Apocalypse Villainess? Nah, I'm Nice

Bloodfall Base had now truly integrated into the southern region’s network of bases.

It wasn’t exactly bustling, but every now and then, people from other bases would come to visit.

Some came for business, while others were simply there to build connections.

Bloodfall held the food and weapons everyone needed, so it never hurt to be a familiar face. Besides, with Southreach’s current situation up in the air, Bloodfall’s resources were all the more valuable.

Of course, some people had other ideas.

But they were a small minority.

After all, you don’t get to build a base without having some discernment.

Even Franklin Forrest of Stoneridge Base was playing by the rules and paying with Crystal Cores. If anyone else dared to try any underhanded tricks, they wouldn’t just have to deal with Bloodfall—their old ”neighbors” wouldn’t let them get away with it either.

The bellwether effect was real.

The ones who actually lost their heads and dared to move against Bloodfall were mostly small-time players who couldn’t even make a ripple. Their bodies, however, did serve a purpose—Paige Summers put them on public display.

The official line was that family or friends could come to claim the bodies. Privately, however, everyone knew what it really was: Bloodfall making a show of force. Anyone foolish enough to cross them would meet the same end.

Paige Summers was a master of the carrot and stick approach.

Her generosity toward ”friends” and ruthlessness toward ”enemies,” displayed for all to see, had the exact intended effect of both intimidation and enticement.

Those with ill intentions quickly vanished. Instead, permanent residents from other bases began showing up, seeking to join Bloodfall.

Paige Summers didn’t have particularly high standards for recruitment.

It didn’t matter if you had no superpower, nor did it matter if you weren’t physically strong. The only requirement was good character.

You weren’t expected to lay down your life for the base, but at the very least, you couldn’t be the type to betray it at the first sign of temptation.

Therefore, all who wished to join had to pass a test.

The test was an Illusion Array devised by Sean Raines.

He had a keen interest in the art of Arrays. Before Rhonda Rhodes left, the two of them had discussed the subject at length, and he had learned a great deal. While he couldn’t create arrays as wondrous as hers, he had mastered one or two types of Illusion Arrays.

One was for repelling enemies, which he placed around Paige Summers’s living quarters. The other was for testing a person’s character.

According to him, anyone with a normal person’s moral compass could pass this second Illusion Array. As for those who couldn’t... well, it went without saying they couldn’t be accepted.

As a result, half of the applicants were weeded out by the test.

Among those who were politely turned away, many had seemed perfectly sincere or even deserving of sympathy...

The reality of it left Paige Summers speechless.

Having people flock to her base was a good thing, but she also had to consider the pride of the other Base Chiefs.

So, if they were ordinary people, it was one thing. But if a Superpower User defected, Paige Summers would cut the person’s original Base Chief a slightly better deal during their next trade.

This way, any dissatisfaction the other party might have felt was more or less smoothed over. Some were even happy to go with the flow and treat it as a favor. After all, it wasn’t their elites or trusted inner circle who were leaving. To them, it was almost a burden off their shoulders.

Only Franklin Forrest would occasionally mutter to his men, ’This Paige Summers is really something else! Right now, it looks like she’s only taking in common folk and low-level superpower users. But if those people start living well, over time, who’s to say High-level Superpower Users won’t be tempted? She’s playing the long game, casting a long line to catch a big fish. It’s laughable that some people don’t see it! All of you, keep your ears open. If you hear any whispers like that in our base, you squash them immediately, understand?’

But that was easier said than done. Even from a base with decent conditions like Stoneridge Base, some people still left—though most of them were ordinary folk.

Franklin Forrest was helpless to stop it. In the end, all he could do was try to recoup his losses through his deals with Paige Summers.

While Paige Summers was nurturing her pregnancy and managing the base, things were going quite smoothly. But for Marcus Monroe and Claire Chapman, things weren’t so easy.

They had snuck into Southreach with their team two weeks ago.

Only after getting inside did they discover that Southreach wasn’t just sealed off from the outside—it was under tight internal control as well.

It was basically a ”don’t go out unless you have to, and expect to be questioned if you linger” kind of situation.

Under such conditions, everyone was on edge. The intelligence agents inside the city didn’t dare make a move and could only lie low and wait.

But with the arrival of Marcus Monroe and his team, that was bound to change.

First, they took advantage of the night to do a quick sweep of the city.

The average patrolman wouldn’t have the skill to detect them, but the team didn’t dare get too close to The Citadel. The security there was too tight. Furthermore, based on separate scouting reports from Marcus Monroe and Claire Chapman, several Superpower Users on par with their own strength were active near The Citadel. For safety’s sake, it was best not to alert them for the time being.

From their descriptions, Maisie Joyce was certain these were people from the Second Division, not the First Division of the Pro-Joyce Faction. She naturally suggested they contact Division Commander Keith Preston of the First Division.

After discussing it, Marcus Monroe and Claire Chapman agreed.

As a precaution, however, they relocated all their intelligence agents beforehand.

Maisie Joyce understood this meant they still didn’t trust her, but she was tactful enough not to say anything.

Using her secret contact signal, Keith Preston himself showed up at their door a day later, at night.

With his disguise removed, Keith Preston looked quite young, in his early thirties at most. He was tall, and while his features were plain, they were sharp and well-defined, with slightly sunken eyes that gave him a somewhat exotic look.

The sight of him stirred something in Marcus Monroe, and a few vague thoughts flickered through his mind.

Keith Preston seemed to be a straightforward man. Noticing Marcus Monroe’s gaze linger on his face for a moment, he laughed heartily and explained, ”I’m told I have some ancestry from Country A, but it’s pretty diluted by my generation!”

He knew Maisie Joyce, of course, but their demeanor toward each other wasn’t particularly familiar.

Maisie Joyce had told them beforehand that Keith Preston didn’t know what had happened between her and Leo Joyce. Naturally, he was also unaware that she had been imprisoned by Leo Joyce, rather than being bedridden with grief over May Joyce’s death, as was the official story. Therefore, it was most likely that Keith Preston believed she had escaped during the chaos and had now returned with reinforcements.

Keith Preston’s behavior confirmed her story.

He was respectful toward her, but when it came to business, his focus was clearly on Marcus and Claire’s intentions.

”To be frank,” he began, ”you don’t need to worry about the City Lord’s safety for the time being. I have my own people watching over him personally. Of course, the Woods Family, the Forrest Family, and Division Commander Cheney’s people are all there too, but with so many eyes on him, no one will dare make a rash move. The problem is the City Lord’s injuries. They aren’t looking good. He was caught completely off guard and his internal organs were damaged. Whether or not he can pull through... that’s up to him.”