Chapter 121: Bullshitting
Chapter 121: Bullshitting
Amanda and the young man nodded quickly, turning on their heels to lead the way toward the dark silhouette waiting on the distant horizon.
They walked across the hard-packed terrain for several long minutes. The entire time, Uhtred was internally thankful that they had chosen to remain completely silent.
The silence allowed him to focus internally on his new sub-cause as they digested the residual essence he had just cultivated with.
But after nearly ten minutes of walking, Amanda finally broke the silence, clearly attempting to strike up a casual conversation to ease the thick tension hanging over their group.
She glanced over her shoulder at Uhtred, her eyes tracing his torn clothing and marred skin.
"So, what exactly happened to you after the integration? I mean, look at you. One minute the world is normal, and the next, your name is sitting at the top of the global leaderboard in this new reality."
"Nothing special," Uhtred replied flatly. "Just like you, I also found myself dropped into a sector. I spent the last two weeks fighting off whatever beasts crossed my path, doing what I had to do to survive. And somehow, every single time I ended up in a fight with a dangerous beast that should have killed me twice over, I just happened to be the one standing on top at the end of the day."
Amanda let out a low chuckle, shaking her head as a knowing smile touched her lips. She clearly knew fully well that Uhtred was just bullshitting her.
"You haven’t changed a single bit, have you?" Amanda laughed, her tone carrying a trace of genuine amusement.
"Still exactly the same as always. So incredibly cautious, never willing to divulge a single piece of real information to anyone. Do you really expect me to believe that? There is absolutely no way the number one ranked human on the entire planet simply stumbled into the top spot without making a conscious effort to get there."
Uhtred simply offered her a lazy, unbothered smile, completely refusing to elaborate further on anything about himself.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to budge, Amanda shifted her focus, looking ahead toward the distant silhouette as she changed the topic.
"To be honest, I’ve only known Black Sun for a short while," Amanda explained, her voice dropping into a more reflective tone. "I only ended up crossing paths with him about a week after the integration."
Uhtred listened quietly as she began to detail her own experience. As he did, he realized this was the first time he was actually hearing another person’s perspective of how the integration affected them.
"The sector I was dropped into was located out in the open oceans," Amanda explained. "It was a small, barren island within Zone 0, just one tiny rock among a cluster of other islands within the same region."
She paused for a second.
"Black Sun was dropped into a completely different island sector nearby. But within less than a week, he had already consolidated his strength, built his power, and reached his hands into every other surrounding island... And honestly, it was a miracle he did."
Amanda glanced at Uhtred, an indescribable horror in her eyes.
"To a lot of outsiders who don’t know him, Black Sun probably looks like a tyrant. And in truth, if I’m being completely honest, he actually is a tyrant. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything outside of his own survival and the people he chooses to keep close to him. But at the same time, he is very fair. He rules by his own rigid standards, and his tyranny still carries a clear sense of order and justice to it."
As Uhtred listened to her explanation, a brief wave of wistful understanding washed through his mind.
Without Amanda needing to spell out the exact graphic details, he could easily picture the raw, lawless horror that must have taken place on those isolated islands before Black Sun intervened to establish his rule.
He reckoned the social dynamics weren’t any different from the sector where he had initially arrived to.
In his own zone, a thug like Scorpion had immediately attempted to terrorize every weaker survivor around him, specifically targeting the women first.
Women were indisputably the most vulnerable in this brand new, completely lawless world.
Too many small-minded people who suddenly found themselves wielding power immediately chose to use that strength to subjugate the weak and to act on their carnal desires.
Black Sun, whatever his flaws, had at least used his power to stamp out that chaos.
Uhtred pulled his mind back to the present moment, continuing to listen attentively as Amanda detailed what had occurred after their sectors stabilized.
In summary, Black Sun had successfully brought order to the entire chain of islands, expanding his direct sphere of influence further into the deep waters until the global trial notice had appeared to yank them all to Australia.
Of course, within the trial grounds, the rules were entirely different, but Black Sun still maintained that same logic and authoritative worldview.
Listening to Amanda’s tone, Uhtred quickly realized that she viewed Black Sun with a level of reverence.
It wasn’t exactly that she was blindly fawning over the man like a schoolgirl, but Uhtred could recognize the underlying psychological signs of survival dependency.
She had been trapped in a horrific situation, and Black Sun had been the savior that liberated her.
Under those conditions, there was absolutely no way she was going to view the man in a negative light, even if his methods were inherently brutal.
Recognizing that bias, Uhtred carefully filtered the information she was feeding him, choosing to discard her emotional praise and leave his true impressions of Black Sun to be formed when he finally looked him in the eyes.
And speaking of Black Sun, they were now much closer to him.
At this short distance, Uhtred’s enhanced perception allowed him to easily pick out the fine physical details of the figure ahead.
The terrain was still flat and hard-packed, but Black Sun was currently standing atop a slightly elevated slope, his arms crossed as he silently watched their three-man group approach from the dark plains.
As Uhtred began to analyze the man, he also noticed something else, and his eyes darted to the left and right of the surroundings.
Thanks to his high perception, he could make out several human figures hidden in the natural folds and dips of the dark landscape.
Back when he had been farther from Black Sun, he hadn’t been able to spot these people, but now that he was this close, he could see every one of them clearly. This entire slope was the first line of sentry outposts for their camp.
As Uhtred ascended the slight incline alongside Amanda and the silent young man whose name he still hadn’t bothered to ask, his focus returned to Black Sun.
He was analyzing the man from head to toe, the same way the man was currently analyzing him too.
Black Sun was not particularly massive. He stood at roughly five feet eight inches at most, making him just slightly shorter than Uhtred or right around his exact height.
His physical build was completely average, carrying no massive, bulging muscles or fear-instilling physical traits that would power.
Yet, despite his unassuming size, his presence naturally radiated a domineering aura of authority...