Chapter 26 - Lucky Beggar

Maybe ordinary factions who submitted to the otherwordly humans didn't know much, but the currently strongest factions did. In the Top 10 Strongest Factions, or how the survivor community said, Sova was the weakest of them, only having more numbers. If even Sova could detect that all members of Haize's faction were on the base, how couldn't the others?

The other Faction Leaders weren't as brainless as Ethan, and they quickly understood one truth: Haize did all the job alone. This meant that with the power of a single person, a faction with 100 humans was killed. Maybe only half of them truly were Mana Users, while the rest were just Semi 0-Star, but it was still a scary feat.

At least the Faction Leaders knew that they couldn't do it. They were the strongest within their factions, but they were certain that doing even half of what Haize did was impossible for them. Some of them sighed, understanding the hidden meaning within his post, ''It seems that submitting will be the only choice.''

Some Faction Leaders contacted each other, and the more experienced ones comforted the inexperienced ones, ''Well, you don't need to be so uncomfortable by submitting to him. You don't know, but while he's a truly scary lad, he treats his subordinates fairly.''

''Sigh...'' The Faction Leader sighed dejectedly, before taking his friend's suggestion, and they went to announce that their faction was submitting to Haize's faction. Some of their subordinates were angered by the decision but under their explanations, the subordinates' faces paled.

Within the Top 10 factions, only the No. 3 didn't submit. That Faction Leader was a woman, and she refused to submit to a man, ''Even if it's that guy, I prefer to die than to submit to a man.''

In her childhood, that Faction Leader was abused by her uncle, and that left physiological scars. Even though she did became stronger after personally taking revenge once she became a strong leader within the underworld, her hate for men was nearly unchangeable. Haize held great admiration for that woman because she didn't bother to hide her history, nor did she fear him even after all his feats.

And be within the underworld or in this new doomsday-like world, her faction only accepted women within her group. She helped them awaken and get stronger, and at least within Ottawa, the cases of women being abused due to lack of law and order were close to 0.

Anyone who knew her faction didn't dare to do anything like that, and they sure didn't want to bet losing their precious one because of a moment of lawless pleasure.

His evaluation of her could be said, ''An interesting woman, at least the strongest one I know.''

After leaving the building, Haize was greeted by heavy rain, and he let it drench him with its continuous, endless raindrops. The smell of blood on him was slowly diminishing as he walked, and any 0-Star monster couldn't stop him. Maybe Haize was lucky, but no 1-Star or 2-Star monsters ambushed him on the way back.

Just as he was nearing Lightwood Townhouse, he saw an old man lying in the ground with tattered clothes, looking like a beggar. But Haize wasn't easy to be fooled, an ordinary beggar would never survive in such a world easily, so after suspiciously staring at the old man, he continued on his way. Just then, the old man held his thigh.

Almost instinctively, Haize was going to slash at the old man. However, there was a pitiful look on the old man that made him stop. Letting out a sigh, Haize said, ''Are you okay? Please stand up, it's surely not good for your back to just stay on the ground like that at your age.''

''Oh, thank you, young man.'' The old man thanked him gratefully before standing up, his height was about 1.6 meters, and there was a strong air around him. Haize sighed with such a bad deception before saying, ''Say, do you have a place to live? I think it would be dangerous for someone as old as you to stay out of a safe place.''

The old man was truly astonished, back in his original world when he was trying to find a successor, and pretended to be a beggar in order to test their temperament, most of them looked at him with disdain and disgust. Some even took out whips and started beating him black and blue, of course, he didn't resist for acting purposes.

''Thank you, thank you! Someone like you must have a heart of gold, and a soul of diamond!'' The old man said, he was going to test the kid's temperament for more time. He saw the post of the slaughter but didn't care. Just kidding, in his early days, he destroyed an entire city, 100 humans were nothing.

It wasn't without reason, but that's something the old man regretted doing. Looking at the young man, he couldn't help but sigh, 'I have been alone for too much time, maybe that kiddo can accompany me till I die.'

He had lost too much in his pursuit of power, and if the old man could choose, maybe living as an ordinary person would be his choice. Along the way, Haize was curious, and so he asked, ''So, how did you survive while being so old?''

The old man's eyebrows twitched unconsciously before he said, ''I... I nearly died many times! I survived by luck these days, I was chased by monsters, but they ended up fighting each other so I survived. The last one knocked me out not long ago but somehow ended up running away. After waking up, I just laid in the ground till you found me!''

''...'' Haize didn't know if the old man was telling the truth, but that last part sure made sense. Even he, who was a fully intelligent being, could barely resist his instincts of turning around and running away after feeling that monster's aura, not to mention the ones weaker than him.

After they got to Lightwood Townhouse, the old man's eyes couldn't help but widen, because a blue-colored screen notified him of something.

[=- You have entered a Safe Zone -=]

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