Chapter 714: Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow

Theron was both a close friend and a fan of Bryce.

Combined with his knowledge of Bryce's abilities and his partial understanding of Steven's, he was convinced that headquarters would put Bryce in charge of the next mission to wipe out Eroding Moon.

Steven looked at him with a calm, unreadable gaze, saying nothing to contradict him.

From a purely logical standpoint, Theron wasn't wrong about any of it.

But Theron was a soldier through and through. He didn't understand power struggles.

Bryce did have better combat skills and leadership ability than Steven, no question about that.

The problem was, his position made it impossible for him to lead this operation.

Outshining your superior has always been the biggest mistake a subordinate can make, in any era.

To put it bluntly, even if Bryce ended up contributing the most, Blizzard City would still make sure Steven got the credit, not him.

"We'll see," Steven said.

He slapped his thigh. "Oh right, I'm the captain of Dire Wolf Team now. Does that mean I can draw captain-level weapons and gear?"

He pointed toward Cindy. "I also have three people with me. They'll be temporarily assigned to Dire Wolf Team too. I already cleared that with Commander Peterson."

"So they'll need equipment as well."

Theron nodded.

"No problem. Just tell me what you need and I'll have it sent over."

The smile on Steven's face grew wider.

He shook his head. "No need. We'll go pick it up ourselves. I need quite a lot of stuff."

Theron's eyes slowly widened. He stared at Steven's odd grin and seemed to figure out what this guy was up to.

Not long after, Ian was still working in his office when the quartermaster came in with a report.

"What? Steven checked out a huge load of weapons? An extremely large load?"

"Commander Peterson, he used his spatial supernatural ability to take out a massive amount of weapons. The quantity is... a bit outrageous."

The quartermaster muttered from the corner, glancing back at Steven, who was sweeping through the warehouse like it was a clearance sale.

After all his years as a quartermaster, he had never seen anyone draw supplies like this.

It was exactly like a woman going wild at a half-price supermarket.

Ian thought about it for a moment, then smiled and shook his head.

"This kid really lives by the motto 'only a fool passes up a good deal.'"

"Let him have it. Give him whatever he needs."

They were just regular firearms anyway. In the post-apocalyptic world, conventional weapons had already lost most of their punch.

And they weren't that hard to produce either. As long as you had steel and gunpowder, you could make as many as you wanted.

Steven finished loading up on gear and headed back to the villa in Zone A.

Later, Ian would officially announce the formation of Dire Wolf Team and Steven's appointment as captain to all departments.

Steven didn't really care about any of that.

The title from Blizzard City meant nothing to him.

What he was more worried about was Lily.

Rationally, he knew the Nelson family wouldn't do anything to her at a time like this.

But years of caution had made it second nature for him to never stop worrying.

A little after nine that evening, Lily called him.

He picked up right away.

"Lily, how are you doing? Anything feel off?"

On the other end of the line, Lily was wearing a light blue lab suit that covered the essentials while showing off her athletic figure.

Around her stood more than a dozen workers in white protective gear. Behind her was a large blue experimental pod.

The team was still finishing up the final preparations.

Lily could hear the worry in Steven's voice, and it warmed her heart.

"The prep work is done," she said. "I'm about to go into the pod they've set up for me. The experiment will take three days before I come out. I won't be able to reach you during that time."

Steven went quiet for a moment. He wanted to say something like "take care," but it didn't quite feel right.

After a long pause, he finally said, "I'll be waiting for you."

The smile in Lily's eyes deepened. "Okay."

After their short exchange, Lily handed her phone to one of the workers, who sealed it and locked it in a safe.

Then a female worker came over and asked Lily to lie down in the pod.

Lily nodded and did as she was told.

Outside the lab, on the second floor, Gerald, Nash, and the lab director were watching the whole thing unfold.

The director turned to Gerald. "Chairman, are you sure you want to go with a Class A Source supply? That level of experiment will cost us enormously."

"It's almost as much as what we spent developing the young master."

Gerald narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "Do it the way I said. In business, a big upfront investment is how you set yourself up for steady, generous returns down the line."

"We can't afford to lose again in this operation against Eroding Moon."

"And I'm going to use this chance to root out the mole inside Blizzard City."

A sharp glint flashed through Gerald's eyes.

Steven knew that rapidly boosting a psychic's power consumed a lot of energy.

What he didn't know was just how staggering that cost could be.

The more talented the psychic, the more resources it took to push their abilities higher, including all the energy lost in the process.

To put it plainly, the resources needed to boost someone of Lily's caliber could have produced ten psychics at the field investigator level.

That was the price of forcing growth.

For anyone who wasn't a true genius, having their power forcibly pushed up like this would only burn through their potential.

But with Lily, Gerald wasn't worried at all.

Her body and her will had both been forged through countless trials.

……

After collecting his weapons, Steven returned to the villa in Zone A and sat down with Cindy to work out strategies for dealing with Eroding Moon.

He didn't know much about conventional warfare, but when it came to psychic combat, he had plenty of experience.

The information Miles had bought with his life was critical.

Ronald was clearly an extremely tough opponent.

He had an unkillable body, overwhelming close-range combat ability, and on top of that, a witch's power to see the future.

Put all of that together, and it was suffocating just to think about.

But as long as an ability existed, there had to be a way to counter it.

Steven needed to find a way to neutralize Ronald and the other powerful psychics under his command before he could even think about making a move.

Fortunately, Eroding Moon was also in a recovery phase right now, which gave them some time to prepare.