Chapter 228: A Losing Game

Gideon tapped his finger against the table faster than before, his brows tightly knitted as his thoughts connected one possibility after another.

At this point, why no longer mattered. The Scions of the Lord had already made their objective painfully clear.

The real question was what. What exactly happened after someone was infected? More importantly, what did the parasite actually gain by infecting so many people?

His fingers suddenly stopped.

"I think I understand it now." His voice was calm, but everyone in the room immediately turned toward him. "The colony isn’t the final objective. It’s only preparation. They’re infecting as many people as possible because those people are meant to become food."

"Once enough hosts have gathered, they’ll willingly offer themselves to a King, just like what happened to the Eagle Union. The parasite doesn’t simply want more infected people. It wants to strengthen the King and maybe control them..."

’Just like Henry did to the traveler group and that Verdant Devourer,’ he thought.

Even Violet and Azul couldn’t hide the disgust on their faces after hearing that conclusion. Patrick, however, remained thoughtful as he unconsciously rubbed his chin before speaking.

"That theory would make sense if there were an active King nearby. Unfortunately for them, Deliric Desert never has one to begin with. The nearest King is the one sleeping inside White Death, and if I were the Prophet, I wouldn’t move against it now."

Gideon immediately understood there had to be a reason. "Because of winter?"

Patrick nodded. "Exactly. Most winter aberrants only exist during winter. Once spring arrives, they either die or enter hibernation, which is why every winter they become far more aggressive than usual."

"They need to eat constantly before the season ends, especially females that require enormous amounts of nutrients before laying eggs. If the Prophet truly intends to feed an entire colony to a King, spring would be the perfect time. The King awakens from hibernation while already having enough biomass to continue evolving."

Gideon leaned back slightly, but the explanation somehow only made the situation worse. "Unless..." he murmured.

Patrick looked at him. "Unless feeding the King isn’t even their priority."

The room grew noticeably quieter as Patrick slowly continued. "What if the Prophet’s real objective is simply to keep both you and Jade trapped inside your own territories?"

"Look at your current situation. One settlement is dealing with engineered parasites, the other with Pyrovour Borealis. Both crises demand manpower, resources and constant surveillance. Even if both of you manage to prevent a complete disaster, you’ll still spend the entire winter reacting instead of acting."

Gideon quietly nodded. "And by the time spring arrives..."

Patrick finished his sentence without hesitation. "Your settlements will be exhausted, your manpower divided, and every infected person you failed to identify may already have become another member of their colony or died because of the hyponatremia caused by the grave flowers."

Gideon’s tapping stopped altogether. "Killing two birds with one stone."

"Exactly." Patrick sighed. "No matter which problem you choose to prioritize, the Prophet benefits. If you focus on the infected, the flowers continue growing. If you destroy the flowers, the colony expands. You’re trapped in a situation where every decision costs you something."

Gideon slowly exhaled through his nose as frustration built inside his chest. He hated this feeling more than anything else.

It wasn’t fear or panic. It was the realization that, for the first time in a long while, someone else had managed to dictate the pace of the game while he could do nothing except respond to every move.

"Fuck."

A moment later, the two Freebound members entered together. Kilian gave Gideon a brief nod before relaxing his posture, while Aaron simply lifted one hand in greeting, the cigarette tucked between his fingers was almost finished, he was clearly stressed.

"Gideon," Kilian said with a small smile. "Jade asked us to come get you. The meeting will start with or without you, she said but she also emphasizes to drag your ass here as fast as possible."

Aaron glanced toward the reinforced room where Ethan slept, his expression becoming slightly more serious.

"Hopefully they brought better news than whatever the hell is happening in there. Because if the guilds are here just to tell us that everything is getting worse, I might actually lose my patience."

Patrick let out a tired sigh and nodded in agreement.

Gideon looked toward the old professor. "You’ll come with us?"

Patrick shook his head slightly. "A lot of things need to be done, I am more useful here."

The old professor gave him a faint smile. "I’ll summarize everything once we’re finished. Hopefully, by then, we’ll have a clearer picture of what we’re dealing with."

Gideon nodded before leaving the containment tent together with Aaron and Kilian.

"I’ll walk once we arrive at Climber Rift." He leaned back against the seat as the truck started moving. "I want to see the settlement with my own eyes. If we’re lucky, we might spot more infected people before they start showing obvious symptoms."

He turned toward Kilian. "And tell Jade to be patient. She’s good at dealing with those fussy guild representatives, isn’t she?"

Aaron glanced out the window before shrugging. "Well, at least I won’t be the one getting lectured later."

The truck rumbled forward in silence for a while before finally passing through Climber Rift’s main gate. The difference was immediately obvious. The streets were far busier than they had been that morning.

Freebound members patrolled every corner while groups of Path Finders moved through the market, questioning merchants and checking temporary shelters one by one. It seemed Jade had mobilized almost everyone she could spare.

They parked the vehicle before taking a walk to the Freebound HQ. Observing the crowds more carefully while talking.

Gideon’s eyes swept across the crowd before he frowned. "Not a good idea."

Kilian glanced and asked, "Hm? What do you mean?"

"The Path Finders. Tell Jade to send them back to their original positions. If the Scions of the Lord make another move while every scout is gathered here, we’ll be completely blind."

Aaron quietly shook his head. "That’ll leave Climber Rift weaker than it already is." He flicked the cigarette before putting it between his lips. "Freebound doesn’t even have enough members to match half the civilian population. If these people suddenly turn into zombies, at least we’ll still have armed men ready to put them down."

Gideon raised a brow. "So your solution is killing your own people?"

Aaron looked at him, unfazed. "If nothing else works, yes. If this really turns into a zombie apocalypse, that’s exactly what every government would do. They’d either execute the infected or bomb the whole settlement before it spreads."

He chuckled quietly before adding, "Our leader is a lot more pragmatic than most people think."

Gideon answered with nothing more than a faint smirk while Kilian let out a dramatic groan.

"Can you stop saying things like that?" he complained. "Every time you open your mouth, I feel like the world’s about to end."

Aaron shrugged. "I’m just being realistic."

"Yeah? Then be realistically quiet for once."

They laughed and kept walking, their eyes kept looking at the crowds and even their own men. It has been established that people who get infected would forget they were infected until too late.

Kilian eventually sighed before his expression softened. "Anyway... how’s my wife? And that little devil?"

"You mean Oliver?" Gideon couldn’t help smiling. "He’s doing fine. Still capable of giving every grown man in the house a headache whenever he cries."

Aaron immediately nodded."That’s the most terrifying weapon I’ve encountered this month."

"And your wife..." His expression became gentler. "She keeps asking to come here. I had to stop her more than once. She misses you, Kilian, and she’s worried."

Kilian didn’t answer immediately. For a few seconds, the only sound of the busy market filled them as he stopped walking.

"...Yeah. Don’t let her come." He rubbed the back of his neck before forcing out a small smile. "Lock her inside the territory if you have to. At least Oliver already has a weapon to defend himself."

Aaron snorted. "You mean those lungs?"

"They’re stronger than mine."

"I believe that."

The three of them laughed again. It wasn’t because anything had become easier.

If anything, the situation continued getting worse with every passing hour. But sometimes, a terrible joke was the only thing keeping people sane long enough to face another disaster.

But Gideon’s eyes suddenly found something interesting. A man who was talking to a merchant suddenly stopped and murmured something before looking straight at him.

His instinct said it was another infected person. However, some people suddenly stopped and looked at them, the same way that man did. Worse, they started to walk slowly towards them.

"Shit, take out your weapon!" Gideon said, making Kilian and Aaron startled, but their hands moved to take their gun, ready to attack any time soon.