The one who saved the child, naturally, was Kane.
He sat in his car, watching the ugly scene unfold, and his usually stern face was now so grim it looked like it could drip water.
He hadn't expected that here, in a survivor trading post so close to the military's temporary base, humanity could have degenerated to such a degree! Not just indifferent and selfish, but also full of discrimination against the weak and… baseless malice!
As a soldier whose duty was to "protect the people," he found this cruel reality almost unbearable!
Just as those people were about to rush forward and drag the child down from the tree, Kane's fury finally boiled over.
He didn't get out of the car. He simply sat in the driver's seat, a cold glint flashing in his eyes!
A violent cyclone, its force precisely controlled by him, erupted with his car at its center! The cyclone didn't harm the innocent; instead, like a tangible hand, it slapped every person who had participated in the disturbance and tried to beat the old man and child, knocking them to the ground!
The force wasn't heavy, but it was enough to leave them dusty and disheveled, and more than enough to make them feel the irresistible, immense power of an ability user!
Only after doing all this did Kane push open his car door and step out. His tall figure, carrying a sharp aura like an unsheathed blade, walked straight towards the guard, whose face had already turned pale with fear.
"Are these the rules of your trading post?" Kane's voice was as cold as a Siberian arctic current, filled with angry inquiry. "To turn a blind eye to an old man and child begging for help, and even condone others' violence against them?"
To everyone's surprise, after being intimidated by Kane's powerful presence and abilities, the guard's look of disgust and impatience vanished without a trace, replaced by an extremely natural, almost fawning smile.
He bowed and scraped as he approached, his change of face so fast it was breathtaking.
"Oh, my dear sir, please, calm your anger, calm your anger!" he said, his face wreathed in smiles. "Why didn't you say so earlier? So this old man and child… they're with you! This is all just a misunderstanding! You see, I was just afraid that someone infected might sneak in and threaten everyone's safety! I was just doing it for the good of everyone!"
Kane looked at the guard's sycophantic face and felt a wave of nausea. He couldn't be bothered to waste any more words on someone like this. He just gave him a cold glance, then took a small bag of crystal cores from his pocket and threw it on the ground.
"All of us. Is this enough?"
"Enough, enough! Absolutely enough! You and your friends, please come in, come in!" The guard, like a lapdog, hurriedly picked up the crystal cores from the ground and then personally went to move the barricade for their convoy.
The convoy slowly drove into the trading post. The old man, clutching the still-shaken child, climbed down from the tree and bowed repeatedly in gratitude towards Kane's convoy.
However, even after entering the trading post, Kane's mood remained incredibly heavy.
He looked at the ordinary survivors inside the post, with their numb eyes and sallow faces, and at the ability users or managers, with their relatively neat clothes and arrogant expressions. The invisible yet clear chasm between them made his mood sink to its lowest point.
Is this… the apocalypse?
Without the constraints of law and morality, the ugliness of human nature could be magnified to such an extent.
His hands, gripping the steering wheel, were so tight that his knuckles had turned white.
And… no one is actually in charge.
Kane's gaze swept over the clear class divides and chaotic scenes within the trading post, and the heaviness in his heart deepened.
Elara and the others might not know, but as a soldier who had always served in the regular army, Kane knew with absolute certainty the intense desire for control the military, especially the hard-line, authoritarian high command, had over areas under their jurisdiction.
Logically, since the military's temporary base was established nearby, a survivor trading post of this size would have been their primary target for direct administration and reorganization. If not complete control, they would at least dispatch personnel to maintain basic order and register survivor information. How could they possibly allow it to develop into this law-of-the-jungle, chaotic mess?
This was highly abnormal.
The only explanation was… that for some reason, the temporary base's reach no longer extended this far. Or, they were already too busy dealing with their own problems to have any extra energy to manage this small trading post.
"What's wrong? You seem… to be in a bad mood?" Elara noticed the worry and doubt hidden behind Kane's grim expression and asked softly over the communicator.
Kane was silent for a moment before finally sharing his analysis and concerns briefly with Elara and the others.
"...So, I strongly suspect that our temporary base might also have… some problems we don't know about," Kane's voice was low and heavy.
Hearing Kane's analysis, Cassian and Seraph's expressions also turned serious.
However, Zephyr, at the side, remained as calm as ever, his expression could even be described as… placid, like an undisturbed ancient well. It was as if everything Kane had said was within his expectations.
He just said faintly:
"Internally… it was never a solid block of iron."
His voice was soft, yet it was like a boulder dropped into the lake of Elara's mind, creating a thousand ripples.
Internally… not a solid block of iron?
That sentence, combined with Kane's analysis, and the "late," possibly wiped-out support team they had encountered earlier…
A terrible, yet incredibly logical, speculation gradually began to form in Elara's mind.
It was highly likely that within the military's temporary base, there had already been… a split!
Or even… infighting.