Shen Hong's ambush was clean. Decisive. So smooth that even she had to admire herself for it.
What left her utterly dumbfounded, however, was the reaction-or rather, the complete lack of one. Her dagger was pressed against Skinny Monkey's throat, and not a single person in the room so much as tensed. Their expressions barely shifted.
She'd assumed taking a hostage would buy her a way out.
But... what the hell was this?
Did they not care if she killed this guy? Was he that unpopular around here?
"How was it, Monkey? Her ability's pretty solid, right?" Yang Bin looked at Skinny Monkey with a grin.
"Genuinely impressive!" Skinny Monkey nodded with full sincerity.
It had only frozen him for two seconds. But between experts, two seconds decided everything.
Case in point-those two seconds were all it took for him to become a hostage.
"You're seriously chatting right now? You're a hostage! Do you have any hostage awareness at all? Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?" Shen Hong snapped.
What was wrong with these people? Did they think she wouldn't do it?
What she didn't know was that Yang Bin and the others weren't doubting her willingness to kill. They simply knew she couldn't-not in front of them.
They had a dozen ways to pull Skinny Monkey out of this.
Yang Bin's Telekinesis. Chen Hao's Invisibility. Zhong Yuansen's earth spikes. Any one of them could neutralize Shen Hong in an instant.
And even in the worst-case scenario-even if she actually slit Skinny Monkey's throat-Hu Wenliang was right there.
Unless she could take his head clean off.
And that, obviously, she could not do.
"Easy there, gorgeous. You're hurting me." Skinny Monkey winced.
Shen Hong had tensed up, and the blade bit deeper.
"Shut up! You're a hostage-you don't get to talk!" Shen Hong snarled.
"So what if I'm a hostage? Hostages don't have human rights?"
"I'm telling you now-treat me nice, and I'll leave your corpse in one piece tonight. Otherwise, I'm stripping you naked and tossing you into a zombie horde."
"........"
"You think I can't kill you?"
"Go ahead. Try it."
"......."
Shen Hong was on the verge of a breakdown. What kind of lunatics had she stumbled into?
She turned to Yang Bin. "Just let me leave, okay? I'm not with the Wang family."
"Not with the Wang family?" Yang Bin's brow creased.
"Then what the hell were you doing tagging along?"
"........"
"I'm Mayor Ma's secretary. He sent me to assist the Wang family. You've already made enemies of the Wangs-surely you don't want to make enemies of the government too."
"Let me go, and I'll tell Mayor Ma to stay out of this. How about it?" Shen Hong's voice carried a thread of hope.
"How about no. That Mayor Ma already slapped a Wanted Order on us. Killing you or not-same outcome."
"It's not the same! Before, you only killed someone disposable. Mayor Ma issued the Wanted Order to save face for the administration."
"But I'm different. I'm... Mayor Ma's right-hand woman. If you kill me, he'll be absolutely livid. It won't just be a Wanted Order anymore!"
"Right-hand woman? In the bedroom, maybe."
"......."
"Doesn't matter. We've already pissed him off-in for a penny, in for a pound. If he wants to come for us, let him come." Yang Bin's tone was flat. Final.
Shen Hong's heart seized. She hadn't expected Yang Bin to be this fearless.
Her grip tightened on the dagger. If she couldn't escape, she'd at least drag someone down with her.
"Thud."
A dull impact. Behind Shen Hong, Chen Hao's figure shimmered into view. He lowered the Barbell Rod and shook his head at her crumpled form on the floor.
"Gotta hand it to her-takes guts to try a hostage play in our house."
"Skinny Monkey, you've made history. First member of Star Fall Squad to get taken hostage by a woman."
"Uh... I let my guard down for a second. Her ability really is hard to defend against." Skinny Monkey rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.
"Tch. Quit making excuses. Trash is trash." Old Hei's contempt was absolute.
"......."
"Just you wait. Once I learn this ability, you'd all better watch yourselves-or I'll have you doing a striptease in the middle of the street."
"........"
"Bin-ge, how about I just kill her now? We don't need this ability that badly."
"Hmm. I'm inclined to agree." Old Hei nodded with deep conviction.
The mental image of getting Charmed by Skinny Monkey and stripping in public sent a chill down his spine.
This ability was too evil.
"Alright, knock it off. Skinny Monkey, keep this woman restrained. We kill her tonight."
"Got it."
"Bin-ge, we can't transfer the ability if we kill her during the day?" The squad looked curious.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but probably not."
"My theory is that the kill has to happen under the light of the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper. That's what turns the ability into those light particles that fly up and get absorbed. If we kill her now, the ability might just dissipate into nothing."
It was only a guess, but Yang Bin felt the odds were high.
They'd finally caught an ability user. No point gambling over a few hours of patience.
"Alright, everyone pack up. Time to leave."
He'd sounded indifferent in front of Shen Hong, but Yang Bin wasn't actually stupid enough to ignore the government.
Forget everything else-if they rolled up with a few long-range artillery pieces, his squad was done.
Killing one nobody had been enough for Ma Zhongguo to issue a Wanted Order. Kill his personal secretary, and artillery bombardment wasn't out of the question.
But even knowing that, Yang Bin never considered letting her go.
Letting her go meant bending the knee.
Does Bin-ge look like someone who bends?
Besides, killing her meant one more ability user on the team. Releasing her was out of the question.
So they had to relocate. Big deal. Not like they couldn't move.
When the squad heard they were leaving, reluctance showed on every face.
This place really had been comfortable.
But nobody hesitated. They started packing immediately.
There wasn't much to pack. They were done quickly.
The real loss was the stockpile of supplies they couldn't carry.
All they could bring was some dried dog meat, mineral water, and bread-enough to eat on the road.
Yang Bin headed to the backyard. He killed every zombie in the iron cage, then dismantled the cage into sections and bundled them together.
He planned to haul it to their next base and reassemble it.
The thing was perfect for farming zombies.
He was going to start farming zombies.
But not low-order ones.
He wanted to cultivate Yaoguang Realm zombies.
The cage couldn't hold a Yaoguang Realm zombie, obviously. But he could break the limbs of Tier-5 Zombies, toss them inside, and wait for them to evolve. Then slaughter them at Yaoguang Realm.
Slow process. But better than hunting them in the wild.
Once everything was handled, Yang Bin shouldered the bundled cage and led Star Fall Squad out of Jinghe Garden.
This forced retreat left a bitter taste in everyone's chest.
At the end of the day, they still weren't strong enough.