Chapter 236 Winning Hearts and Minds
Her voice suddenly turned cold, her gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping over the well opening and everyone who might be eavesdropping: "But if I find out anyone is a traitor, harboring evil intentions... I will make them regret ever being born!"
The thin man stared intently at Josie, seemingly trying to determine the truthfulness of her words.
The people underground were barely able to contain themselves; their groans of hunger and their yearning calls grew louder and louder.
Finally, as if all his strength had been drained, he bent down, carefully picked up the bag of potatoes, and said in a hoarse voice, "...We need time to consider what you're saying."
“Okay,” Josie readily agreed, but then added pressure, “I’ll give you half a day. We still need to search for other survivors, so we won’t be waiting here for long.”
"good."
Qiao Xi said no more, made a gesture, and led the team and Xie Jue back to the open space where they had rested before.
With time running out, Josie decided to split up into two groups.
She originally intended to stay behind and wait for news, while Xie Jue led another team to continue the search.
"No!" Xie Jue immediately objected, his attitude unusually firm. "I'll stay with you and let them go look for you."
He would never leave her side at a time like this, especially after just experiencing a sneak attack.
Looking at the boy's tense face and unwavering gaze, Josie finally relented: "Okay."
So the team split into two: one team continued to explore outwards, while Xie Jue led the rest of the team to guard Qiao Xi.
However, it didn't even take half a day.
About an hour later, the thin man reappeared.
Alone, he slowly emerged from behind the ruins. In the distance behind him, near the broken wall, he could vaguely see several heads cautiously peeking out, full of anticipation and trepidation.
"What you said before... was it all true?" He stopped and asked in a dry voice, keeping a safe distance.
"It's not true. We came all this way, what would we want from you? Would we want you to be starving and skin and bones, or to live in the sewers?"
Josie countered with a slightly teasing tone, which only made it seem more genuine.
The man pursed his chapped lips, his eyes filled with even more struggle, but finally seemed to have made up his mind: "Unless... unless you can prove that you can really turn an ordinary person into a superhuman."
“That’s easy.” Josie seemed to have anticipated his request and turned to Xie Jue for confirmation.
Xie Jue immediately took out a vial of medicine that glowed with a faint blue light from a low-temperature sealed metal box he was carrying and handed it over.
“Wait,” Josie called out to the man who had just taken the potion and was excitedly trying to return, her expression serious. “You’d better find someone with the strongest physique and the most determined will to try it. This potion isn’t 100% successful; there’s a risk of failure. The better their physical condition and mental strength, the greater the chance of success.”
These are points that Fu Jinxing repeatedly emphasized.
The man paused for a moment, and his gaze toward Josie became less suspicious and more complicated.
He nodded emphatically: "Okay, thanks for the reminder."
He returned to the wellhead and whispered a few words to the people below.
Soon, he pulled out a man who was equally thin, but with a significantly larger frame and a more determined look in his eyes.
The man took the blue vial, his hand trembling slightly, but his eyes were exceptionally resolute.
He glanced at Josie and the skinny man, then unhesitatingly pulled out the stopper and drank the potion in one gulp!
All eyes were on him, and the air seemed to freeze.
The burly man who drank the catalyst shuddered violently, his face flushing instantly before the color faded, leaving an eerie grayish-white. He let out a painful growl, curled up on the ground, his muscles convulsing uncontrollably, veins bulging on his forehead, and large beads of sweat rolling down his face.
The survivors by the well let out horrified gasps, and the gaunt leader clenched his fists tightly, looking nervously at Josie.
Josie remained expressionless, simply watching calmly. She knew this was a crucial moment when the catalyst was impacting and altering human genes, a necessary ordeal on the path to rebirth.
Suddenly, clusters of faint but real yellowish-brown light shot up from the surface of the man's body, who was groaning in pain.
The ground beneath him began to tremble slightly, and tiny grains of sand seemed to come alive as they slowly swirled around him!
"It's done!" Xie Jue said in a low voice, a hint of relief flashing in his eyes.
A few seconds later, the earthy yellow light gradually subsided, and the tremors on the ground stopped.
The man, panting heavily, got up from the ground, somewhat bewildered.
He raised his hands in disbelief, and with a slight thought, a crude shield the size of a palm, formed from sand, instantly materialized in his palms!
"I...I..." He was so excited that he couldn't speak coherently. He looked at his hands, then at the thin leader, and finally turned to Josie, kneeling down with a thud. His voice choked with emotion, "Thank you, thank you! I...I have superpowers! I'm an earth-type superpower user!"
This scene was like cold water being poured into boiling oil, instantly causing an uproar among all the survivors watching!
"It's true! It's true!"
"My God! Ordinary people really can awaken!"
"Big brother! We're going too! We're going to the base!"
A mix of longing, excitement, and disbelief nearly set this little corner ablaze.
Everyone who had quietly slipped out of the base stared intently at Josie, as if she were their savior.
The gaunt leader looked at his kneeling companion, then at Josie, and finally took a deep breath, walked up to Josie, and bowed deeply: "We will go with you, please take us in!"
"Please take us in!" Behind him, all the survivors, young and old, bowed in unison, their voices trembling with expectation.
Josie raised her hand in a gesture of support: "Get up, all of you. Come back with us; from now on, we're all family. But..."
She changed the subject, "Before I leave, I need you to do a few things for me."
The gaunt leader immediately responded, his tone resolute: "Just give the order! As long as we can do it."
Josie's gaze swept over the emaciated people, whose eyes, though pale, now held a renewed spark of hope. Her voice was clear and strong: "The extreme cold could return at any time, and our base alone can only save a limited number of people. Humanity must help each other to survive. I need more survivors. You've lived here for so long; you should know which other survivor outposts are nearby, right?"
Her words silenced everyone for a moment, then they all nodded in agreement, deeply moved.
"The leader is right! We can't just think of ourselves!"
"I know! There should be another group of people in the underground parking garage of the department store on West Street, about a dozen or so. The leader is also a fire-type ability user, and I heard he's a pretty good guy!"
"And that abandoned textile factory to the south, it seems there are people hiding inside too, but I don't know exactly how many..."
"I've seen smoke coming from under the bridge arch on the north side before..."
The survivors spoke freely, sharing all the information they knew without reservation.
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