Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Insecurity

At the same time, those who wanted to take advantage of Ivy fell silent.

Ivy’s persona as a kind-hearted, naive young woman crashed. She was a sharp and calculating woman with immense intelligence. Instead of showing kindness or coldness directly, she chose to expose.

Even those who were genuinely in need of water will hesitate. Who doesn’t have a secret stash or some extra crystals?

Hence, 90% of those shameless people gave up on their idea right away.

While for some it became a chance. Some of them were truly in need of water, and as long as they prove their innocence, maybe they can ask for help...

Yet they didn’t want to put Ivy in a tough spot and hence refrained from speaking.

After settling the matter, Ivy returned to Ronak’s house. Though she sensed the prying gazes of a few, for now, Ivy decided to settle down and rest.

Ivy and Silas, along with Ember, Kael, and Felix, went out to clear up zombies in the vicinity.

"Are you alright?" Silas asked once he and Ivy were alone. From the moment they started their battle, Ivy’s mood plummeted, and even the Nightbane siblings sensed it.

Knowing how tense she was, they tried their best to make her smile and even passed many lame jokes. To say that they were on the verge of doing stand-up comedy wasn’t a lie.

Ivy feigned a cheerful mood, and though the Nightbane siblings knew she was pretending, they decided not to expose her.

Instead, they turned toward expert Silas in the hopes that he might have some solution.

"Hm, fine." Ivy’s smile was forced; the flashes of worry and bitterness in her eyes made Silas’s heart ache.

"Ivy, did you forget your promise?" Silas arched his brow, his serious expression masking the anxiety in his heart.

"I didn’t..." Ivy weakly tried to defend; however, when her eyes clashed with the familiar mesmerizing sapphire blue eyes, her heart softened, and she sighed.

"Fine, you win..." She murmured and explained, "Today I noticed a gap."

"Hm?" Silas was puzzled.

"A gap between our strengths. Silas, I strongly suspect that just like in my previous life, I won’t be able to awaken any offensive power. Though my power allows me to remain safeguarded against zombies, they can’t save me from humans." Ivy knew the horrors of being helpless.

She always wondered in her previous life... what if she had offensive powers like thunder element, fire element, or psychic elements, etc.

Maybe she wouldn’t be so helpless... maybe she and her parents wouldn’t be so miserable.

Silas fell silent; the problem proposed by Ivy couldn’t be solved with the line ’I will protect you forever.’

As comforting as it may sound, the reality was... what Ivy wanted wasn’t comfort, but a way to strengthen herself.

If Silas were in Ivy’s place, maybe he would have felt the same.

"What if this lifetime is different?" Silas gently soothed her. "In your previous life, you never awakened the supplies-picking superpower, but in this lifetime, you did. Isn’t that the sign that in this life, you stand a chance of awakening a different superpower?"

Ivy suddenly thought about the second Power Rain, and her eyes brightened. "You are right. If my memories serve me right, extreme heat will hit the world in half a month, and once it ends, the second round of rain will arrive."

Silas rubbed her head, hugging her. His hand caressed her waist. "See, you will soon gain your second chance! And I deeply believe you will excel at it and awaken a power."

Ivy smiled and hugged him back. "Thank you."

She closed her eyes, letting the warmth of Silas’s embrace steady her trembling heart. But deep within, the unease refused to fade completely.

She knew her memories gave her foresight, but fate had a cruel habit of shifting whenever she relied on it too much.

"About the thing that you have asked to investigate, I got the information. A trafficking racket is going on at Twilight Base. The woman who asked for help from you wasn’t Austin’s wife at all. She was one of the women who was going to be trafficked soon."

Ivy’s heart tightened with guilt. "Sh*t, I should have stayed behind and..."

"It doesn’t matter. Even if you had stayed, you didn’t know the depth and didn’t have a plan. Rushing into things will only alert the enemy; the best decision we took was leaving." Silas interrupted her, heartbroken.

Ivy wasn’t soft-hearted, but if a genuine person asks for help, and she can’t provide it... guilt surges under her skin.

Pursing her lips, Ivy asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"Hm? I do. I found a guy named Logan. He has the insider’s details. His uncle is working with the traffickers. At first, he refused to help his uncle when his uncle approached him, but when he realized how difficult it was to get information, he agreed to help his uncle." Silas explained.

Ivy froze.

Logan?

"Is that guy’s surname Morgan?" Ivy trembled slightly when she asked the question. She thought in her heart that the possibility was low, but what if... what if...

"How did you know? No... wait... do you know him from your past life?" Silas asked in surprise.

Logan Morgan... indeed, he was Logan Morgan from her past life. The question was... how did he end up in her country a year later?

"I do." Ivy nodded, her hand clutching Silas’s hand tightly. "He was a gloomy guy. My best friend’s squad member and a righteous guy. In my past life, after your friends died, and I was drifting from place to place... I joined my best friend’s squad. There was a member who had a problem with me and called me a burden. But Logan always sided with my best friend and protected me. A rare nice guy."

Silas’s eyes flashed with darkness.

A nice guy? Did Ivy like him? Or perhaps... did he like Ivy?