Chapter 541: Ben’s Choice (Part 1)
All of Shawn Monroe and Nora Lowell’s activities in The Dead City were under the strict surveillance of Howard Everett.
The fact that they didn’t seem to care made him even more suspicious.
Therefore, he would report on the pair’s situation to Marcus Monroe every so often.
Marcus Monroe was actually getting a major headache from all this.
‘He wanted to say, ‘I’m so sick of those two. Stop reporting to me. Just handle it yourself. It would be great if you found a reason to kill them!”
But alas, it was just a thought.
Paige Summers trusted her intuition, and in truth, he trusted her as well.
That was why, even after their argument, he still followed her wishes and let them go.
Even though he was really, truly pissed off about it!
He didn’t like reading these reports, but someone else did. This person actively requested to see them, and even hoped they would be more detailed.
Needless to say, it was Levi Young!
The injection he had used on Nora Lowell was one of the byproducts of the Zombie Antidote he had developed while using her as a test subject. It was a medicine designed to alter a Zombie’s external features.
Of course, he hadn’t researched it for Nora Lowell, but for Ben.
He knew how much Paige Summers valued Ben.
Likewise, he also knew how she was dead set on turning him back into a human.
Although in his opinion, there was nothing wrong with Ben’s current state.
A powerful physique, a High-level superpower, immortality… and the respect of everyone!
Many people at the base knew about Ben’s situation. People like Mason Hayes, Liam Young, and Norman Ross had known since they first took over this place, while others had figured it out over time. At first, they were definitely scared and wary, but the facts spoke for themselves. Ben didn’t bite people; he had never once harmed anyone at the base. Not only that, but he would also protect and help them at Paige Summers’s direction.
So now, no one at the base lumped Ben in with the Zombies outside anymore. They considered him one of their own.
But Paige Summers had always felt that returning to being human would be what was best for Ben.
So, Levi Young quietly kept this matter in his heart.
And finally, through Nora Lowell, he discovered that he had actually succeeded!
He found Paige Summers. “You already know about Nora Lowell’s situation, right? My medicine worked on her! Aside from a few things that can’t be changed, she at least looks no different from a human now. It’s not just her appearance. She has human thoughts and emotions, so she can make all sorts of human expressions. Simply put, she’s living like a person now. I’ve studied Ben’s physical condition. If he wants it, I can develop a medicine specifically for him!”
Paige Summers said in disbelief, “You’re saying that injection and those medicine pills weren’t to erase her superpower, but to turn her into a human?!”
Levi Young pressed his lips together before speaking. “No. To be precise, erasing her superpower as a Zombie is a necessary condition for turning her into a person. Ben… is the same. If you want him to become human again, he’ll have to give up his superpower. However, even without his superpower, he still won’t age or die a natural death…”
Paige Summers frowned. “But Ben’s situation is different from Nora Lowell’s. He couldn’t speak to begin with, and his thoughts aren’t as clear as hers…”
Levi Young smiled. “That’s because he was a Zombie for too long, and he let the virus run its course in his body. As long as he uses my medicine, I’m more than ninety percent certain that he’ll gradually recover these human abilities!”
“Is that so…” Paige Summers put a hand to her forehead, lost in thought.
“Theoretically, the medicine is not dangerous. Of course, the process of changing won’t be pleasant. You… should think it over. Decide whether to let him stay as he is or to try this once and let him become human again!”
“Okay, I’ll think about it. I need… to think this through carefully.”
Paige Summers thought for a long time but couldn’t come to a decision.
In the end, she felt that since this concerned Ben’s future, she shouldn’t be the one to decide. He had to be the one to make the choice.
Ben had already Promoted so many times she had lost count. When it came to his Earth Element Power, if he claimed to be second in Bloodfall United City, no one would dare claim to be first. Overall, his strength also ranked in the top five. And as he Promoted, Paige Summers felt that he understood more and more of what she said. If she explained it to him a few more times, he should be able to understand.
But she soon discovered she was wrong.
She had told Ben about this several times, but he still didn’t understand.
Each time, he would just stand there watching her silently, not shaking his head, nor nodding, as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
Paige Summers felt a little dejected.
The last time, she dejectedly patted Ben’s shoulder, her head hanging listlessly as she walked away.
Thus, she didn’t see the faint hint of a smile in Ben’s eyes after she turned around.
Not long ago, after Ben had successfully Promoted again, he found that something about him was different.
His mind, which had always been muddled and chaotic, as if stuffed with a tangled ball of yarn or separated by a barrier, had always made it difficult for him to understand what people said or did. Only Paige Summers’s voice seemed to register in his memory, allowing him to roughly understand. That was why he only wanted to stay by her side and only listened to her.
But after Promoting, that ball of yarn, that barrier, seemed to have been suddenly untangled and broken, allowing his entire being to become clear.
Not even two days later, he discovered that he could completely understand what other people were saying. He even understood the meaning behind their words and actions. Not only that, but many long-forgotten memories also began to return to him, bit by bit.
He remembered his name was Ethan Shelby.
His father had been the governor of a northern province, and his mother was a university professor. He was their only son, but he disliked studying and had always wanted to join the military. So, after the college entrance exams, he secretly enrolled in a military academy behind his parents’ backs. The year the apocalypse broke out, he had just become a first-year cadet…
When the apocalypse came, he awakened an Earth Element superpower.
After experiencing countless battles with Zombies and Mutant Beasts, he was assigned to The Government’s Power Corps.
But just then, he learned of his parents’ death. The official report said they died suddenly from an acute illness.
He couldn’t believe it at all.
As a provincial governor, his father hadn’t abandoned his responsibilities after the apocalypse. Together with his mother, he organized the evacuation of the masses and searched for supplies… They did their very best to create a protective umbrella to shelter more people.
They had earned the respect of many people.
Even though their superpowers weren’t outstanding, his father and mother possessed the strongest of wills!
He was proud to be their son!
But… how could two people like that suddenly be gone?
He couldn’t get leave from The Power Corps, so he snuck away. He had to see his parents one last time and find out the cause of their deaths!
‘If it was a sudden illness, it was far too coincidental.’
‘How could everyone else be fine, while only his parents contracted it?!’
He was too grief-stricken and impulsive back then. Other than figuring out how his parents died, he couldn’t care about anything else.
He never even considered that if someone had truly murdered his parents, why would they let him live and allow him to investigate?
And so, he was ambushed halfway there.