Chapter 305 - 304: The Person Behind the Rebel Is Actually Him

Chapter 305: Chapter 304: The Person Behind the Rebel Is Actually Him

"Let me." Julian Fletcher appeared out of nowhere, volunteering to pay the bill.

I glanced left and right, but his little shadow, Erin Whittaker, was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if he had completely given up on her.

With a cold sneer, I gestured for him to go ahead. "Please, President Fletcher."

Since Julian was so rich, he could be the one to pay. Between the medical bills for Erin’s parents and the gifts he had bought her, he must have spent at least several million, if not over ten million, on her in the past.

Julian gave me a complicated look and opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"These prices... we really can’t afford them. I only have thirty thousand in my bank account," Zeke Shaw said, scratching his head. And that thirty thousand was just money he had forgotten about in an online savings account.

Madeline Quinn gave a sheepish smile. "I have... five thousand."

We were truly one poorer than the next.

"I..." I thought about it. Other than Asher, I seemed to have absolutely nothing. "I only have Asher..." I added, feeling a little embarrassed.

I had no money, and Asher wasn’t even here.

"I..." Julian subconsciously started to say something, but swallowed his words. He had been injured earlier, and his face still looked quite pale.

"He has money too. Let him buy it!" Felix Foster pointed at Killian Lancaster. "Hey, boss, you’ve been standing there smiling like an idiot this whole time. Aren’t you going to pitch in?"

The smile faded from Killian’s face, and he went silent.

"So stingy. What’s the point of making all that money if you’re not going to spend it? Saving it to buy a coffin?" Felix mocked.

Killian looked at Ace. "What do you want to eat?"

The rest of us rolled our eyes. Clearly, he was playing favorites.

Ace smiled and walked over to Julian. "I want a sandwich."

She wanted Julian to buy it for her.

Julian nodded. "Okay."

He was certainly spoiling her. Madeline rolled her eyes in disgust, and I did the same.

Stella Abbott bought bread and milk for the two kids. Just those basic items alone cost five hundred thousand.

"They might as well just rob us outright, but they insist on giving us bread in return. They’re playing with us," Lucas Grant grumbled.

"Gigi, you should eat some too. Eat up," Stella Abbott said, having bought some food for Gigi as well.

Gigi had been taking care of Adrian Lancaster and Stella, acting very much like a big sister even though she was only a young teenager herself.

"Have a little more, Gigi." I rubbed her head. She originally had the chance to leave the ship, but she stayed.

Gigi nodded and began eating in large bites.

"This is daylight robbery! Where are we supposed to get that kind of money? Three hundred thousand for a single sandwich—why don’t you just kill us!"

While some could afford it, there were obviously those who couldn’t. It was clear that only a small minority could afford to eat at these prices. Spending hundreds of thousands on a single meal was unsustainable for anyone. Eating today meant having nothing for tomorrow.

The terrifying prospect of starvation loomed over everyone.

"Hand over the food!" A riot was already breaking out.

I had anticipated this. Grabbing Gigi and the two kids, I quickly pulled them back.

"Julian went to get the food!" Zeke shouted, rushing forward to protect him, but the sudden surge of the crowd blocked Julian’s path.

He had grabbed some food, and people were swarming him to snatch it away. Not everyone could afford bread and water that cost over a hundred thousand.

Zeke, Lucas, and Felix all charged in, trying to protect Julian and the food he had bought. But in the chaos, all three of them got beaten up.

And not a single crumb of food was saved.

In just three minutes, Julian had lost a million dollars.

While the money was nothing to him, the incident showed just how crazy people could get when faced with extreme hunger and a threat to their survival. They only dared to snatch the food from Julian’s hands, but not from the counter, because the people running the stall were armed.

Someone fired a shot into the ceiling, and the crowd finally quieted down.

I watched as Julian, Lucas, Felix, and Zeke stumbled out of the crowd, looking completely disheveled. Their faces were scratched up, and though it was a miserable sight, it was also highly comical.

Madeline couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

Julian’s expression was awful as he walked over with a dark scowl.

"You were too flashy. Most of these people can’t afford to eat. You should consider yourself lucky they only robbed you of the food you bought in bulk," Killian remarked calmly, offering his hindsight wisdom.

Julian ignored him. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a heavily squished sandwich and hesitated for a moment. He tore the sandwich in half, giving one piece to me and the other to Ace.

Ace didn’t say anything; she just took it calmly and ate it. In times like these, refusing food out of pride was basically asking for death.

I didn’t throw my half away, given the severe food shortage. Instead, I handed it to Madeline.

She opened her mouth to say something, but seeing my insistence, she eventually ate it.

"Everyone, rest up and conserve your energy," Zeke instructed, leading us all back to our rooms.

"Where’s Gigi?" Madeline suddenly realized that the young girl was missing.

I froze. She was just here a moment ago.

"Gigi!"

The riot had drawn everyone’s attention, and in the confusion, Gigi had disappeared. We had no idea where she had gone.

"You guys head back first. I’ll go look for her," I said, my worry growing.

Zeke shook his head. "We can’t let you search alone."

"Let’s look for her together," Felix suggested, scanning the dispersing crowd.

"I saw her go that way," little Stella said, pointing toward the far end of the warehouse doors.

There was a passageway there. No one else seemed to have noticed it, and it likely led to an area of the ship we had never been to before.

We walked over and called down the passage, "Gigi?"

There was no response.

"Gigi?" I called out again and was about to head down when Julian suddenly grabbed my arm.

"It’s too dangerous down there. It’s pitch black. Gigi is so timid; there’s no way she’d go down by herself." He didn’t want me to go.

"But I really saw her go in," Adrian Lancaster insisted earnestly.

"Let’s all go down together to bolster our courage," Zeke suggested, eyeing the dark depths.

We descended the stairs. It was so dark at the bottom that we couldn’t even see our own hands in front of our faces; there wasn’t even a faint sliver of light.

I wondered how a little girl like Gigi, who was so afraid of the dark, had found the courage to come down here.

"Did you guys hear that?" I asked in a low whisper.

"This way." In the darkness, Adrian’s small hand grabbed mine, leading me deeper into the gloom.

This ship held too many undiscovered secrets, and I was beginning to get a bad feeling. There had to be something hidden down here that we didn’t know about.

"Gigi?" Suddenly, I heard footsteps echoing not too far away in the darkness, and I called out hesitantly.

No one answered.

"Don’t be afraid, Mom. There’s no one here. It’s coming from the other side of the corridor," Adrian explained softly.

He seemed to be able to see perfectly in the dark, as if his night vision was far superior to ours.

"If this continues, there won’t be any supplies left on the ship. We can’t drag this out any longer. If we still can’t find the CEO of Astraeus Group, The Genetics Organization will likely destroy this ship."

I spotted a faint sliver of light in the darkness. Pressing my ear against the wall, I listened closely and realized it was people from The Resistance discussing their next move.

I furrowed my brow, my breathing hitching.

That voice... The person wasn’t using a voice changer, so I could hear her perfectly. The speaker was a woman, and her voice sounded exactly like Peach.

But wasn’t she already dead?

"The Genetics Organization wants to eradicate the problem at its root. The people on this cruise ship know too many secrets. They won’t leave anyone alive, except for those who are useful to them.

"We’ve already achieved our goal. The police are on high alert, and we’ve got our hands on the ship’s secrets regarding The Genetics Organization. We just need to expose it all, and then we can stop."

On the other side of the wall, the members of The Resistance were still deliberating. The anxious, pleading voice sounded just like Peach. She was trying to persuade someone to stop, but that person remained silent.

Who could it be?

"Sister!" Suddenly, Gigi’s shout echoed through the darkness, startling the people in the room. "It’s so dark!"

I dashed over, wanting to cover her mouth, but it was too late.

The door swung open, and light poured out from within. A figure stood silhouetted against the bright glare.

I stood completely frozen in the darkness, my breath catching in my throat.

It was him...