Darren has no choice but to meet them since they forced their way in. He was worried Henry’s men might use force and hurt his people. "I will go with you." Nyra instantly offered. He was about to refuse, but seeing the determination in her eyes, he knew words were useless. She was too stubborn once she had decided on something. In the end, it wasn’t only her who joined him. There were also Zerra and Cassias. They seemed to have an inkling about the reason Henry was making trouble again this time. It must have been related to their forceful way of entering the base. "I will also go." Jake, who had just cleaned himself, also wanted to join. "I have something I need to talk about with Mr. Brown anyway." Zerra had a faint guess what it was. When they finally met each other and gathered in one room, Zerra saw Daisy. The latter rolled her eyes when she noticed Zerra’s gaze, sitting lazily on her seat. Eh? Was the effect of the mutated mushroom that bad? It must have been the case if they were exposed to it for too long. Daisy’s personality change was too great. If these people really had contact with a suspicious scientist, she suspected he must have done something to them too. "What do you want?" Darren was straight to the point. A displeased look was painted all over his face. Henry was sitting in a chair, looking extremely relaxed. "It should have been me who felt displeased, Valez." Darren knitted his eyebrows, impatient. He didn’t respond and waited for Henry’s next words. Henry narrowed his eyes before he clicked his tongue at Darren’s unyielding gesture. He swept his gaze across all the people behind Darren. He pointed at them. "They have been making trouble at the base, injuring a lot of people. How do you plan to take responsibility for this? They did that to find you." Nyra frowned. She was about to speak, but Darren stopped her. He turned to Henry. "That’s because you are trying to stop them from entering. All people are free to go in or out of the base." Henry nodded at that, rubbing his chin. "But don’t you think it’s still too much to hurt our people ? They are the ones at the forefront of protecting our base after all. What if our ability users are gone? Zombies will attack us." He was saying so much nonsense that Zerra was tired from listening. Nyra seemed to share the same feeling, so she opened her mouth. "Quit the nonsense. How do you want us to be responsible?" Darren pursed his lips, and Henry gave Nyra a crooked smile. It looked malicious. "How about you give half of your people to the Brown family, Darren? They will surely thrive more in our care." "Not a chance!" Darren snapped when he heard that. His breathing became rough. "Oh?" Henry narrowed his eyes. "But we can’t house people who hurt others arbitrarily ." "Either they get out of the base or you take responsibility for soothing our ability users’ wounded hearts." He smiled eerily. Then, he stood up. "I will give you two days to think and prepare the compensation." Thıs text ıs hosted at 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚•𝙣𝙚𝙩 "Then, I won’t bother you anymore. Make sure you are prepared, Darren." The last sentence sounded like a threat. He gave two days because he knew they were already pushed into a corner. People that the Valez family had recruited, most of them had left them. It was about time the Valez family crumbled. Zerra knitted her eyebrows. She glanced at Nyra, who was trying to console Darren. Henry had left, followed by his men. Some of them sneered condescendingly at them as they walked out of the door. They didn’t forget to destroy some items in the room too, laughing uproariously. Darren rubbed his temples, and they went back to the previous discussion that had been interrupted by Henry. Zerra had missed quite a bit of the discussion, but Cassias readily filled in all the information she needed to know. "They have too many people on their side." Darren took a deep breath. "I have been thinking about moving to the Capital, but the transportation wouldn’t be enough for us all. We can’t afford to leave anyone behind." "Moreover, it is impossible for Henry to let us go. He wanted to get rid of us all," Darren added. They only let them stay alive because crystal cores taken out of the ability users’ brains would have their energy dissipating slowly upon the owner’s death. So, the Brown family wanted to keep it ’fresh’, treating them like livestock. Perhaps that was the main reason Henry wasn’t in a hurry to kill them all. He wanted to toy with them first. "Not all the people on his side are aware of his evil deeds, right?" Zerra pondered. "Only some of them had committed such an inhumane act?" Darren nodded. "Yes. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to get a share of the pie. Henry still wanted to maintain the order somehow, while desiring to be one of the strongest humans." He turned to Jake. "Most ability users from the residential area he had brought are all aware." It wasn’t his intention to blame Jake. Darren quickly looked away. But... it was still hard to let go of it. Jake pursed his lips. The people who were once his neighbours were more than aware Henry was using human crystal cores to improve his power. They were also doing that. They were beyond saving. Suddenly, Jake had a vague realization. He seemed to have an inkling of where this conversation was heading. After Henry left the room, he went to find him to convey his answer. He didn’t want to join the Brown family. Daisy’s eyes were sharp as she was staring at him, filled with anger. Zerra glanced at Jake, who had fallen into a daze at some point in time. She had already thought of a solution. Her eyes swept over all the faces in the room; most of them had grim looks. She opened her mouth. "I have an idea."