After waiting in the hallway for three minutes, the soldiers were able to catch all of the scientists in the security room.

As Xiaoyun entered the room, he suddenly realized how important the key card was after walking past the control panel.

It could have turned on the turret at the front gates and even self-destruct the entire base with an emergency button.

"You guys might be surprised to see me here. But my name is Xiaoyun, I''m from Luoping——"

"You''re the one that killed Professor Pan?" One of the scientists interrupted and asked.

"Yes. I killed him because he violated the law——"

"What law?"

Xiaoyun didn''t answer the scientist, but his cold stare, combined with all the soldiers standing in silence, made them shut their mouths.

"You know, you guys aren''t the first ones that I had caught conducting a human experiment——"

"W-We didn''t do that. O-Only Professor Pan did it." One of the younger scientists pointed out.

"Yeah, we never used it on any human. We only did the statistic..."

"We''re just following orders. We never wanted to do this..."

Seeing the scientist blaming a dead man, Xiaoyun suddenly had a flashback to when he met Tianci for the first time.

As the scientists became increasingly energetic in arguing back and shifting their blame onto the masked man, Xiaoyun''s face got colder and colder.

"Is that all you guys got to say?"

Suddenly, Xiaoyun fell back onto the chair seat, looked up at the ceiling, and burst into laughter.

"You know, I used to believe that every person should be given a second chance... But I realized how much trouble and pain they have to go through dealing with my belief."

Xiaoyun lowered his head back down and stared right at the oldest scientist in the eye. His arm was positioned straight forward as if he was holding a pistol aiming at their head.

"Following order... Do you know who else uses this defense in the history book?"

All of the scientists remained silent, but their faces showed nervousness as sweat began coming down from their foreheads despite Xiaoyun''s hand being empty.

"PhD students can''t even answer me about basic history lessons. Isn''t that laughable? You guys committed a war crime and can''t even admit it."

Suddenly, a bright flash appeared before their eyes, followed by a loud bang echoing in the room.

"Ah!"

Several of the scientists screamed out in panic as their fellow scientists fell right onto the floor, with blood coming out of their foreheads.

The soldiers immediately raised their rifles, signaling all the scientists to stay still as they bumped their heads with it.

"Some people just don''t deserve a second chance... Finish them off."

"You can''t do this to us, you butcher——"

Hearing Zhen Ren''s optimism, everyone was a little surprised as he only had 5000 soldiers with him when he was sent to Foshan.

They were all expecting that a zombie horde would have pushed them back to Guangdong and required them to save the day.

"That''s good to hear... Zhen Ren, are you confident you can lead the charge to clear Foshan?"

The sudden question caught Zhen Ren off-guard, but he instantly saluted towards Xiaoyun.

"Yes, sir! I''m ready to do whatever is necessary to clear the city!"

"Very well, then. Since we are all here, I have an important announcement to make for everyone."

Xiaoyun reached inside his jacket and pulled out a piece of letter, then handed it over to Zhen Ren.

"Inside the letter is your promotion to Colonel. Congrats!"

Everyone in the room froze for a second but then busted into cheers as the majors started clapping.

"Me? But I haven''t done anything particular——"

"Your action back in Qingyuan is already worth the promotion. Being able to save as many people as you can and salvaging a situation that isn''t your fault is extremely impressive.

There is no need for formality. You earned it with your hard work, and everyone here would agree with me, right?"

This time, Zhen Ren didn''t argue back, opting to accept the promotion after seeing all his comrades showing their support.

"Now, with that out of the way, since you are now Colonel, you will be leading all majors on the field and be assigned as the Commander for this operation.

Although it''s not enough troops to fulfill your division''s 20,000-member requirement, I''ll send more over when the recruits are fully trained."

Xiaoyun''s announcement instantly turned some of the faces on the major darkened for a second, but they all clapped again as Zhen Ren''s face was now even more excited.

"Thank you, sir! I''ll not disappoint your trust!"

"Don''t disappoint the people''s trust, not me. You got plenty of time, okay? Don''t try to rush it or make silly mistakes."

Zhen Ren accepted Xiaoyun''s lecture and took it to heart this time, not wanting to repeat the same mistake back in Qingyuan.

---

After the announcement, Xiaoyun left the tent to let the majors and Zhen Ren iron out how to clear Foshan.

"Another Colonel... Do you even have enough soldiers to fulfill that number size?" Kate curiously asked as the two walked around the camp.

"Number doesn''t really matter. It''s just to have a clearer chain of command for them when I''m gone." Xiaoyun explained as he stopped by the concrete wall that still hadn''t dried yet.

"Where are we going, then? I thought we''d be staying in Foshan for several days. Why don''t you just let it yourself?"

Kate asked again, still unable to understand why Xiaoyun didn''t want to lead directly as the commander.

"We''re here to observe... They need a chance to prove themselves that they can lead an army themselves one day.

There is no better than now... Besides, I don''t want to end up in a situation where a layman leads an expert."