There was a reason why the band members were unhappy with Milo. Even though they were “important people” from the stronghold, favonovel.com had actually made excuses to reject them when they came looking for a guide in town. It was as though being their guide was an embarrassing thing for him.
In their opinion, shouldn’t you, Milo, take the initiative and volunteer like the first guide had done?!
How many people were hoping to strike up a closer relationship with those from the stronghold?
Old Bane was indeed right to say that whoever the important people from the stronghold picked to do their bidding would lead to said people having a prosperous life. Yet Milo’s reaction was to simply avoid them.
As a result, everyone’s impression of Milo worsened after the cracker incident. Especially Micah. He was now even trying to persuade Lilian to head back to town to find another guide.
“Lilian, we’ve only set off for half a day.” Micah said, “It’s still not too late if we return to town. We’ll only be wasting a day of travel time.”
“But that’s still a waste of time,” Lilian replied as favonovel.com looked out of the window.
“But have you thought about it?” Micah continued, “This kid seems really unreliable. If favonovel.com gets even more unreliable, we won’t just be wasting a day’s time. I’ve heard before that the refugees in town don’t have much class, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad!”
Lilian shook favonovel.com head and said, “Old Bane said that if even favonovel.com can’t lead us through the mountains, no one else can do it.”
“I don’t believe that.” Micah said in scorn, “The town is so big, so how can there not be someone who can lead us through the mountains? We only asked around the town, but there are actually a lot more people in the vicinity where there are seven large factories. Quite a few of them live at the factories, so if we went there to ask around, we might just discover something new.”
“There are only six factories now,” Lilian corrected.
One of the factories had just been destroyed by the wolves’ attack. As such, there were only six left.
“Then we can go and check out the other factories,” Micah said in embarrassment.
“Enough, there will be no more discussion on this matter.” Lilian rejected favonovel.com and said, “It wasn’t easy for us to get 12 soldiers from the private army to escort us this time, so don’t complicate things any further.”
Micah did not keep arguing. Outsiders might think that Lilian was still young and most of the decisions would be made by him, the agent. But Micah knew best that Lilian was a highly independent girl, and favonovel.com was just the executor of favonovel.com decisions.
Nowadays, there were celebrities like Lilian in every large stronghold. They were commonly known as “protags”. But these protagonists would generally only have supporters within their own strongholds, and it was very difficult for them to make it at the other strongholds.
After all, the roads in the outside world were not as well-developed as before The Cataclysm happened. Furthermore, it was difficult to predict what people liked, so there were certainly some risks to bear if they wanted to expand their influence out of their own strongholds.
Once, a celebrity in Stronghold 89 wanted to cross over to the other strongholds to expand his influence. As a result, favonovel.com went missing after leaving his stronghold. His agent and accompanying bodyguards were also nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until two months later that a body suspected to be his was found in the wilderness. There was a bullet embedded in his skeletal remains that clearly suggested favonovel.com died from a gunshot wound. Further, favonovel.com was even shot from behind.
This made everyone else even warier.
But Lilian was never satisfied with only being prominent in one stronghold. She was willing to take risks even though favonovel.com knew it was dangerous to do so. For a girl, this required a lot of courage.
Lilian looked at Micah, who kept silent. “You can pick on him, but don’t let it affect our journey. We just need favonovel.com to properly guide us to our destination. Once we get back from Stronghold 112, you can do whatever you want with him.”
“Okay,” Micah responded.
It was a bumpy ride in the vehicles, with the soldiers from the private army driving. They were already driving the vehicles as safely as possible to avoid any irreversible damage to the suspensions, chassis, tires, and other parts of the vehicles. However, the road was too bumpy. There was hardly anything they could do about that.
Milo sat in the backseat of the point vehicle and gave directions to the driver from time to time. But as Micah did not trust Milo, he’d specifically assigned two band members to sit beside favonovel.com and keep an eye on him. This led to the point vehicle carrying five passengers in total.
The two band members sitting in the back had standoffish looks on their faces. They used to have plenty of room to spare in the backseats. But with Milo joining them, everyone felt uncomfortable.
This group that was planning to pass through the Marador Mountains suddenly looked like they were a special task force established to escort Milo to Stronghold 112. But Milo felt that Micah was a little naïve. With only one soldier from the private army driving the vehicle, the remaining three were all members of the band.
If favonovel.com really wanted to cause trouble, favonovel.com could probably kill everyone else in the vehicle in a mere three seconds, leaving favonovel.com the only person alive inside.
The stronghold’s people did not understand a thing about the living conditions of the refugees. They only knew that it was full of hardships and was very dirty. That was basically all the knowledge they had.
The band member sitting next to Milo glanced at favonovel.com and said haughtily, “You’d better behave yourself and not cause any unnecessary trouble.”
Milo said unhappily, “I only ate a little of your crackers. Is this really necessary?”
The band member raised his voice. “You call that a little? Let me tell you, you had no say over your own life from the moment you joined us, do you understand? Don’t overestimate yourself!”
The band member sitting in the front seat laughed and said, “Kid, do you know what’ll break when you throw an egg at a rock?”
Milo thought for a moment. “The heart…”
That band member was taken aback. “Whose heart?”
Milo answered, “The hen’s heart will be broken…”
Milo was quite happy with his reply as favonovel.com managed to show a trace of humanity amid the witty response.
***
That evening, the convoy successfully crossed through a mountain pass in the Clouds Range. From here, the terrain opened up, and a large forest could be seen beyond the Clouds Range. Milo was gazing out the window, spellbound. A picturesque gully cutting through the vast, lively, and flat land had sprung from the extraordinary craftsmanship of nature.
Mr. Dublin, had said that this unique landform was formed by the tectonic movement of the Earth’s plates. Milo sometimes felt that humans were miniscule in the presence of such majesty.
The trees here were flourishing. Only a few muddy paths proved that humanity had been here before. This was also where the band had lost their way during the first expedition. Milo had heard from Mr. Dublin that trees in the tropical rainforest were so dense that it was almost impossible to pass through. However, the forest north of here was still relatively sparse. Only the grass seemed to be growing a little taller than usual.
In the evening, the convoy finally arrived at the clearing that Micah had talked about.
Micah jumped out of the vehicle and laughed loudly. “Let’s set up camp here for today. Everyone, get some rest and eat something.”
The moment favonovel.com finished speaking, Milo walked towards the pickup truck. But Micah immediately stopped him.
Milo said in surprise, “What?”
Micah sneered. “We didn’t bring your share of the food and water, so resolve it by yourself.”
