do it."

"What I want to do is merely protect the people around me—nothing more."

Idly stroking Mo Ling's head, Lin An let out a soft sigh.

"I know..."

"You have been guiding me all along, right?"

There is no hostility or vigilance toward Chu An.

Lin An merely felt that between him and Chu An there had suddenly arisen a thin veil of misunderstanding, stemming from their ideas and identities.

"Just as you said, you are willing to join Long An and acknowledge me; it is because you, Chu An, think I might be hope, a spark."

"You believe everything is moving toward the better, so you want me to shoulder responsibility—to do what the Capital Military Region cannot or lacks the strength for."

"You have been subtly changing me all along."

"After all, you are ultimately a member of the Huaxia Military."

Leaning on the sofa, Lin An's eyes flashed a hint of fatigue under the bright lights; the conference table before him was like a knife, dividing the two.

Perhaps Chu An can really handle it.

Long'an Base can indeed feed the surrounding war zones and save many, many people...

The base develops extremely fast, and his own strength is unrivaled worldwide.

But Lin An has always been clear: the crisis has never been resolved.

Third Rank, what's that?

Apocalypse allows no mistake; a single misstep leads to an endless abyss.

Fierce fire cooks flowers.