The next day, in the command center.

"Everyone, I first want to apologize." Xiaoyun bowed down in front of everyone in the room.

"It''s my failure that I couldn''t prevent this tragedy... I''m sincerely sorry."

Seeing Xiaoyun bowed down with no sign of getting back up, Yezi decided to speak up.

"No plan is perfect. At least we learned that those zombie mutants can come in packs like those."

"Yeah, Commander Xiaoyun, there''s no need to be so harsh on yourself... Everyone knows the risk they are signing up for." Han Bang spoke up.

Xiaoyun finally gradually got back up, but his face still looked very down.

"You guys are right... But I cannot excuse myself for this big of a failure... Almost a hundred dead. A. Hundred. Soldiers."

Suddenly, Xiaoyun''s face changed as if he had decided something in his head.

"Today, I''m going to step down as the commander, and Yezi——"

"Absolutely not." Yezi instantly rejected the proposal.

"Xiaoyun, you seem not to understand. You killed over a hundred of thousands of zombies and only lost less than a hundred soldiers. You should be proud of that."

Yezi raised his voice as he added the next part.

"Nobody, I mean nobody can do this without people dying. I would have never come up with this plan. It''s just a small setback, and you''re already calling quit?"

"I——"

"Li Miao, Zhao Ri, do you hate Xiaoyun for coming up with this plan?" Yezi shifted the attention to the two.

"Of course not. We would never blame the commander for not planning something that nobody knew about." Zhen Ren replied first.

"We would have planned something worse that would have gotten everyone killed." Li Miao added.

"Xiaoyun, you see? Nobody is blaming you for this... We should be hearing a new plan from you right now, not some apology." Yezi finally ended his argument.

"You''re right. Those soldier''s efforts shouldn''t go in vain."

Xiaoyun finally looked much more motivated, as he didn''t mention stepping down again.

---

Back in the living room at home.

"Mom... should we do something for Xiaoyun?" Nami asked curiously.

"We should just give him some space for now," Leyan replied as she lifted Yongyi from the floor.

"Really? We''re not going to do anything for him?"

"Later... It''s just not a good time right now." Leyan paused for a second before continuing.

"I know he likes to have some alone time when he''s in deep emotions like these. Besides, what are you going to do? Come up with a military plan for him?" Leyan asked.

"What military plan?" Nami looked confused at Leyan.

"Wuli probably didn''t tell you this... but Xiaoyun''s plan went wrong after some unexpected things happened," Leyan explained.

"Oh..."

As the mood became more grim, Nami decided to bring something up.

"Hey, Mom, are we going to celebrate Xiaoyun and Yueyue''s birthday next week?"

Leyan thought for a second, then replied.

"He said he''ll go back when he finishes, and we can go early."

Kate sighed as she looked extremely bored from doing nothing, but she didn''t want to lose a job that gave such a hefty salary.

"Yueyue will fire us if we go away like that... Whatever, I guess we''re waiting here."

---

When Xiaoyun finally left the office, it was already past eight.

"You two still out here?" Xiaoyun asked as he looked surprised by the two standing outside.

"Yeah, we are just waiting for you... Look like you are done?" Kate noticed Xiaoyun''s tone had completely shifted.

"Yes... It''s the best plan I have ever made. Even Yiming would be surprised by it." Xiaoyun replied with a proud smile.

"Who''s Yiming?" Tianci asked curiously.

"He''s used to work for Xiaoyun... Actually, what happened to him, Xiaoyun?" Kate asked curiously as well, as she couldn''t recall when Yiming disappeared.

"He went back to the military... Anyway, let''s go home now."

---

"Welcome back! What took you guys so long?" Leyan asked as she opened the door for the three.

"Just some work. Is dinner ready?" Xiaoyun asked as he hung his backpack at the door rack.

"Yeah, but all of them have already eaten and gone to sleep early today... but there is still some leftover."

"I''m fine with it."

As the two walked inside the kitchen, Leyan noticed Kate and Tianci standing behind them.

"Oh my, how can I forget? You two must be hungry, too... Let me go cook something right——"

"No need, I can make it for them."

Two plates full of food instantly appeared in front of Xiaoyun, and he handed them over to the two.

As Kate put the plate down at her table, her hands were shaking as if the food in front of her wasn''t real.

"Holy shit! How did you do that? Tianci, you seeing this?!" Kate asked in shock.

"Yeah...you don''t know he can do that?" Tianci replied as she calmly sat down and started eating the food.

"What do you mean? That''s like magic!"

"Leyan, should I tell her?" Xiaoyun whispered into Leyan''s ear.

"Go for it... It''s only a matter of time before she finds out anyway..." Leyan whispered back.

The two separated again as Xiaoyun looked back to Kate.

"Do you want to hear the whole story or just a short version of how I got this power you just saw?" Xiaoyun asked as he got a nod from Leyan.

"Whole story!" Kate immediately replied.

Leyan immediately started blushing as she didn''t want to stay in the kitchen anymore.

"I''m going to sleep now. Goodnight, honey."

Leyan sped off the kitchen as fast as she could before Xiaoyun could even say goodnight.

"Kate, you might have already heard of it last time we met a few months back, but I''m going to explain the whole thing just to clarify it for you..."

As Xiaoyun began explaining from the beginning of his life to the end of Kate, he got so into telling the story that he didn''t even notice Anna, who got out of her room for water.

Intrigued by the story as Xiaoyun kept saying things that were practically impossible, Anna sat down silently next to Tianci and listened in.