Cooperation?

Emerson looked at the tablet, the signal had already been cut off. He suddenly had a bad feeling. What did the commander's last words mean? The last, the last of what?

Just then, Mallory approached with a group of people. Among them were individuals in suits, some wearing thick glasses. They were businessmen, researchers, teachers, doctors, all of whom had held significant positions in Dover City.

Mallory glanced at the group, his face filled with disdain.

"Captain, what do you mean by this? You said you would send us to a shelter, but how long has it been?"

"Last night, zombies almost breached the defense line. This place is no longer safe."

"We are all essential talents needed for national development. If you can't guarantee our safety, then send us away immediately, understood?"

The group began to voice their complaints, their faces full of arrogance.

"Exactly, what a dump. I haven't had a proper bath in three days."

"A bath? You call that a bath? Just splashing cold water on ourselves. There's clearly a generator, but they won't heat the water for us."

"Those on duty are useless. I even saw them sleeping. If they were in my company, I'd fire them immediately!"

...

The crowd continued to grumble, not noticing Emerson's growing impatience. Commander Liu's words echoed in Emerson's mind. Why establish shelters? Was it because these people could no longer go back? Why did the communication cut off so suddenly?

Listening to the complaints buzzing around like flies, Emerson suddenly stood up.

"Enough, get out!"

With a roar, the murmuring stopped abruptly. However, anger quickly appeared on the faces of the group, each pointing a finger at Emerson. They didn't dare go too far, knowing Emerson was still part of the military. Despite their status, they couldn't surpass the military's authority.

After muttering a few more complaints, the crowd dispersed.

"Mallory, stay behind," Emerson called out to Mallory.

"You mentioned before that during a rescue, you encountered a group of women led by a man?"

Mallory's heart skipped a beat. The task assigned by his master could finally proceed. He had mentioned this information after returning, even hinting at Born's abilities, but it hadn't caught Emerson's attention until now.

"That's right. I left them a means of communication, but without the captain's orders, I didn't dare contact them lightly," Mallory replied seriously.

Emerson thought for a moment and said, "Give me the radio frequency. I'll try to contact them myself."

Mallory hesitated but quickly relayed the frequency to Emerson.

After a while, Emerson held the radio and tuned to the frequency. Soon, a young man's voice came through the radio.

"Mallory, it's been a while."

"I'm Emerson, Mallory's direct superior. Hello, Born."

The other end of the radio went silent. After a moment, Born's voice came through again.

"What do you want from me?"

"I just want to ask you one question: Are you afraid of trouble?"

Soon, Born's light laughter came through the radio, but he didn't answer the question directly.

Emerson's lips curled into a slight smile, as if he had already gotten his answer. Not being afraid was a good thing. Some matters had only been hinted at by the commander and hadn't been fully realized. Emerson couldn't act too boldly himself, but if someone else took the initiative, there would be no problem.

...

Meanwhile, at the exhibition hall, Born set down the radio. He squinted his eyes. Emerson reaching out to him was simple to understand. Emerson wanted to establish a shelter in Dover City, with both Emerson and Born leading it, but ultimately, Born would be the primary leader.

At first glance, it seemed Emerson wanted to submit to Born.

Born looked at Pearl and the others, smiling, "What do you think?"

Pearl was the first to speak, "It definitely won't be that simple. There's no way they'd give us a lot of support for no reason."

Lane nodded slightly and said softly, "Emerson is a military man. Maybe there are things he can't do?"

As for Mia and Laura, they were the muscle of the group and couldn't make decisions on such matters. Born then turned his gaze to the last person, a noblewoman named Sirena. Before the apocalypse, she had been an executive in a corporation. However, after the apocalypse, she had been reduced to a plaything for Hughie and his men, nearly losing her sanity. It was only after Born recruited her that she gradually recovered.

"Lane is partly correct. The military has certain restrictions due to their identity," Sirena began. "However, based on everything Emerson said, their involvement is temporarily beneficial to us. We can also use them to truly build this place up. The scarcity of specialized talent is our biggest challenge right now."

"Additionally, based on the data I've collected and analyzed, the zombie evolution theory you proposed, master, is indeed happening. Zombies are evolving."

Sirena's analysis was clear and thorough. In this regard, Pearl couldn't compare to Sirena. However, Born had no intention of giving up on Pearl; she remained a key focus for his development. With the system's 100% loyalty assurance, Born dared to recruit Sirena and immediately place her in the decision-making circle, but only to a certain extent.

"In summary, as zombies grow stronger, we need greater power to arm ourselves and more intelligence on how the higher-ups are handling the zombies, among other things," Sirena concluded, looking around before nodding slightly and sitting back down.

Born admitted that Sirena's points were valid. Moreover, with his recruitment ability, he might gradually infiltrate Emerson's Eagle Squad. Born picked up the radio again.

"Captain, I've carefully considered your proposal. It's feasible, but we have a few conditions that we hope you'll agree to."

"Go ahead."

"You must want me to do something for you. I need compensation for that—help me train my people," Born said seriously.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the radio before a brief "Okay" was heard.

"Additionally, we need to share intelligence."

"Within my capacity, we will share intelligence."

Hearing this, Born smiled and said, "Good, looking forward to a successful cooperation. I'll be waiting for you at the exhibition hall. If you need assistance, I'll send my people to help."

"Agreed. Stay in contact."

The communication ended.

Born stood up. Since cooperation with the military was inevitable, more outsiders would be coming. He needed to make some preparations.

He cleared out a room to use as a warehouse. The warehouse was filled with crossbow bolts and ammunition. These supplies couldn't be taken out casually anymore, so Born prepared a large quantity in advance. Since Emerson's team had firearms, Born also prepared more ammunition.

Now, he just had to wait for Emerson's arrival.