Scars, the Badge of a Man

The Nightingale Pledge, Tom knew about this.

Florence Nightingale, the world-renowned nursing expert, and the founder of modern nursing education. Tom remembered she was born in 1820, seemed to be German. She pioneered nursing schools, and can be said to be the founding figure of the nursing profession... um... founding mother.

It seems that all nurses have to recite this pledge when they graduate from school, and many nurses consider it a creed to abide by. Of course... creed is creed, people have to eat, and human willpower doesn't always remain steadfast, none of that matters.

But what's particularly special is that Tom remembered this founding mother, who established a profession for women, was actually a supporter of the anti-feminist movement. She advocated that women should stay at home to take care of their families, rather than appearing in public and earning money. This huge contrast made Tom remember this founding mother.

Looking at Feng Hanyun when she said those words, he saw enthusiasm in her eyes. He wasn't sure how much of what she said was genuine and how much was pretense. But at least, he felt that Feng Hanyun had the desire to save people, just didn't know what motivated her to do so.

But that didn't matter. Dealing with the two amputee survivors was indeed challenging for him. After all, his first aid skills were very amateur, lacking theoretical knowledge.

Saving people seems easy, but it's actually quite difficult. Because he first had to locate the people in the shelter, rush to the destination to save them, and then rush back to the shelter before it ended, safely bringing them back to complete the registration and earn points. Each point earned could affect whether he could exchange for technology, and any loss due to injuries along the way could affect the final total score, making it impossible to meet the exchange criteria.

After all, from the initial 6 points to this time's 20 points. Tom had reason to believe that the points needed for future exchanges would only increase.

Ensuring that the survivors he rescued returned alive was about maximizing benefits. Of course, this consideration itself was very important for each survivor. Saving one life meant one more.

Although Feng Hanyun would face risks, since she volunteered, Tom had no reason to refuse. At most, he would have to take care of one more person when going out. With Lin Meiqi and Wang Zixiong as his two followers, one more wouldn't make a difference.

Moreover, the cruel and bloody ordeal would help Feng Hanyun recognize the reality and discard the arrogance accumulated from the past. This would also be helpful for her integration into the camp in the future.

After weighing his options, Tom made a decision. Feng Hanyun had already finished nursing the second injured person and was now nervously looking at him, her chest heaving intensely, waiting for his decision.

"You can!" Tom announced straightforwardly, "I allow you to follow me out, but you must promise to obey my orders completely. If you can't comply and endanger others' safety, I will abandon you immediately, even... I don't care about one more life on my hands!"

Feng Hanyun nodded happily, smiling in response, "Okay, okay, I will definitely obey your orders!"

Tom scratched his head, adding extra workload. Besides Lin Meiqi, he also made a simple armor for Wang Zixiong. So, this "medic" Feng Hanyun naturally needed some protection too.

Just as he was thinking about what to do, Zhao Xifeng timidly said, "Mr. An... I volunteer... I also volunteer to join the team going out."

"You?" Tom glanced at him. Feng Hanyun's boyfriend seemed a bit frail and his character too weak. A person with such weak will wouldn't have been suppressed by Feng Hanyun if he had enough determination.

Feng Hanyun immediately cursed, "What are you doing here? You useless..."

"I... I'm not useless!" Zhao Xifeng's nostrils flared as he gasped for breath. Obviously, being called useless in public by his girlfriend made him unwilling, but instinctively he didn't express his anger in front of her and could only suppress his emotions and say, "I can protect you, even with my life."

Tom understood his motives, just wanting to protect his lover, and also wanting to prove himself to her. But he didn't have time to waste here. Besides Feng Hanyun's armor, he also had to repair the armor of Old Street No. 0. The corrosive acid of the level two mutant ants had corroded most of its body, and the armguards and helmet were all pierced with holes. Although they were salvaged, they still needed to be patched up with iron pieces.

So he walked to where the materials were piled up, instructing Wang Zixiong as he went, "Zixiong, test his physical fitness and explosiveness, and only if he qualifies."

Originally wanting to take a nap before starting work, he was awakened by this woman who didn't know how to keep quiet. Tom decided not to sleep at all.

"Okay!" Wang Zixiong readily agreed, then looked around, "Anyone else who wants to apply to join the team going out, can come for testing, so we don't waste our time!"

Tom waved his hand, "If your physical fitness doesn't meet the standards, it will only burden others. I don't need additional baggage. You either stay in the shelter or go out on your own right now, it's your choice."

"I..." Zhao Xifeng wanted to say something, but Wang Zixiong grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away.

Going out to save people meant risking their lives, even for Tom, who had his own Old Street No. 0 armor. Just the corrosive venom of the level two mutant ants gave him a headache. If it were cockroaches or dogs, Tom himself might not be safe.

There were reasons for Tom to bring so many people out. Firstly, to earn points for exchanging better technology to upgrade his combat armor; secondly, to replenish fresh blood for the camp, people like Lin Meiqi, Wang Zixiong, and... Feng Hanyun were all talents the camp needed; thirdly, to save as many survivors as possible. Tom didn't consider himself a saint, sacrificing himself to save others or anything like that, it was all about doing what he could. But saving one more person, if possible, was always a good thing for him.

That was the reason he came out on purpose.

Tom left Zhao Xifeng's problem to his girlfriend to deal with. He kept Feng Hanyun's armor design similar to Lin Meiqi's. He used iron for the chest and head, and cockroach head shells for other parts. But unlike Lin Meiqi, she didn't have doll clothes to wear, so the armor design needed some changes to accommodate the wrapped cloth around her mature body.

He directly adopted a skirt armor design, adding a cockroach head shell-made leather armor around the waist, with a length reaching only to the base of the thigh, leaving the rest sewn into a knee-length skirt. The reason for making the leather skirt so short was that the cockroach head shell was somewhat hard, and if it were too long, it would hinder leg movement. Without the fabric skirt, exposing the entire thigh wouldn't be appropriate. So, while ensuring protection for the waist, he also balanced privacy, aesthetics, and flexibility, resembling the armor of the Valkyries in the game.

As for the vacuum problem inside the skirt, she could wrap a cloth around herself like a thong.

Now that people had shrunk, clothing couldn't be as comfortable as before. The fabric issue alone was different. The threads used to weave fabrics used to be very fine and soft, but people had shrunk 24 times, so the yarn that used to be fine for them was as thick as wool now, definitely not as soft as before.

For men, it was fine to wrap a piece of cloth around themselves, simulating an ancient style. As for women's underwear needs... if they didn't want to go commando, wrapping the chest and wearing a thong was their best choice.

The aunties in the camp did a good job with handiwork, so everyone had clothes that were barely passable to wear. As for the current group of people... Tom looked over, and they were all wrapped in cloth, which was already a good result. If they encountered some who couldn't get their hands on fabric, they might end up emulating Adam and Eve and run around naked.

Once they started running around naked... combined with the oppressive life they had been living for the past few days, it was inevitable that sparks of discord would fly between male and female survivors... well... Tom couldn't care less about that.

After finishing the leather skirt, Tom left the task of sewing the cloth skirt to Feng Hanyun to solve on her own. If she didn't sew it, it was fine, showing off the thighs directly wasn't a big deal, after all, modern women were open-minded.

As for the size of the chest armor, it was unavoidable for Lin Meiqi before, but now with a bunch of women and Feng Hanyun having a boyfriend herself, he would let them measure their own chest size, and he would deform the armor according to the measurements.

It took Tom an hour to make the armor, and the rest of the time was naturally spent repairing the Old Street No. 0 armor.

In the modeling world, there was often a weathering technique, which was to make freshly assembled war models (whether tanks or robots) look old, with various wear and tear, bullet holes, burnt patches, and repairs, to make the model look like it had been through a brutal battle.

From mutated cockroaches to mutated snakes, mutated dogs, to today's ant venom corrosion. The Old Street No. 0 armor had been repeatedly repaired many times, covered with various old and new scars all over its body, looking like a battle-hardened veteran.

After finishing the repairs, Tom stood ten steps away, crossed his arms, and looked at the scarred Old Street No. 0 with fascination, full of emotions.

For modern people, the cruelty of war could only be experienced through movies and games. The weathering of models was more about restoring the historical weight of that war.

Now, looking at the armor he had built from scratch, feeling the traces left by every battle on it, Tom truly understood how terrifying and cruel war and death were.

Every scar here represented a time he had died. It was this set of armor that allowed him to stand here now and bring back so many people. To borrow a phrase from a certain comic book, scars... are the badge of a man.

"Your gun is your life!"

"My tank is my lover!"

"It is my companion!"

These classic lines from movies and TV shows, Tom had heard countless times, but it wasn't until today that he truly understood that the Old Street No. 0 armor was now an indispensable part of his life.

He put on each piece of armor, then moved his body a bit before turning around and asking Wang Zixiong and the others, "Are you... ready?"

"Hoorah!" Wang Zixiong, wearing armor, raised the slaughter knife in his hand high and shouted loudly. Then he found that everyone around was staring at him in silence, feeling very embarrassed.

But Tom just smiled, echoed the "Hoorah," and then said, "Search and rescue team, let's go!"