I searched and fought in America.

The mother looked away, tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn't utter the words, "Please save them."

Because she knew very well how extravagant, absurd, and even ungrateful this request was in this country.

She didn't even know why she instinctively grabbed the man's trouser leg.

Perhaps, in the endless darkness, the man who had just reached out and pulled her child up was the only light she had ever seen in her life, the last straw she could grasp.

But then she realized what was happening.

Why should they risk their lives to stay? Why should they gamble their lives for these unrelated burdens?

The mother's fingers recoiled as if she had been electrocuted. She closed her eyes in anguish, loosened Rosen's trouser leg, buried her face deeply in the crook of her child's neck, and wept bitterly and desperately.

A series of hurried footsteps approached, and Caesar, Wang Ling, Gabak, and Cade, who was covered in gunpowder, quickly gathered around Rosen.

As for the white bodyguard, he died from Viper's bullet...

Caesar glanced at the survivors lying in such a terrible state, his face twitched violently, and his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

But he said nothing, simply standing silently behind Rosen. To him, the will of the Father was his only direction. If the Father wanted to leave, he would not stop him; if the Father wanted to save him, he would fight to the death.

Wang Ling remained expressionless, but upon closer inspection, one could see something suppressed deep within his eyes. He slowly turned his head, shifting his gaze away from the survivors.

The burly black man, Gabak, had tears welling up in his eyes. His thick lips trembled, and he opened his mouth as if to plead with the Father for mercy through doctrine. But reason told him how deadly the situation was, and in the end, he simply lowered his head in anguish and began to silently pray.

Cade strode over to Rosen's side. This battle-hardened former special forces soldier glanced at the carnage around him, his expression unchanged. He stared intently into Rosen's eyes, his tone heavy:

"Rosen, I know what you're thinking, but let me tell you, no way! Wake up!"

Cade pointed to the hole in the wall not far away:

"Time is running out! There are only 40 seconds left! There are at least thirteen or fourteen people here, including the elderly and children, the injured and disabled! The main passage is blocked, and the only way out is the backup opening that the viper blew open, but you can only crawl through there one person at a time!"

He grabbed Rosen by the collar: "How long would it take for a dozen people to climb over? Three minutes? Five minutes? No time! If the gas tank explodes, we'll all die here!"

Cade paused, took a deep breath, and his tone became sterner than ever before:

"Don't forget who you are. You're the Holy Father of the Iron Claw Gang. You have dozens of mouths to feed, and you're responsible for them! Don't try to be a saint and show mercy now; that's suicide!"

Rosen let Cade grab his collar and fell into a long silence.

His gaze swept over the survivors once more.

The girl with blood streaming from both arms slowly raised her head and met Rosen's gaze, but just a second later, she looked away as if she had been electrocuted and lowered her head even further.

The old man with the broken leg also noticed the conversation. He recognized Rosen, the one who had thought of saving him. He forced a bitter smile that was more like a grimace, and waved his hand gently at Rosen, as if to say, "Go on, kid, don't worry about us."

The mother's cries gradually turned into hoarse sobs. She lowered her head, gently patted the child in her arms, and hummed an unknown lullaby intermittently, preparing to face the impending destruction.

Rosen slowly lowered his head.

His left hand gripped the scroll he had just risked his life for tightly. It was his trump card, a card that would allow him to roam freely in the apocalypse.

Should we use it on this group of worthless vagrants?

The system's countdown timer appeared again:

【00: 30】

"Let's go, Rosen." Cade loosened his collar, patted him hard on the shoulder, and said with a hint of reluctance in his voice, "We did our best."

Rosen did not move.

Caesar didn't move, the king's decree didn't move, and Gabbac didn't move either; they were all quietly waiting for the Father's final decision.

The entire underground space was silent and deathly quiet, as if only the red countdown timer of the system and Rosen's heartbeat were pulsating.

Rosen slowly raised his head, opened his mouth, and spoke in a low voice, as if he were asking Cade, or questioning this damned world:

"If I leave... what will happen to them?"

No one could answer him.

Countdown: [00:25]

Rosen stood still, his gaze slowly sweeping across the faces of each survivor, then over his brothers who were covered in blood.

The survivors seemed to sense something. Some cautiously raised their heads, but quickly lowered them again after meeting Rosen's gaze. They didn't even have the courage to hope for being saved.

The old intellectual with the broken leg finally spoke, his voice trembling.

"Child, go...go quickly. People like us are just trash, not worth you staying to die with us."

Rosen did not respond to the old man; he simply watched the young mother quietly.

The mother stopped humming that unknown lullaby. She raised her head and looked at Rosen calmly, her eyes devoid of resentment or blame.

She simply held the child whose bleeding had just been stopped by Rosen, gently shook her head at him, and her lips moved slightly:

Let's go, don't worry about us.

Rosen clenched his fist tightly, then slowly relaxed it.

He turned around and faced his squad.

"Caesar," Rosen's voice was soft.

"Here!" The man, as tall as an iron tower, suddenly straightened his back.

"Royal Decree."

"Yes." His voice was as calm as ever.

"Gabak".

"Father!" The burly black man's voice trembled slightly with a secret expectation.

"Uncle Cade," Rosen said, finally looking at the weathered veteran.

Cade frowned, staring intently into Rosen's eyes: "What do you want?"

---

The fable "The Crow and the Gold Medal":

A crow found a gold medal and wanted to write it into a story. Before it could even put pen to paper, it heard a fox under a tree say, "Look, that crow is pretending to be a god."

The crow was so frightened that it dropped the gold medal. The fox picked it up and wrote a story called "The Fox's Gold Medal," which became a huge fire.

Meaning: The inspiration from a failed attempt often serves as a stepping stone for the material of a master.