…

“…”

Everyone seemed to turn into statues as they didn’t even say a word.

Their expressions were a mix of confusion as well of surprise.

“It stinks of bullshit.”

These words riverbed inside the heads of the people that were present here, as if they couldn’t let go of the fact they were just said.

These five words were enough to establish this absolute silence, so silent that even the wind seemed to have disappeared.

It felt as if only the sound of anxious breathing and gulping was present.

Everyone turned to look at the chief, anxiously observing his reaction.

It was as if one was peaking out of their shelter after the apocalypse, wanting to confirm if it was over or was about to continue.

“Le-Leader—“Someone wanted to speak up, but their courage was swept away by the ubiquitous silence that seemed to weigh millions of tons.

As a leader, one had to take action with decisiveness. As such, the outcome of this could very well be a violent outburst from the chief.

Everyone was anticipating his reaction, awaiting the end of the grand pause.

The chief still seemed to be calm, but a hit of awkwardness could be seen on his face. He had gone through this procedure multiple times, but it was the first time someone had replied to him with such icy words.

Furthermore, he didn’t expect this from a teen.

This caused him to internally freeze although he seemed fine on the outside.

Still, he wasn’t the chief for nothing, as he was able to quickly recover.

“Bullshit? I haven’t said a single lie.” The man said as he moved to a more serious posture with his hand and elbow resting on the arm rest.

Jonathan looked at him and his smile got even wider.

“That might be true, but you don’t need to lie to be dishonest.”

“Oh … how is that so? Tell me how I was dishonest.” The man made his expression seem like he was curious and oblivious to what Jonathan was saying.

“You really think people are stupid, don’t you? Who in the world would actually tell you?” Jonathan immediately refused the man’s demand.

“…” The man rested his back for a few seconds, seemingly getting lost in his thoughts. He then sighed and turned at Jonathan again. Since he couldn’t get the information, he had to thread lightly.

“You’re no idiot, and it was my fault for treating you like one. So I’ll cut the empty talk.” He said decisively.

“You will? Then this is the part that you say that you want to kill me or ask for the location of my group, right?” Jonathan said mockingly.

He was surrounded by opponents, but he still dared to acts leisurely, as if he was speaking to a good friend of his.

“No, we don’t do that kind of thing here. I’ll tell you straight up what happens with people we find and bring back to the camp.”

“Go ahead.” The moment he had discovered the flaw in the man’s words, Jonathan felt much more at ease.

Furthermore, he was certain that this wasn’t a coincidence. Once someone had founded doubts caused by a manipulation attempt, it would be astronomically harder to manipulate them.

Thankfully, the man didn’t know where he had failed in his attempt of tricking Jonathan, so he couldn’t compensate properly.

“As we don’t know you, we can’t treat you the same as everyone else. As such, we make everyone that recently joins us do labour work.”

“In other words, they’re slaves?” Jonathan once again mockingly commented.

This made the man frown a bit, as if he was watching over an annoying kid.

“I prefer the term labour worker. Essentially, we’ll evaluate how well you work to decide on the further actions. As we feed you and provide a shelter, you need to output the equivalent amount of work. If you consistently produce less then we provide, you’ll get kicked out and have to fend for yourself. If you produce as much as we provide, you’ll just stay as a labour worker. Was it gets interesting is the situation in which you produce more than we provide? You’ll have the chance to become a real member of our group at that point. You won’t do anymore labour work and you’ll have access to things like guns.”

He paused and looked at Jonathan, only to see the boy unmoved by his words.

He then pointed towards a middle-aged woman that was standing on guard nearby.

“For example, this lady here was promoted yesterday because she greatly integrated with the group. Now she’s fully one of us. You can be like this too.”

“Question.” Jonathan asked out.

“Speak up.” The man answered. He seemed pleased at seeing interaction from Jonathan.

“You say that those who work bad will get expelled, but what if I want to leave right now?” Jonathan asked.

The man didn’t open his mouth for a bit before saying. “That won’t be possible. It is reasonable to let the other go since they have contributed, no matter how small the amount. As for new people … it truly wouldn’t be wise. I’m not saying that this would be you, but imagine someone left and brought back some friends. That would be especially dangerous for everyone here.” The man answered with a slight frown.

’Oh? So they’ll kill me if I try to leave and leave me to fate if I don’t do their bidding… Although I don’t like this situation, I’m in no position to compromise. I couldn’t dodge bullets before so it’s a pipe dream to do so with my injuries. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be able to do anything in the wilderness with a body like this…”

Jonathan looked up the man. His expression was pretty neutral, but a ton of emotions were going through him.

‘So my only option is to…’

“Knowing this, what would you think about joining us?” The man put on a smile while saying this. His white teeth and his happy expression boosted his charisma.

Everyone stared at Jonathan, but they didn’t seem to be excited for his response, as if they already knew what it would be.

“I’ll join you guys.”

The man’s smile grew even wider.

“Great! Great!” He suddenly got up and started clapping. “Welcome to ‘Direction’! Our objective is to strengthen our foundations, developing our group, and creating a decent social situation for those who are part of us. Then, we will march onto the direction of the sun, and arrive to the answer we all seek.”

The men and women here started clapping with enthusiasm. Even Jonathan was a bit shocked by the ambience the man could produce.

Still, he rolled his eyes in the inside.

“Although we aren’t too bad off here, time is still resources, and resources are life. Tell me what your attribute is so that I can give you a proper role.”

‘My attribute? So they have a lot of attribute users here? Well, that is to be expected from a large group. Should I say that I have non… No, that wouldn’t work. He can clearly see that I’m a strength attribute. As for the others, I’ll say…’

Jonathan put a bit of a hesitant front, the he answered. “I have sa strength and healing attribute.”

“Strength and healing? What a good match, even amongst the rare double attributes. I already knew that you were a strength attribute from your body, but as for healing. I had no idea. Once you recover you’ll be perfect for pure strength labour work. Furthermore, you’ll be able to recover during the process of working and get stronger.”

“Thank you.” Jonathan answered.

“But I still do not know your name. I think it’s appropriate that you tell it now.” The man pointed out.

This made Jonathan shake a bit.

“My name is… Jonathan.”

“Jonathan … Jonathan … I like it. You’ll fit in just fine.” The man then got up from his seat and order others. “Bring him back a comfortable tent and watch out for his injuries!”

He then looked at Jonathan and said, “The man who carried you here, Hendricks, will be responsible for you once you heal up. I’ll look forward to your work.” He then walked away graciously with the two female servants walking behind him.

‘Another one in. Although he might have found something, I think I played it off well. I guess that I’ll have to treat him like a legit member… Nonetheless, he will be a great asset to me…’ The man was extremely happy about Jonathan joining his group.

However, he didn’t know that the moment Jonathan had said his name, he had also made a solemn vow.

‘The moment I trust these people is the moment I die.’