He Yuan dodged to the side at the same time the fighter around him managed to clear away. The lightening bolt crashed into the wall behind him.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" The woman said as she repeatedly threw more bolts of lightening at He Yuan.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The wall of the building collapsed at one end and 888 grabbed Feng Huang by the back of his shirt and moved a few steps away. The others also looked for a way to remove themselves from the centre of the confrontation.
He Yuan dodged the rest of the bolts and in a moment when the woman was inattentive, he calmly slipped his energy into the her mind and ordered firmly, [Stop.]
The woman froze and the bolts of lightening ceased at once. By now, the people had scrambled back a bit and a clearance had been formed at the front on the almost destroyed building.
Lu Ming tugged on his clothes as he looked from the woman to He Yuan and then he frowned. "Du Ling, why won't you just listen to us? This is actually what's best for you. Saying such a thing would do nothing but attract people's hatred."
He Yuan raised a brow at that. "Asking for proof would attract the people's hatred? With all this display one would think they'd be interested in knowing the truth."
Lu Ming sighed. "The woman before you had indeed seen her zombified brother. Why else do you think she's this angry?"
888 adjusted his glasses and cocked his head to the side. "So? What does she seeing her brother's zombified state have to do with the rest of us who have absolutely no idea if the rumours are true?"
A couple of people let out grunts of agreement and Lu Ming resisted the urge to smile smugly. Ren and Du Ling were probably thinking that it was just a farce, if only they knew~ He looked to the base leader and nodded slightly.
The base leader cleared his throat. "Fine. Since you all want proof, proof you shall have." He went on to snap his fingers at some of the fighters who nodded back and walked over to the research facility.
Seeing the base leader's resolution, the people hardened their resolves once more. The news was definitely true. They had really allowed danger in their midst! The third volunteer's sister clenched her fists at her sides with tears in her eyes. She had personally seen her brother's state.
Although she knew she had no right to take out her anger on anyone since her brother had volunteered, the fact that Du Ling was a zombie made her ignore that fact. After all, she had the backing of everyone else who also wanted the base to be free from threat.
Five minutes later, a bunch of very confused fighters walked back to the building with a very normal looking man right behind them.
The third volunteer -who was supposed to be a zombie- was right there, looking absolutely human.
Lu Ming, the base leader and the sister of the volunteer all widened their eyes in shock -although for different reasons. The inhabitants of the military base, on the other hand, looked just as confused as the fighters who were sent to fetch the volunteer.
"Impossible~" Lu Ming and the volunteer's sister whispered at the same time -again, for different reasons.
He Yuan took in the base leader's and Lu Ming's expressions of pure shock and resisted the urge to burst into laughter at their sheer stupidity.
He had three new humans planted in this base and had sent one of them to trail Lu Ming after their confrontation a week ago. The new human's ability had something to do with shadows so it was quite convenient.
When Lu Ming had made the plan with the base leader, the new human was right in Lu Ming's shadow and had caught on to every word so He Yuan had gone over to the third volunteer to set up this little show with him.
The third volunteer had been injected with the vaccine a day before Lu Ming and the base leader got to him with the toxin and when the day actually came, He Yuan had been right there -hidden inside the research building- and he had filled their brains with zombified images of the man instead.
When the man's sister was brought over, he did also the same thing. So the woman also thought that her brother was a zombie making Lu Ming and the base leader to have the illusion that their plan was working perfectly.
The woman slowly walked up to her brother and touched his cheeks tentatively. "Y-you... You're okay?" She couldn't believe her eyes. She had indeed seen him as a snarling zombie so what was this? What exactly was going on?
Xiao Yu folded his arms across his chest and shouted from the back of the crowd, "BASE LEADER, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"
The base leader lifted a shaky finger at the volunteer. "You... H-how?" He suddenly paused when he thought back to He Yuan's amused smile and relaxed expressions all this while. He turned around and pointed a finger at He Yuan. "IT'S YOU!"
"What do you mean by it's him?!" Feng Huang shouted back. His authenticity had been questioned and all for what? He walked over to the volunteer and examined him closely. "He looks completely human to me so what exactly was all this nonsense for?"
The volunteer's sister glared at her brother and lowered her head in embarrassment. Even the people were riled up once more. They'd all rushed over here in fear only to find out that there was no threat at all! They needed explanations.
"WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE?!"
"IS IT FUN TO FOOL US LIKE THIS??"
"DO YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO?!"
Lu Ming and the base leader shrunk back from the people's onslaught of questions before the volunteer raised a hand to calm them down and then proceeded to tell them of how the both of them tried to infect him with the toxin.
He Yuan calmly took in the morphing expressions of everyone. Actually, it would've been much easier to forcefully take the memory from the minds of Lu Ming and the base leader and project it into the minds of everyone present but he knew that even if they managed to believe him now, a different problem would arise once they became calm.
The realization that He Yuan was able to project a memory into the minds of many people all at once would settle in and then a different fear would arise. Human beings had a perpetual hatred for things remotely stronger than they themselves were and they would see He Yuan as a potential threat once again, even of he did nothing wrong.
That was one of the reasons that he had hidden the new humans for so long. Their potential was much more outstanding as compared to normal humans so he needed to hide that in order not to cause major problems.
Once the volunteer was done with his recount of events, the entire place went silent. Everyone was shocked stiff. They couldn't actually believe that the person they'd placed their trust in would actually go to such extents for power.
Lu Ming shook slightly and he looked over to He Yuan with pleading eyes. "Br-brother Ling don't believe him alright?" He looked around everyone present and pointed at the volunteer. "HE'S LYING! Th-there's no proof. He's just trying to frame me!"
888 scoffed. "Lu Ming, there'd been rumours about you doing such a thing to people but no one paid too much attention to it. Seeing how you easily arranged this set up, the rumours are actually true right?"
Lu Ming wanted to use rumours and false accusations to take his host down so he would use the exact method against the vermin. The only difference was that his accusations weren't false.
"REN, WHY DON'T YOU-" Before Lu Ming could finish his sentence,
BANG!
He was caught off guard and was crashed into the wall of the building by a large rock. That part of the wall collapsed, taking with it half of the building.
CRASH!
The cloud of dust that was formed made the people retreat a few more steps and the clearance in front of the building became even larger. Once the dust settled, a man walked out of the crowd glaring daggers at Lu Ming.
"My younger brother suddenly disappeared after Dr. Du looked at him twice in admiration. That was your doing wasn't it?!"
Lu Ming held his chest. His hair was dishevelled and he had dirt everywhere -even in places that could not be mentioned. A trail of blood slipped past his lips as he looked over to He Yuan who was looking at him with a condescending smile.
His eyes widened. He had been played. Du Ling had beat him at his own game. How could this happen? Du Ling was always so easy to manipulate so this plan should've worked just like his other plans had!
"I-" Before he could speak, the people began attacking him with an onslaught of colourful -and not so colourful- looking abilities so he had to put up a shield of ice to protect himself.
The base leader wasn't spared either, in fact, more people attacked him. This was the person they'd chosen to lead them but in the end, he turned a blind eye whenever such a thing happened and had even chosen to join in!
He Yuan, 888 and Feng Huang used this opportunity to slip away with Xiao Yu rushing after them when he noticed.
Before the people could attack the criminal duo to their fill, the base leader activated his ability and a small warm hole appeared -the base leader's ability was a dimension kind- and so him and Lu Ming were swallowed by the worm hole and disappeared from the sight of everyone.
They all turned their sights in search of He Yuan but he was already gone. They all cursed. They had the key to the vaccine in their midst but the awful base leader and that hateful Lu Ming had made them lose him!
The volunteer who was nearly turned into a zombie and the other volunteer from the final experiment smiled. They had already gotten the vaccine so they were safe. This made everyone look at them with a mix of envy and regret although some of them did not fail to glare at the volunteer who was involved in the zombie rumour.
If he had spoken up earlier then they wouldn't have victimized Du Ling! They were so angry but there was nothing they could do.
When He Yuan and his group were about to get into their truck and drive away, Xiao Yu finally caught with them. "Squad leader Ling!"
He Yuan paused and turned to the boy. "Hm?"
Xiao Yu fiddled with his fingers. "Don't leave?" He, himself, had no idea if it was a request or a statement.
He Yuan patted the boy's head and chuckled. "You know I have to."
Xiao Yu sighed and nodded sadly. "Will I ever see you again?"
He Yuan nodded. "Definitely," He patted the boy's head once more before getting into the truck.
888 looked from He Yuan to Xiao Yu and his eyes narrowed. Didn't He Yuan say that... Never mind, they'd have that conversation later.
Before the truck drove off, three people with expressionless faces and upright postures slipped out of the base and got into the truck.
Xiao Yu waved them all away with a confused frown. He'd been in this base for over three years, although he didn't know everyone, he knew enough people and would definitely remember if he'd met people with such a temperament before so....
Who exactly were those three that just entered squad leader Ling's truck hm? Again, he was always the most informed so why didn't he know anything anymore?