The kid that I had healed earlier continues to pull his older sister up to the line. She seems to follow reluctantly, looking suspiciously around. The sister actually looks to be more malnourished than the brother does. They appear to have slightly more beast characteristics than most, with a panda nose and ears. Their hands are more pawlike, but still have human fingers.

The child quickly speaks up as he reaches the group.

“Are you sure, that we won’t have to worry about food or water anymore?”

Gong goes up to the child and his sister, squatting down to look them both in the eyes.

“Yes. We have all that we need and more to be able to take care of everyone.”

The older sister looks at Gong in surprise, but then gains resolve. She is now the one leading her brother to the group.

As the little boy moves with his sister, his eyes catch mine and recognizes me.

Huh? Where could… ah, he was in the alley during the fight with the brute. Looks like they were able to get away. That’s good.

Interrupting my thoughts and refuting Gong’s words, a lone voice speaks up at this time.

“Humph, do you really have the capability to feed all these people? Some people do not seem to know the immensity of Heaven and Privilon.”

Gong eye twitches at this voice.

It’s clear that these two have bad history. I should take a look and see what this person looks like.

I focus my scan over to the demi human that spoke.

This demi human appears to be of the rabbit variation. If not for the scars around his eyes and lips, one could even call him somewhat cute because of the dominance of the rabbit features on his face. It is clear that he is older than most around here. In a society like this, that means he’s wily enough to get to that age.

Nonetheless, Gong immediately responds to the statement.

“In fact, we easily could feed several times more people, even just at this point in time. When more people join our group, we’ll be able to feed even more, starting farms within the walls of our area.”

That’s not a joke, there are an absurd amount of poiyos stores all over the cavern. That doesn’t even include the poiyos farm she’s added to the non-secret underground cavern. My guess is that if she actually wanted to feed the entire slums for a few days, she probably could.

A scoffing sound erupts from that demi human again. Clearly showing themselves to be an antagonistic relationship.

“If you had all this food before, why didn’t you give it away earlier? Why hold on to it this whole time, now acting like you’re some kind of savior?”

Gong straightens up proudly, addressing the group as a whole, while admonishing the rabbit demi human indirectly.

“As you all know, it is dangerous to have something of value out here and to advertise it. Even more so, as a demi human. To do so, is to invite it to be taken from you, if you don’t have the power to protect it.”

She then turns to face his direction, to where he is obscured in the crowd.

“You, Ling, should know that best of all. Especially, considering the fact that you’ve already sold out two such communes that were trying to create a farm.”

She continues, still addressing the concern.

“Unlike those unfortunate people, we are able to protect what we have. We’ve made alliances, that will allow us to grow in a way, that none others before in our position have been able to. Despite the obstruction from others who could benefit from such advances.”

Her eyes are staring directly at the demi human’s position, even as he hides behind other people.

After Gong’s words, the people around him don’t look directly at him, which in some sense might be giving him face.

If people aren’t directly confronting him about this, he must have enough power or influence to make it disadvantageous to directly call him out. But they don’t like him enough to support him. They stand by the side.

Using my scan, I can see him gnash his teeth before gathering his bearings.

“Well. I can see that my wisdom is not welcome here. I would hope others would understand, that not is all as it seems with this group. I’m leaving now and don’t see any use to joining a group like this, run by someone so obviously selfish and spouting off rose colored lies.”

He stands up a little straighter, separating himself from the main group.

I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t part of the healed group. And it’s quite clear that he was definitely not part of Gong’s group that had come in. He must have sneaked in at some point. Since demi humans have been coming and going, I wasn’t paying too much attention to them unless they seemed to have hostile movements.

As he turns to leave, around 15 other demi humans get up, turning to follow him. One of the demi humans, is the young boy that regularly took orders from Gong for information. My scan catches a brief interaction between the two, with Ling, the rabbit demi human, glancing at and motioning to the young boy to stay where he is. To join along with us. The demi human boy freezes, and stays where he is.

I get the feeling that it isn’t out of goodwill. We will have to watch out for this one. It’s clear there’s some kind of connection between the two, despite his relationship with Gong.

This interaction between the two appears to have been caught by Gong, as well. I see a flash of disappointment in her face before quickly hardening.

She continues after they have left.

“Even though I say that, there is a vein of truth in what Ling said. We will feed directly only the people who join our group. Those in the village will have the opportunity to grow their own food. And we will protect them because they live within the walls. However, there isn’t a guarantee of being able to eat.

“It is important to consider, that this is the least of the things that we’re providing as a benefit of joining. What we are also providing in the group is protection and an opportunity to grow.

“While I cannot speak too much, because of the need of secrecy on what those opportunities to grow will be, many of you can probably already guess at some aspects of it. In exchange for these services, you will get paid well.

“We will train you on everything you need to know, to be good at these jobs.”

Her voice softens suddenly. Causing the group to lean in to listen a bit closer.

“Most importantly, this will mean that you no longer have to do many of those shameful things to survive. Hurting each other to survive another day. Watching on, as those close to us die… without being able to help in the slightest.

“There WILL be unfortunate things that we have to handle, that will require certain actions to be made. However, I can guarantee it will ultimately be worth it for you.”

I can hear whispers around the group, which Gong allows to go on for a bit.

Some of those whispers are around the idea that she almost never speaks definitively. Guaranteeing things or saying that this will or won’t happen.

If she’s saying this, with this much confidence… could it be true? And what could it possibly be?

After a bit more discussion between the group, a few more people straggle up to the front. This causes even more to leave the main group and join.

At this time, there’s no one left in the group that came specifically for Gong. It appears she had them stagger out when they leave to form a bigger impact during these last conversations. She has played her cards.

The fox family seems to have sneakily entered with one of the other groups.

In the ‘healed’ group, only half of the original group is left.

One of the old women left in that group asks a question. Her cat ears are partially cut, both drooping lowly onto her forehead. Her voice shakes, as she struggles to speak.

“Are there any reasons old people like us should join? As you already know, there’s no reason for us to go further. Our lives are coming to an end.”

She takes a pause to catch her breath.

“I’m too tired, to do the manipulations of my youth. To struggle beyond the day to day. Not only that, but there’s not much we can do at this point. I’m weak and can’t speak that much.”

Gone gives her a smile, clearly knowing this woman.

“There are plenty of reasons. In terms of benefits, we can make sure that you live a longer and healthy life. That things, such as your voice weakening, will be fixed. There’s plenty that you can teach all of us. Including me. You’ve seen things that we can’t even imagine. You can direct us in ways that will help us prevent failure for our group.”

She points over to me.

“As proof of the healing, as you can see, we have an alchemist in our group. While he is unable to teach us his trade, because of the obvious restrictions, he is able to heal us. For people who are part of our group, making sure that you are doing well is a small cost for us.

Her eyes peer deeply at the old woman. Communicating something personal between them.

“Just because you’re older, doesn’t mean that you aren’t worth something. You matter to us.”

The old woman gives a smile back and begins hobbling over to our side. Many of the older people join her and moving off into the group. There are around 30 or so people left in the group that haven’t joined us, yet.

It appears most people were taken in by the fact that they could have protection and food and water. Ultimately though, there’s still people who have their reservations. Other loyalties though likely have to be beholden to.

Gong looks at both groups, the ones who have decided to join and the ones who have not.

Surprisingly, she turns to the group that has stayed.

“Before we continue, I want to warn you, that joining our group is no simple thing you can come back from. There are many things that we will be doing that we can’t allow others to know. There may even be some things that you personally will be uncomfortable with, making you want to leave the group. If you make this decision do know that there is no coming back from it. There are consequences for attempting to leave or share information.

“If you can’t handle that, I would suggest leaving now.”

She pauses for a while. Clearly expecting for some people to leave at this explanation. Potentially targeting certain people, with these words.

Some people from the group that was going to come with us hesitantly head back over to the other side to leave the group.

In a sense, this is actually the best thing to do. Even though we lose some people, this means fewer people who aren’t truly supposed to be with the group, will not die because they would betray the group.

After we do this, things turn pretty streamlined. Around 60 people ended up coming with us, far more than I assumed would be coming. Gong begins leading them down into the tunnels, to the next section. The proving grounds. The last chance for them to leave.

I hope not too many people die in this round.

Why do I feel like this is like a cult?

Probably just my imagination.