“I don’t believe you ” The woman said spitefully her wrinkled face squeezing together “You don’t truly believe in what’s going on If you are going to lie to my face then why would I come with you What if you are a salesman “
What is this salesman that this woman would fear them so Lucretia asked slightly puzzled
Randidly didn’t have the energy to answer her He had been hard at work for almost an hour now moving people from apartment buildings and condominiums and having them escorted back to the disaster station In the apartments once one person left most people followed drawn by Randidly’s crew’s air horns Their speed also rose noticeably when the first sounds of gunfire echoed in the distance
All in all Randidly had led his team of 6 to clear 5 buildings already They were moving so much faster than the soldier expected that Randidly sent one or two people into each building to pry out recalcitrants who didn’t exit when everyone else did With plant dominance it wasn’t hard to extend his senses into every houseplant and bit of mold in the building resulting in a pretty comprehensive search Things were easier in the buildings
Now they moved into higher end condos and there was significantly more trouble
“Ma’am the power is clearly out ” Randidly said calmly wondering what crime he committed in a past life to deserve this inanity “You can hear gunfire There is no cell service This is an emergency and I would appreciate if you “
The woman a 60ish year old woman with a thick new jersey accent held out a phone to him “I dialed 911 and it’s ringing Now do you see why I can’t come with you You just told me the cell service is out and here it is ringing like normal “
The line clicked and then a voice emerged “Thank you for calling 911 what is your emergency “
Randidly wanted to slap himself in the face Of course Zone 1 took the time to set back up cellular service and of course they didn’t bother to improve it enough that old phones wouldn’t work “Look that was just a guess on my part But you really need to come with me Look your neighbors are departing “
“Bah they are Gentiles They are as gullible as lambs ” the woman said waving her hand dismissively The family in question was a youngish couple with what looked like twin 5 year old boys They carried their children and hurried after one of Randidly’s team members towards the shelter
As Randidly considered his options he felt a pulse of warning from Acri it had encountered a monster in the nearby area that was Level 19 It looked like the rise in Levels was beginning to accelerate
Again Randidly tried to open his mouth to say something but the woman held up a forestalling hand “Get off my front lawn or I’m calling the cops And believe me I’ve made calls before they know they need to respond promptly to my calls “
Then Randidly’s radio squawked “Viking report High sighting for your group “
Grimacing Randidly raised the radio to his mouth and replied “19 “
Randidly’s squad had heard Tatiana say it and now they were saying it too The worst of it all was they all gave him weird looks but said nothing Inwardly Randidly deeply wished someone would say something anything just so he could come clean and make a joke out of it As it was it sounded like some lame codename a tween thought up
The woman of all fucking people snorted “Did they just call you Viking Do you think you are a spy Okay okay get off my land I’ve had enough “
She closed the door in his face Randidly waited three seconds then knocked There was the sound of dragging furniture and Randidly could see through the glass window on the door that the old woman was pulling a fainting couch over to block the door When she noticed his gaze she flipped him off
“Fine ” Randidly said and he turned on his heel and walked away There were still about 30 people left in the neighborhood Beyond the neighborhood there was one more apartment building but Randidly had already sent two of his people ahead to talk to those gathered there and start bringing as many people as they could back
Chapter 528
One thing that Randidly noticed was that there were an absolutely mind boggling amount of people stuffed into these apartment buildings Likely around one thousand a pop His group alone would clear six of such buildings with almost 90% of that group moving back towards the designated location But rather than cheer Randidly up this chilled him to his core
Because the number they had been given was 10 000 people that they could save Randidly estimated that he had already sent 9000 back and that was just his group All in all the 5 groups could bring back 50 000 people assuming that the areas they moved in were similar sizes But Randidly had purposefully chosen the least populated area both because he didn’t want to have to interact overmuch with people and because he trusted that he could cover the most ground At his estimation by gathering information with Plant Dominance there was just shy of 80 000 souls in this newly freed up area
Randidly doubted that he was particularly more inciteful than the officials in the Zone They would likely have reached a similar number or a near estimate based on census information from pre System Yet they had said 10 000
How many people did they think were going to die here And they couldn’t send more military aid
How many people HAD died in situations like this
Randidly helped two more condos one of a couple another of a 10 person extended family when Sulfur sent out a cry Level 21
Fast too fast
Randidly used Plant Dominance again looking for a better picture of what they still needed to do and discovered several monsters lurking on the side streets watching the fleeing refugees that followed the military folk His eyes flashed and then his whole person rippled as he used Spearing Roots to simultaneously kill 12 such monsters
For several seconds the ripples continued until the illusion around Randidly finally settled his identity as Baloo Erickson still intact But he had felt the edges of it there
And also Aether Detection gave him some insight into what is happening The glamour around him was simply a powerfully felt image of a person The Skill left a Mana based medium on Randidly’s body that acted as an anchor to hold the image down and cause other people to see him thus It wasn’t a problem with the medium Randidly wasn’t detecting any weakness from that despite the passage of time Bruya certainly knew how to utilize illusions
BUt Randidly’s images for his Skills were so powerful that they were slowly rubbing away at the image that had been left on him to make him appear like Baloo
Randidly grimaced Did that mean he had to rely on old Skills like Mana Bolt and Arcane Orb It might be worth a try if combat became necessary
His radio squawked again as Randidly jogged back to the edge of his area to assist in the evacuation of the final apartment building “Level 25 spotted Repeat Level 25 spotted The support detachment is preparing to disengage All units prepare to withdraw The high Level monsters will soon arrive “
Randidly’s eyes narrowed into slits Level 25 What happened to
“I thought they were confident up to Level 30 ” Tatiana’s quiet reply came For a second there was silence and then over the radio there was a long sigh from Sergeant Phillip
Ahead of Randidly there was some trouble as a group of teenager got into a fight with one of Randidly’s men They seemed to be refusing to move a lot like the old woman had
Gregory spoke coming over the line “If I pull out now there are probably a couple thousand people just sitting here twiddling their thumbs They will all die I can’t go I’ll stay as long as I have to “
Randidly pressed his eyes closed The problem was the images right So as long as he used a Skill that had a weak image one he hadn’t really worked on he could use it without damaging his illusion overmuch Plus it needed to get attention Although Randidly didn’t like it fear would be best That would get people moving Even if they were wildly stampeding as long as they headed in the right direction it would work out