Falsely Accused, I Started Plundering Monster Traits

Once they left that street behind, their pace picked up considerably. With the barrier gone, the road ahead was continuous again, and there were no longer entire masses of zombies clogging the way.

Lin Yan walked at the front in an excellent mood.

He could still remember the way those knights had looked at him earlier. The older knight in particular had been ready to pull out some desperate last-resort technique one second, only to watch the corpse giant get punched straight through the chest by a heavy machine gun the next.

That expression had been extremely satisfying.

After they had walked for a while, the older knight’s attention drifted back to the heavy machine gun on Lin Yan’s shoulder.

"A weapon like that... it must be precious even where you come from, correct?"

Lin Yan glanced back at him, one eyebrow lifting slightly.

"Precious?"

The older knight frowned, clearly not understanding his reaction.

"A weapon capable of destroying a creature like that in such a short time would never be issued to an ordinary army, even in the Empire."

He paused, his gaze returning to the weapon on Lin Yan’s shoulder.

"Only major legions numbering more than five thousand men would even be permitted to request a war weapon of comparable power. Those allowed to keep such weapons permanently are usually the legions directly under the Crown, the Imperial Capital Guard, or a handful of the Empire’s most important heavy legions."

"And even among them, such weapons would be few."

Lin Yan finally had trouble keeping a straight face.

There was nothing wrong with what the man had said. From the perspective of their world, a weapon capable of tearing apart the corpse giant head-on in a matter of seconds being treated as a prized war asset of the Crown made perfect sense.

The problem was that their definitions of a "trump card" were very, very far apart.

The M2’s lineage went all the way back to the end of World War I, and the weapon in its recognizable modern form was based on a design nearly a century old. It was powerful, sure, but compared with the things humanity on Earth actually kept in reserve, it wasn’t exactly in the same league.

As far as Lin Yan knew, if something was going to be called a real trump card, it should at least be somewhere around the level of nuclear weapons.

As for whatever classified toys existed that people like him weren’t even supposed to know about, he had no way of guessing how many there were.

Compared to those, the M2A1 on his shoulder...

was basically just an old relic left over from the age of industrial warfare.

It certainly counted as heavy firepower in a modern military, but at the end of the day, it was still a mature weapon system that had entered standardized service long ago and could be mass-produced and issued in quantity.

Calling it some priceless strategic weapon reserved exclusively for the Crown’s elite legions was giving it a little too much credit. Hell, even an ordinary civilian could pay some money and find somewhere to fire one for the experience.

Lin Yan thought about it and ultimately decided not to crush the man’s worldview too badly.

"It’s definitely not something you can just casually pull out whenever you feel like it."

The older knight’s expression eased slightly.

Lin Yan immediately added,

"If I had to compare it to something from your side, it’d probably be about the same tier as a ballista."

The older knight’s expression, which had only just relaxed, stiffened again.

The younger knights behind him had clearly heard as well. Their eyes returned to the heavy machine gun on Lin Yan’s shoulder, their expressions even more complicated than before.

Lucia had been watching too.

She stared at the weapon for quite a while, apparently taking the conversation seriously, before slowly raising her head.

"Then can your people make a lot of them?"

Lin Yan looked at her.

The girl’s face was still as expressionless as ever, but somehow she had gone straight to the most important question.

This time, he really couldn’t keep the corner of his mouth from rising.

"A lot."

Right as he said it, a deep roar rolled through the distance.

It wasn’t particularly close, but by the time the sound reached them, the windows on both sides of the street still trembled faintly. Several birds perched along the rooftops took flight at the same time and vanished above the fog within seconds.

Lin Yan shuddered violently, his entire body locking up for an instant almost entirely on reflex.

Clearly, the Black Dragon had already given him PTSD.

Whatever smug satisfaction had still been lingering in his chest disappeared on the spot.

Worse, it didn’t sound very far away.

The relaxed atmosphere from only moments ago vanished instantly.

Lin Yan instinctively glanced at the heavy machine gun on his shoulder, then remembered the enormous silhouette he had seen from a distance before. The weapon that had looked so reassuring just moments earlier suddenly didn’t inspire quite as much confidence.

The others had obviously recognized the roar as well, because the entire group’s pace immediately increased again.

Lin Yan walked faster and faster until he finally broke into a run. Everyone behind him followed. Zombies occasionally wandered out of the fog along the way, but unless one happened to be directly blocking their path, nobody even bothered looking at it. Anything that did get in the way was dispatched in a few quick movements without the group ever breaking stride.

They kept moving like that until two blinking lights gradually appeared through the fog ahead, flashing on and off in the distance.

The group, already moving quickly, picked up the pace again.

As they drew closer, the buildings behind the lights began to take shape through the fog. Several rows of low concrete structures stood beyond a makeshift perimeter, with municipal work vehicles parked sideways and temporary steel plates connecting them into a crude defensive line.

They had reached the outpost.

Lin Yan stopped at the front, and the people behind him came to a stop one after another. They had been following his back the entire way. Once he stopped moving, naturally nobody behind him kept going.

At a glance, they really did look a little like chicks following a mother hen.

Lin Yan raised his radio.

"We’re here."

After speaking, he instinctively looked around.

Zombies lay scattered all around the perimeter, some of the bodies less than fifteen meters from the entrance. It looked like the people here had only recently cleared another wave, which meant their guard probably hadn’t come down yet.

Lin Yan glanced back at the people behind him.

Five otherworldly knights in full armor, plus a little girl wrapped in a cloak.

If a group like this suddenly walked out of the fog toward a fortified position, he couldn’t exactly blame the people inside for opening fire first.

He keyed the radio again.

"Also, the people in armor behind us are with us."

"Don’t shoot the wrong people."

The reply came almost immediately.

"Copy."

Only then did Lin Yan start forward again, the others following behind him.

As they approached, the people guarding the entrance quickly focused on the knights. All five were covered from head to toe in metal armor, with various bladed weapons hanging at their waists or strapped across their backs. No matter how you looked at them, they were completely out of place in Fairmont.

One of the guards waited until Lin Yan came close, then quietly leaned toward him and lowered his voice.

"Are they some kind of cosplay group?"

"I don’t know. Picked them up on the way."

"Then ask for their social media accounts for me. I’ll give them a follow."

Lin Yan entered the municipal garage and immediately spotted the things he had gone out of his way to come here for.

Two heavy machine guns. One had already been mounted in the bed of a pickup, while the other sat beside a maintenance rack. Farther inside, two grenade launchers rested against a workbench, with several long cases containing anti-armor rounds set apart nearby.

Lin Yan walked straight over, crouched down, and opened one of them.

The moment the lid came up, the rounds secured neatly inside were revealed. He checked the other cases one by one.

Sure enough.

Six rounds.

Two heavy machine guns, two grenade launchers, and six anti-armor rounds.

Exactly what they had reported earlier. Not a single thing missing.

At least they’re honest.

Lin Yan had just closed the case when a man somewhere in his forties walked over from deeper inside the garage.

He looked noticeably different from the people guarding the entrance. His gear was lighter, with only a few basic magazines and communications equipment attached to his body armor. A pistol sat at his waist, and he wasn’t carrying a rifle.

He wasn’t walking particularly fast, but people moved aside for him without being asked.

When he reached Lin Yan, the man glanced first at the ammunition case Lin Yan had just closed. Only then did he extend a hand, wearing a polite smile.

"Lin Yan?"

"That’s me."

Lin Yan shook his hand.

"I’ve heard so much about you. It’s an honor, truly."

Lin Yan looked at him, one eyebrow moving ever so slightly.

Handshake first.

Then the flattery.

Couldn’t have been more polite.

And yet, from the moment the man had started walking over, his eyes had already flicked toward those crates of heavy weapons more than once.

These aren’t going to be easy to get.

Any second now, he’d probably start explaining how short they were on manpower, how badly they needed the equipment, how many people they still had to protect. Whether Lin Yan got the weapons in the end was another matter, but at least the refusal would come wrapped in enough courtesy to make it sound friendly.

If Lin Yan played along with all this politeness, then by the time the real conversation started, he’d be the one who felt awkward about making outrageous demands.

Lin Yan released his hand.

"Heard so much about what?"

The man’s smile paused slightly.

"Hm?"

"You said you’d heard so much about me."

Lin Yan looked at him.

"So tell me. What exactly have you heard?"

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