Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System Chapter 250: Fight or Flight

After becoming a Rank Seven Ruler, I gained an increased amount of territory that I could mark as my own. The amount of land I could convert now allowed to cover an urban block—despite this, I am unable to cover the entire Jiang compound.

However, it gave a choice.

To protect the people in the central mansion buildings, or the outer area where the soldiers and lower-ranked people close to the walls lived.

"Haa..." A sigh left my lips as I leaned against the backrest of my sofa.

Mu Qinglan and Jiang Roulan sat on either side of while Shen Yifei lay on the opposite sofa, kicking her legs in a short skirt and loose t-shirt.

"Do you think we can win?"

"Nonsense, has John led us into danger before?"

"Mmm~ he has though, right? The mall was horrible." Yifei leaned on her side, her fangs nibbling her lips as she mumbled.

"Shut it dumb blonde!"

Jiang Roulan showed her concern as she leaned against and ran her soft fingertips along my skin. I could feel the faint tremble from ti to ti while Mu Qinglan remained adamantly sure that I wouldn’t fail them.

The pressure from such blind faith was both supporting and a little overbearing. If I could show so weakness, they wouldn’t look to as their rock. However, if I did that when the situation turned dire, the won would lose all hope and trust in .

"John, what are your orders."

She looked at with her crystal clear eyes, icy blue and filled with my reflection.

"We cannot abandon Roulan’s family, and the people here could help in the future. At least that’s my thoughts."

"..."

"Forgive ... if we didn’t co here, you wouldn’t be face with such a burden."

Jiang Roulan spoke softly, her head buried into my neck, the soft breath from her mouth brushing across my throat. "John, please don’t let them die. My mother... and grandfather."

"I can’t promise anything, you know that I am not so invincible hero."

Although I said that I would do everything possible to help, my priority isn’t her family, but the won who have shared the most ti with . I couldn’t help it, and the thought made a bitter taste spread across the back of my mouth. I was no hero, but the Jiang family wasn’t so ordinary family either.

"All I can promise you." I gently stroked her cheek, the softness like a cloud, "I will fight until the end, and keep you girls safe." Her eyes, half-lidded, fluttered as her gaze focused on . "Do you understand, you are the most important to ... I cannot change that, no. I will not change that."

My words almost appeared to echo in the room, as the three won looked at , with varied responses.

"..."

Qinglan’s smile grew, and her cheeks flushed lightly with a soft pink hue. While gently stroking my thigh, she turned away, as if too shy to look directly.

"Hmph, I knew you’d pick us..." Yifei rolled her eyes and leaned further into the sofa, her lips pouted, and her expression filled with a performative anger, but the curl of her lips and brightness in her voice betrayed her moody act.

Jiang Roulan clasped my hand against her cheek, "I know, if you can just try, that’s more than enough for . John." She shifted and pressed her mouth against my palm, kissing lightly. The warmth of her breath spread through, a soft and comforting scent of coconut from the shampoo she used.

"Mmm." A slight groan left her mouth as I brushed her silky lips with my thumb, squishing them like jelly.

"Then I should start preparing, we don’t have long left..."

My eyes flicked to the corner of my vision where the dreaded tir continued to tick, without caring for my current state or desires.

[Ti until horde arrives: 32 hours]

"Phew... I would have liked to spend ti with you three, but I have to visit the front walls."

With that sentence, the room beca stiff, a sense of resignation and fear lood in the air like a dark cloud, even though we had the bonus of ti to prepare. The size and power of the zombie horde would cause catastrophic damage.

"I want you all to gather together, if things get out of control, I need you all to help each other, understand?"

He knew that these won fought behind his back, had little competitions about who would sleep in his bed, and if he gave one priority, the other two would team up on her... But with the addition of Tang Wei, the balance would soon start to shift.

"Where are you going?"

"I told you, to the front walls."

"..."

Qinglan seed overly concerned; her eyes wavered, unlike usual. "Wanna co with ?" So I made an offer. Her expression lit up as she jumped to her feet, almost tripping on the coffee table, before stumbling to her feet and gripping Eternal Night in her right hand. "I’ll co!" She said with a sharp and enthusiastic voice.

"Good, let’s head out. We don’t have the ti to waste."

I looked at Roulan, who watched with a half-absent-minded expression, "Roulan, please gather our people, Zhou Xue, Chen Xun, Deng Hua, Liang i and Liang Qiu and have them eat, shower and prepare themselves. I will try to be back in the next twelve hours, brief them and have them start preparing their arrows, bullets and magazines."

Without sothing to keep Jiang Roulan occupied, I thought she might collapse or beco depressed, so I gave her a job to do. She gave a slight nod and stood up from the couch, looking at Yifei before heading to the door and opening it. "I will do it." With a determined look, she left the room with Shen Yifei in tow.

"Haa... so much work to do."

I had almost forgotten that Mu Qinglan was beside and let my true feelings slip... a mistake.

"John...?" She watched with concerned eyes, her voice wavering. "Will it... really be okay?"

"Who knows, but if it isn’t, then we’ll have tried everything and we’ll die together." I didn’t feel the need to hide my fear of the horde from her. Lan’er was my first girlfriend and the woman I trusted best.

"I will support you, what do you need? How can I help you? I can help arranging the people, form groups to restock ammunition, replenish food and support. Anything, have you forgotten who I am?"

A gentle and caring smile spread across her lips, and her eyes narrowed as she brushed so loose strands from her hair. "You are not alone in this. You have , the others... even that Jiang Siwan."

The words sounded different from the usual Qinglan, almost nostalgic as she stared at with a powerful glare. "Don’t forget who I am!"

"You’re right, I am stupid for forgetting why I fell in love with you in the first place... CEO Mu Qinglan, please offer your expertise, if I step on the wrong path or make a mistake in your eyes." I took a deep breath, the cool air calming as it carried her scent. "Please speak up and guide ."

"If that’s what you want, I can do it." Her lips curled into a smile as she reached forward.

The softness of her palm caressed the back of my hand before her long, delicate fingers slipped into mine. She squeezed them tightly and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Then we have to prepare the defense first." A cold, but sincere voice reached my ears. "Co on, let’s go, John. We don’t have ti."

I took her hand and headed toward the front wall, the main entrance to the compound, and where I expected the brunt of the horde to arrive. It would take a while, as we needed a small jeep to reach, but thanks to the eting and my current status at the base, we borrowed one without any issues.

Although Tang Wei and Li Ya ended up tagging along.

***

"So, there’s going to be a huge horde coming?" Li Ya’s fiery red hair almost glowed in the sunlight, her red eyes scanning the horizon with a look of concern. "It’s a little scary. But also exciting!"

"You psychopath... haven’t you thought of how dangerous it’ll be?" Tang Wei peeked at while refuting her sister in arms, both of them wearing the ECS-05 bodysuits.

While the two spoke about the upcoming battle and danger, I closed my eyes and swept through the System panels. All to prepare for the war, I needed more currency.

I would like to sell half my cores.

Because of the situation, I only gave a small fraction of cores to Jiang Siwan, who now understood the dangers of swallowing raw orbs.

With a Stage Four core in my possession and close to six hundred Stage Two cores... I planned to boost the base’s combat abilities.

[Confirmation]

[Sell 326 Stage 2 Cores for: 1,638,000 ZKP]

[Sell 32 Stage 3 Cores for: 320,000 ZKP]

[Yes | No]

’Sell them, and calculate the best possible way to empower the 250 soldiers I have just recruited... enough to fight a horde with an average level of Stage Two zombies.’

[Confird!]

[Analysing Request: ...1%]

Although this might help, I still needed sothing else. An important question remained at the back of my mind.

Because I couldn’t do everything, I needed help.

’System... Can i grant system access to Lan’er to help ?’