Falsely Accused, I Started Plundering Monster Traits

The smile that had been hanging on the man’s face slowly disappeared. He had clearly understood what Lin Yan was getting at.

"I heard you were one of the survivors from the first Convergence."

Lin Yan waited, but when nothing else came, one eyebrow rose.

"That’s it? That’s what you call having heard so much about me?"

The man didn’t answer. Whatever politeness had remained on his face was gone now.

Lin Yan actually felt better.

He had no interest in wasting any more time on empty pleasantries, so he turned his attention back to the heavy weapons nearby.

"All right. Let’s talk business."

The man followed his gaze, and this time he was much more direct.

"The equipment is negotiable. But if you’re planning to take all of it, that’s not happening."

There it is.

Lin Yan had known it.

"We still have civilians here, and there are people outside we haven’t found yet. If you take the heavy machine guns, the grenade launchers, and all the anti-armor rounds, what am I supposed to defend this place with the next time something comes knocking?"

It was a perfectly reasonable argument.

Unfortunately, Lin Yan had gone out of his way to come here specifically because he wanted to take those weapons with him.

"You heard that roar just now, didn’t you?"

He gestured toward the makeshift barricade outside, pieced together from municipal work vehicles and steel plates.

"If that thing comes here, how long do you think any of that is going to hold? One minute? Two?"

He didn’t wait for an answer.

"You know how Reeves and the rest of them died? Maybe you don’t, but I saw it happen. That dragon breathed fire once and the entire street went up. There was nowhere to hide. If it finds this place, that barricade might as well not exist. Once the fire comes down, the people and the guns disappear together."

Lin Yan tilted his chin toward the ammunition crates.

"As long as that dragon is alive, we’re stuck here. Food, ammunition, fuel—sooner or later, all of it runs out. These guns are going to get used eventually either way. The only question is whether there’ll still be anyone alive to use them when that happens."

The man was quiet for a moment before asking,

"How do you know killing the dragon will let us out?"

"Because I survived the first Convergence. Tasks, Anchors, all the other bullshit inside these things—I got involved with it before you did, and I know more than you do. If you’ve got better intel, I’ll listen. If you don’t, then quit yapping."

The man still didn’t budge.

"At the end of the day, that’s still just your word."

His tone was blunt.

"You can gamble with your own life if you want. I can’t stake everyone here—and all of our weapons—on your version of events."

"So, with all due respect, I can’t agree to this."

Lin Yan didn’t keep pushing.

This clearly wasn’t someone he could bluff into submission with a few strong words. If he kept trying to lean on his status, all he would accomplish was souring the relationship.

And by now, Lin Yan had started noticing something else.

Every time the man spoke, he naturally angled his body slightly toward Lin Yan, keeping the device mounted on his chest pointed directly between them. At first Lin Yan had assumed it was some kind of communications unit.

Now, though, it was starting to look suspicious.

Crafty old bastard.

Lin Yan glanced around. The garage held more than just response-unit personnel. There were civilians temporarily sheltering here as well, and although the people nearby were still pretending to focus on their own work, more than a few sets of ears were clearly drifting in their direction.

After a moment’s thought, Lin Yan stepped closer, rested a hand on the man’s shoulder, pointed at the device on his chest, then made a downward motion with his hand.

The man glanced down, understood immediately, and switched off the recording.

Lin Yan tipped his head toward a corner of the garage.

Once they had moved far enough away from everyone else, he lowered his voice.

"You stay here. Anyone you think needs to stay here stays too. What I want is two heavy machine guns, one grenade launcher, the anti-armor rounds, and a few people who know how to operate them."

"What happens after we get out isn’t something I can decide for the people above me. But I was one of the survivors from the first Convergence, and I do have some say. If we actually kill that dragon, I’ll make sure every man and every piece of equipment you contributed goes into the report exactly as it happened."

The man’s brow, which had been drawn tight until now, loosened slightly. His fingers tapped twice against his leg.

"Now that sounds a little more reasonable."

Lin Yan saw the change and immediately knew where things stood.

Still not enough.

He leaned in a little farther and lowered his voice again.

"There’s one more thing. You remember what happened when the first Convergence ended, right? That announcement everyone in the world heard."

Something shifted in the man’s eyes.

Lin Yan didn’t finish the thought. He simply pointed at himself.

"I was one of the first people to come out alive. And as for why the Federation cares so much about me..."

He gave the man a look.

"You can work that one out yourself."

Some things worked better when you didn’t say them outright.

People were funny that way. Hand them an answer directly and their first instinct was often to question it. Give them a handful of clues and let them piece the conclusion together themselves, though, and even if they arrived at the exact same answer, they were usually much more willing to believe it.

Because then it wasn’t something someone else had told them.

It was something they had "figured out" on their own.

So Lin Yan had no need to spell out the rest. Leaving that final piece for the man to connect himself would work far better than pounding his chest and declaring, I’m the Hero, ten times in a row.

Sure enough, the man didn’t respond immediately.

Lin Yan didn’t give him much time to think either. He pressed the advantage and laid out the terms again.

"I want two heavy machine guns, one grenade launcher, the anti-armor rounds, and a few people who know how to use them and are willing to come with me. You don’t have to go. Anyone who needs to stay here and defend this place can stay."

"If this works, every weapon you supplied, every person you sent, and whoever approved the operation goes into my report exactly as it happened. As for what all of that ends up being worth afterward—"

Lin Yan smiled.

"I don’t need to explain that part, do I?"

---

The preparations afterward didn’t take long. Lin Yan topped off his ammunition while the garage crew loaded the heavy machine guns, grenade launcher, and anti-armor rounds they had agreed to send, reorganized personnel, and synchronized radio channels. Before long, everything that needed doing was more or less finished.

With a little time left, Lin Yan grabbed a bottle of water and a piece of compressed field ration from the supply pile and walked over to Lucia.

The Church knights had stayed somewhat apart from everyone else inside the garage, using the break to check their armor and weapons. Lucia sat on an ammunition crate nearby. She accepted the water and food from Lin Yan, drank a few mouthfuls, then began examining the sealed ration in her hands.

She turned the package over several times without figuring out how to open it.

Lin Yan watched for a moment before taking it back, tearing it open along the notch, and handing it to her again.

Lucia took a bite and chewed slowly.

"Good?"

She chewed twice more, then gave him a very serious nod.

"Good."

Lin Yan couldn’t help laughing. He had eaten the stuff once before. It was dry enough to choke on, and the taste had absolutely no business being mentioned in the same sentence as the word good.

He had no idea what part of it she liked.

By the time the last ammunition crates were secured onto the vehicle, the preparations were basically complete. Lin Yan gave his M2 one final check and was about to stand when Lucia suddenly spoke from beside him.

"You really seem to want to kill the Black Dragon."

She was still sitting on the ammunition crate, the half-eaten ration in her hands.

"Why?"

Lin Yan didn’t even need to think.

"To protect the people on our side."

The answer came out without the slightest hesitation.

"You’ve seen it yourself. Weapons like these are practically royal trump cards by your standards, and even I don’t know if they’re enough to actually kill the dragon as it is now. If it fully crosses over and its level of existence rises another step, who knows whether any of this will even be able to hurt it anymore?"

As he continued, his tone actually grew more serious.

"If that thing ever reaches our world and starts breathing fire over our cities, the people who suffer first will be ordinary civilians who don’t even know what’s happening. And by then, forget these heavy machine guns—even if we drag out the real trump cards from our side, nobody can guarantee they’ll still be enough to kill it."

"So I have to kill the Black Dragon."

Lucia listened quietly, apparently finding the argument perfectly reasonable, and gave him a solemn nod.

Lin Yan slung the M2 back over his shoulder.

The whole speech had sounded logical, righteous, and thoroughly convincing.

He almost believed it himself.

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