Chapter 133
Chapter 133: Fate? I refuse!
Jiang Nan looked at Han Fei.
The middle-aged woman with half-white hair was staring at him nervously.
In those eyes.
There was anticipation.
There was anxiety.
And a trace of pleading that was difficult to detect.
Jiang Nan withdrew his gaze and looked at Ye Yilin on the sofa.
The twin-tailed girl had her eyes tightly shut, her brow furrowed slightly.
Han Fei noticed Jiang Nan's gaze and immediately stepped forward.
"Mr. Jiang."
Her voice was soft, but firm.
"Please take us in, mother and daughter."
"I know food is precious—I can eat less."
"When fighting, I can stand at the front."
"I only ask that you..."
She paused, taking a deep breath.
"I only ask that you take in Yi Lin."
"Anything will do."
"Oh?"
Jiang Nan narrowed his eyes and glanced at Ye Yilin again.
‘She really is a beauty in the making.’
‘That twin-tailed hair, those delicate features—once her injuries healed, she'd be an absolute little beauty.’
‘But...’
He hadn't become so desperate that he needed to play the Stud Dragon.
Ordinary people like this couldn't take it.
Jiang Nan withdrew his gaze, his face expressionless.
Han Fei saw that disappointed look on his face and felt her heart sink.
‘It's over.’
‘That expression...’
‘He isn't some kind of pervert, is he?’
‘After all, powerful men tend to have special tastes.’
She bit her lip, steeled herself, and threw caution to the wind.
"Mr. Jiang!"
She raised her head, going all in.
"I can too!"
"I'm a bit older, but I've taken care of myself!"
"Any play is acceptable!"
"Just please take in Yi Lin."
The moment the words left her mouth.
She froze.
Because the expression on Jiang Nan's face was one she had never seen before.
What was that expression called again...
Horror.
Yes, horror.
Yu Shishi, who was nearby eating instant noodles, heard those words and jolted—her fork dropped straight into the bowl.
When she turned and saw Jiang Nan's expression.
She nearly scared herself into a mental breakdown.
"B-b-b-boss?!"
She stammered out a shout.
"W-w-w-what's wrong with you?!"
Jiang Nan didn't respond to her.
He simply stood there, scalp tingling, staring at Han Fei.
‘Big sister.’
‘How old are you exactly?’
‘No matter how hungry I got, I'd never sink that low.’
‘And your husband is still in the Sovereign Lantern pedaling the sewing machine!’
‘I don't have any habit of doing NTR on my own employees!’
‘If I really did that, how would I manage my subordinates afterward?’
‘They'd probably all defect and become traitors.’
Jiang Nan took a deep breath.
‘Not going to bother explaining.’
He pulled out his Notepad, scrawled a few lines, tore the page out, and tossed it to Liu Yuqing.
Liu Yuqing caught it, glanced at it, and cleared her throat before reading aloud.
"From today onward, unless reassigned by me..."
"Guan Ming reports to Guo Shuai, serves as combat personnel, housed in the driver's cab."
"Han Fei reports to Liu Yuqing, serves as combat personnel, housed in the 1st Floor Living Carriage."
"Ye Yilin reports to Yu Shishi, serves as logistics personnel, housed in the 1st Floor Living Carriage."
After reading, she adjusted her glasses and looked at Han Fei.
"Congratulations—you've been hired."
Han Fei stood there for 3 full seconds.
Then...
She let out a long, long breath of relief.
"Thank you... thank you, Mr. Jiang..."
She bowed deeply.
Jiang Nan tossed out a note.
【Don't worry about it.】
【What you said earlier—I'll treat it as if I never heard it.】
【Don't bring it up again.】
Han Fei took the note, read the words on it, and smiled bitterly.
"Yes, Mr. Jiang."
She quietly sighed inwardly.
‘Of course.’
‘Who would take an interest in a middle-aged woman at his age?’
‘That would take a truly repressed person.’
Just at that moment.
Knock knock knock.
Someone knocked on the vehicle door.
Jiang Nan's brow furrowed.
"What's going on?"
Wang Meng's voice came through the main control panel.
"Boss! It's the surviving humans!"
"About a dozen or so people!"
Liu Yuqing immediately pulled up the surveillance feed.
On the screen, a dozen emaciated figures were crowded outside the mobile home.
Some were scraggly and unshaven, some had vacant stares, and some had drool running from the corners of their mouths.
"Merciful Lord! Please, please save us!"
"Open up! Open the door!"
"There's food inside! I can smell it!"
......
They slammed against the vehicle door in a frenzy, not stopping even as their fingernails scraped through to blood.
Han Fei had only to glance at the screen before her expression instantly twisted with revulsion.
"Drug addicts."
As a former prison queen, she was all too familiar with these disgusting creatures whose husks had been hollowed out by craving.
"Miss Liu, I stake my reputation on it—these people are rats in the sewer."
"They have no bottom line whatsoever. For a bit of their fix, they'll sell out anything and everything."
"I strongly recommend we absolutely cannot let them on board."
Liu Yuqing adjusted her glasses.
"Agreed. People like this have no value and no labor to offer."
"They'd just be wasting air alive."
Just as Liu Yuqing was about to suggest to Jiang Nan that they ignore the group entirely...
Her eyes went wide.
Not just her—everyone in the living area wore expressions of sheer disbelief.
Because Jiang Nan had actually strode to the door and pressed the open button for the vehicle entrance!
The door slowly opened outward.
Those drug addicts outside, already teetering on the edge of madness, saw the luxurious interior of the vehicle.
Especially the instant noodles on the counter and the plush sofas.
Their eyes instantly ignited with raw, ravenous greed!
"My God! This is paradise!"
"Get up there! Brothers! Charge!"
A pack of dregs whose minds had long since been annihilated by narcotics howled and surged toward the interior!
‘Is the boss out of his mind?!’
‘Letting this group on board?!’
However, just as the addicts' feet were about to hit the first step.
Jiang Nan pulled out a QBZ-191 Assault Rifle from the Dimensional Supply Storage Room with an expressionless face.
He raised it one-handed, level, aimed at the addict charging in front.
【Mercy is something God should worry about.】
A note slipped from between his fingers and floated in the air.
【And what I, Jiang Nan, am here to do—is send you to meet him.】
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
Jiang Nan didn't even bother to aim properly—one hand on the rifle, precise single shots!
Every report was followed by one sinful skull detonating!
Everyone in the living area was dumbstruck.
Honestly, they'd only ever seen Jiang Nan kill monsters with such decisiveness before!
They never expected killing people to be just as...
Artful!
So...
Unhesitating!
Under normal circumstances, killing ordinary people might have left them frightened or uneasy.
But these were drug addicts!
Watching those revolting creatures get headshot one by one!
A rush of sheer exhilaration surged straight to everyone's skulls!
"Boss! I'll help!"
Yu Shishi, who had just been scared into spraying her noodles, was now determined to prove her worth—she slammed down her bowl and grabbed a rifle of her own from the storage room, unleashing a wild barrage at the door!
Hoshino Hikari, who had been treating Ye Yilin's injuries, watched this unfold.
‘What the hell?’
‘Working that hard already?!’
‘This won't do!’
As the convoy's number-one support, she absolutely could not fall behind in combat!
She decisively cut off her Healing Light, grabbed a rifle from the storage room, and charged to the vehicle entrance.
"Nishiuchi, go die!!"
Under the covering fire of 2 competitive overachievers.
In under half a minute, the dozen-odd addicts outside had been turned into sieves.
Dead beyond any doubt.
Jiang Nan was just about to put away his rifle when the Sovereign Lantern inside him trembled faintly.
It sent out a wave of hunger—a craving to devour souls.
Jiang Nan's brow creased. He suppressed it firmly with his will.
‘Too filthy.’
He looked at the carpet of addict corpses with disdain.
He had a severe case of Soul Cleanliness Obsession.
These were trash who had voluntarily let drugs corrupt and rot their souls beyond recovery.
He didn't even want to decompose them—it was disgusting.
Jiang Nan turned around and looked at Yu Shishi and Hoshino Hikari, whose faces were plastered with please praise us—he gave a satisfied nod.
He looked at Liu Yuqing and tilted his chin.
【Take that batch of Gene Enhancement Serums we held back last time—distribute them to these two.】
Liu Yuqing gave an understanding OK gesture.
Yu Shishi and Hoshino Hikari excitedly high-fived each other in midair. Yes!
‘The overachieving paid off!’
Just as Jiang Nan was about to hit the close button and end this farce.
A woman as gaunt as a skeleton crawled out from behind the pile of corpses.
"Don't go... wait..."
The woman raised her withered arm.
Jiang Nan's eyes went cold.
‘A fish that slipped through the net?’
He raised his rifle.
But just as his finger was about to squeeze the trigger, his movement stopped.
Because behind that woman, a small girl was hiding.
About 5 or 6 years old, her whole body grimy.
More importantly.
Though the woman's eyes were desperate, they were clear—completely unlike those addicts.
Jiang Nan slowly lowered his rifle. He'd see what this woman was after.
The woman hunched over and held the small girl's hand.
She stumbled toward the mobile home and collapsed with a thud to her knees in the pool of blood soaking the ground.
"Please... take her with you."
The woman trembled as she pulled a blood-soaked metal hard drive from her chest and held it high above her head.
"I won't let you help for nothing..."
"This is payment."
"This is the last Map Imprint Hard Drive inside the hospital..."
"As long as you give her food to eat and let her live—she can be a servant, a slave, anything!"
Jiang Nan didn't reach for the hard drive. Instead, he flicked out a note and stuck it in front of the woman.
【And you?】
The woman smiled bitterly.
"Me?"
"Since I came to this hell several years ago and sold myself just to survive..."
"I've already been dead."
"What I am now is just a walking corpse propped up by the need to protect her..."
"I'm truly, truly exhausted."
She turned, and with both hands shoved the little girl in her arms toward Jiang Nan.
"Nan Nan, go! Follow this gentleman! Live on!"
Yet the little girl called Nan Nan remained oddly calm.
She didn't cry or throw a tantrum. She just shook her head, numb, and grabbed the woman's hem with both hands, refusing to let go no matter what.
"Stop it! Promise me, alright? Don't be difficult at a time like this."
The woman panicked. She pried at the girl's fingers by force, even started hitting her—trying to force her onto the vehicle.
Jiang Nan watched this scene with cold eyes.
‘An end-of-the-world sob story?’
‘Sorry—not particularly interested.’
‘But...’
‘The hard drive's value really was substantial. And it really was the last one.’
‘Because when Piano had been cataloguing effective supplies inside the hospital, she'd unexpectedly discovered a miniature Terminal Signal Tower on the 6th floor.’
‘That was the Card Players' Association's trump card—no wonder Chen Daozi had hard drives.’
‘Unfortunately, by the time it was found, everything had already been taken.’
‘Something like this would be perfect for trade.’
He raised his hand, signaling Yu Shishi to step forward.
【As long as she's willing to board on her own, the value of this hard drive is enough to buy one life.】
Jiang Nan expressed his terms through a note.
"Yes, boss."
Yu Shishi stepped forward and tried to take the little girl's hand.
"Come on, little sis—come with big sister."
But Nan Nan stayed planted in place, shaking her head stubbornly.
"Not going."
The girl finally spoke. Her voice was hoarse in a way that didn't sound like a child's.
Jiang Nan saw this and laughed coldly.
He hated this kind of self-indulgent attachment most.
Since she wasn't willing to go, Jiang Nan would absolutely not play the saint who forcibly tore people apart.
He turned away and pressed the close button.
【Since she won't go, the deal is cancelled.】
After tossing the note, the door began to close.
Right at that moment.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out outside the vehicle!
Jiang Nan snapped back around.
There he saw the skeletal woman—gun in hand, a pistol she'd picked up from God knows where.
The muzzle still trailed a wisp of smoke, and a blood hole had appeared at her temple.
She fell into the pool of blood, eyes open and unresigned, staring at her daughter.
She knew too well.
She knew that a coldblood leader like Jiang Nan would never take in a dirty thing like her, who could die at any moment on the road.
She knew even more clearly that as long as she remained alive for even one more second, Nan Nan would absolutely never survive alone.
So she used the most brutal method—personally cut off her daughter's last retreat with her own hand!
Every person on the vehicle was shaken speechless by that devastating scene.
Han Fei lowered her head, unable to watch.
Because she and Yi Lin were very similar to them.
Only with more strength and better luck.
The outcome had been different.
But in the midst of everyone's stunned gazes.
The little girl called Nan Nan remained impossibly calm.
No screaming, no sobbing.
She simply stared quietly at her mother's corpse, and then...
Crouched down, pried the pistol from her mother's hand.
She gripped the handle with both hands and aimed the barrel under her own chin.
Then she smiled.
"Mama... Nan Nan is coming with you."
As she spoke, she pulled the trigger directly!
Bang!
The bullet spun out of the chamber, aimed to shatter her skull!
This was a suffocating end-of-the-world tragedy that would stop any normal person's heart.
If events had truly followed this script to the end.
Not just Jiang Nan, but everyone—
Would have felt some measure of guilt for standing by and doing nothing.
Or perhaps carried an impression that could never be erased from their hearts.
Something that would destabilize a steadfast mind.
The World's Will—or rather, this damned fate!
Was attempting to use the dirtiest—
The most revolting sob story—
To disgust them, to punish them!
Did it think the script would play out this way?
Jiang Nan: ‘Absolutely not!!!’
Just as the bullet was about to make contact with the girl's jaw!
Hmmm!!!
The entire world, in an instant, drained of all color!
Fading into gray-white!
The bullet that had left the barrel hung suspended at the girl's jawline!
"An instant—is eternity!"
Jiang Nan clenched his teeth and strode down from the mobile home.
"Damn it..."
He reached out and grabbed the bullet.
'Who do you think you are, trying to shake my mind with such a cheap trick?'
'Trying to use my detachment to guide tragedy into happening?'
'Trying to make me feel guilty over a little girl's death?'
'Trying to make me doubt myself?'
Jiang Nan's heart blazed.
He snatched the gun from the girl's hands with his free hand and crushed it into a lump of scrap metal.
Then, with a wave of his hand, the Sovereign Lantern materialized from the void!
Swoosh!
The soul of the mother who had just taken her own life—before it could even begin to disperse—was imprisoned inside the lantern!
'Then let me tell you right now—impossible!'
The instant the world's colors returned.
Jiang Nan grabbed the dumbstruck little girl with one hand, knocked her out, and tossed her into Yu Shishi's arms.
Then, facing the sky where the sun was about to set, he raised his middle finger.
‘Even if someone dies right in front of me, I can drag their soul back out and put them to work on a sewing machine!’
‘You think you can play fate with me?’
‘I'll flip your whole table over!’
The evening wind howled past.
In the afterglow of the setting sun.
That single raised middle finger—like a divine pillar caging the heavens—stood impossibly conspicuous.
Inside the vehicle, everyone was frozen.
Then...
Han Fei laughed.
Liu Yuqing adjusted her glasses, the corner of her mouth curling upward.
Guo Shuai poked his head out of the driver's cab, his face flushed crimson with excitement.
"Boss... I really didn't follow the wrong person."
Quanquan waved her little fists in support as well.
"Bawss~! Bawss~!"
Yu Shishi held Nan Nan in her arms.
Watching that silhouette standing in the setting sun, her eyes stung.
‘This boss.’
‘Though he killed without blinking.’
‘Though he was cold and ruthless.’
‘But sometimes.’
‘He really was so cool.’