Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"So you took it all yourself?" Xiaoyun asked coldly, his anger only shown through his hand as the document folded in half.

"I-I... I took it all."

"Very well... Nobody here is guilty beside him?" Xiaoyun asked again as he stood up from his seat.

With no one speaking up, Xiaoyun suddenly reached inside his jacket and pulled out a brand-new gun.

"C-Commander I——"

"If no one else speaks up, he will take up all the blame as a scrap goat," Xiaoyun warned as he pointed the gun directly at the major.

Seeing the major being pointed at starting to crack under pressure, Han Bang suddenly stepped forward.

"It's my fault. I should have realized it as their superior when I got here. Please be lenient with them——"

"Sit down, Han Bang. I want them to hear it from them, not you."

Han Bang hesitated for a second, but seeing Xiaoyun's determined face, he sat down at one of the seats.

"Any of you going to own up to it, or you're going to let your comrade die?" Xiaoyun asked again, showing no sign of backing down.

After a long standoff in silence, all of the major stood forward and bowed down at once.

"Sorry, commander. We failed your trust... We were blinded by greed and couldn't resist the urge."

Seeing all of them owning up to it together, Xiaoyun looked a little relieved as he finally lowered his gun and handed it over to Kate.

"Was it hard to admit doing something wrong?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as he sat back down in his seat.

"N-No, sir." One of them nervously answered as they slowly got back up to look at Xiaoyun.

"I want to see all the money returned and a resignation letter tomorrow."

Seeing the major looking a little unhappy at the result, Han Bang quickly got up from his seat and slapped each of their faces.

All of them quickly unfreeze and bow down in gratitude, with some of them still a little confused at Han Bang's slap.

"Thank you, command Chen, for the leniency."

Han Bang said out loud as he forced the two of them to bow down along with everyone else.

"You all can leave... Han Bang, come back here at six."

"Yes, sir!"

As all the majors, along with Han Bang, left the room, Xiaoyun's tense face finally dropped.

"Fuck, man... Why did they try to embezzle this money? It's not like I'm not paying them enough.

Seeing Xiaoyun looking a little lost as he stared at the empty board in front of him, Kate felt a little bad.

"Everyone is blinded by greed... It's a capitalistic world in which we live. Everyone wants more money." Kate pointed out.

"But their salary a week is literally what a person works for half a year... There's literally no point in getting more money."

"I mean, most of them are just your average Joe before they join the military... You can't really expect them to have discipline or self-control."

Hearing Kate's explanation, Xiaoyun knew she was right, as his past personal experiences when he was Songming showed the same type of people's greed for money.

But on the inside, he didn't want to admit she was right. He wanted to be able to trust people without being so paranoid.

"Xiaoyun... Shouldn't Yueyue and the court deal with them? Why did you just give them a pass like this?" Kate suddenly asked.

"Because I'm the head of the military. I'm responsible for whatever they did right and wrong. If I let them run through the process, the fragile trust between the people and the army will break down.

Not to mention how many people in the military will have different ideas. I can't let that happen. It's just too big of a risk to cause instability in such a sensitive time. I just have to suck it up... Fuck my life."

As the room fell into silence, the two looked out the window as the sun began to settle down on the horizon.

---

"Why did we just back down like that?" One of the major grumpily asked, his face full of anger as he was still mad from being slapped on the face.

"Because we did something wrong." Another major pointed out as they walked down the stairs.

"So? He's just one person. If we——"

"Shut the fuck up. If you want to die, I can put a bullet in your head right now."

Han Bang stared dead into the eyes of the major, who quickly backed down as he apologized.

"I...I just don't want to be fired. All my handwork to get all the way here is now just gone... I know what I did was wrong, but did it really warrant this big of a reaction?"

As the major murmured to himself, all the other majors had the same thought as they didn't expect to be fired on the spot by Xiaoyun.

"You guys really never learn your lesson... Chen An, you tell me, what happened the other day in the newspaper with the Health Department scandal?"

After a short silence, a major answered back.

"He was immediately fired and put into ten-year prison——"

"And how much did she embezzle?"

"Ten thousand...."

"Now you tell me how much you all embezzled... It's surely higher than that, isn't it?"

The majors looked back at each other in silence, with none of them speaking up as they continued down the stairs.

But it tells Han Bang everything as he feels a surge of disappointment in all of them.

"You guys are even too afraid to admit the amount... Let me tell you, you all would have been sentenced to death with everything confiscated if you all went through court martial."

As they arrived at the bottom floor, Han Bang suddenly turned around.

"I'll try to ask for a more lenient sentence. You all go gather whatever illegal money you have received."

---

As Xiaoyun began writing down plans for military discipline and corruption prevention, the door was knocked.

"Come in."

"Commander Xiaoyun... I know what they did was wrong, but can you please give them a second chance——"

"Han Bang, am I the commander in chief, or are you the commander in chief?"

"You are, sir..."

Seeing Han Bang still bowing down by the doorway, not willing to back down, Xiaoyun started to get a little frustrated.

"Han Bang, why are you pleading for them so much? Are you trying to establish your faction now?"

Han Bang quickly shook his head as he remained bowed down by the doorway, still showing zero sign of moving at all.

"Han Bang, you really make it hard for me, you know that?"

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.

"Fine, they won't need to resign... But as a punishment, they'll all be demoted to private and begin from the start.

I don't ever want to make this decision again. Do you understand me?"

"Thank you, sir!"

"Now go, you don't have to come back at six anymore." Xiaoyun waved.

As Han Bang left the room, Xiaoyun sighed and looked back at his notebook.

"Why did you back down?" Kate curiously asked.

"If I don't back down, he was never going to move... Besides, now I think about it, he's just giving me a step to go down."

"Step to go down?"

Kate got even more confused as she couldn't understand the Chinese word that Xiaoyun had just said.

"I was too irrational earlier... Think about it: where are we right now?"

"Um... Guangzhou outpost?"

"And who's the one that had been directing most of the soldiers here?"

"The majors... Oh, I get it... But is that really necessary? None of them would dare to oppose you."

"Yeah, they won't oppose me. But Han Bang will have to deal with this after we leave. If all your superiors that you had been working with clearing Guangzhou all get fired, what do you think of Han Bang, who's now the highest authority here?"

"Infighting," Kate answered.

"Exactly. That's the last thing I want. Infighting in the military is the worst-case scenario... Man, he really is a much better commander than I am."

As Xiaoyun murmured to himself and began writing down different ideas that were popping into his head, Kate sat down at one of the seats near the doorway and watched.

---

Meanwhile, in the basement of the military building...

"Everyone got the food stamp gathered?" One of the major asked as they stood in a circle.

"Yeah, that's all we have left..."

Seeing only four out of five boxes being full, all of them knew they were in trouble.

"Fuck, how the hell do we make up the differences?"

"I don't know..."

As the majors looked at each other in silence, none of them could come up with a plan.

"How about we borrow some food stamps temporarily and pay them back later?"

Hearing the suggestion, all of them turned over to the person who suggested it.

"You going to borrow an entire box worth of food stamps?" One of them asked, looking at him as if he was a dumbass.

"Never mind... I didn't think about that."