Chapter 71: The Fanatical Martyr

Finn learned from Old Tom that three unidentified caravans had purchased purified water from him. One had been a slave-trading convoy, so it could be ruled out.

Most caravans in the wasteland were happy to leave their names and build a reputation wherever they went. A caravan that deliberately concealed its movements was suspicious in itself.

Either the Wilderness Rhino caravan had never passed through Antonio, or it was hiding something. Olivia had encountered some of its members in Black Mountain and still remembered what they looked like.

She gave a detailed description of several people, especially the caravan leader.

He was a thin, middle-aged man with gray-brown hair and green eyes. Many of his men wore felt hats.

Only now, as Olivia went over the details, did she realize that most of them had deliberately pulled their hats low to hide their faces.

The city lord, Dewey Oliver, was willing to help. He mobilized people throughout the city to gather information on the caravans that had passed through Antonio that day, then compared the reports with Olivia’s memories.

Antonio’s organization left much to be desired—it was practically a loose collection of factions—but with Dewey Oliver’s orders behind them, his men finally managed to uncover something useful.

An unidentified caravan had indeed passed through Refuge City that day, and its members perfectly matched Olivia’s description.

They were stern and unsmiling and never traded with any other caravans. They quietly purchased supplies, food, and purified water before leaving just as silently as they had arrived.

According to a grenade vendor near the north gate, they had headed northwest.

“We have to catch them!” Olivia huffed.

Penny eagerly nodded beside her, just as determined.

Dewey Oliver walked over to Finn with feigned concern. “Brother, you’d better be careful. The Radiant Path has placed an eight-thousand-dollar bounty on your head, dead or alive. Sure, you’re a legendary Tier 5 Vanguard, so most people wouldn’t dare challenge you directly. But they’re very good at underhanded tricks.

“The Radiant Path originally demanded that I plaster the whole city with your wanted posters. But they refused to pay me and only said the Holy Radiance would protect me. What a joke. Is the Holy Radiance going to pay my bills? So naturally, I turned them down.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

Finn nodded politely, shook Dewey’s hand, then left with Olivia and Penny.

At the gas station near the city gate, they filled up their off-road vehicle and purchased several extra cans of fuel for emergencies.

Onlookers kept gathering around Finn, pointing at him and whispering among themselves. The crowd only continued to grow.

In their eyes, a Tier 5 Vanguard like Finn was an even rarer sight than Grade Five purified water. Of course they had to get a look. Quite a few men also stared openly at Olivia’s face, unable to tear their eyes away.

It was Penny’s first time leaving Black Mountain, and every caravan seemed to have something new and interesting. The little girl looked around excitedly, eventually wandering across the road, where a middle-aged woman coaxed her into trying on a pair of shoddy cowhide boots.

A weathered-looking man pushed his way through the crowd. Wearing a thick coat, he walked straight toward Finn and spoke in an earnest, convincing manner.

“Mr. Finn, thank you for killing Old Tom! He and his family oppressed me for years, and no one ever gave me justice. You wiped them out and rid Refuge City of a menace!”

Finn nodded, feeling slightly awkward. It was strange to have a complete stranger suddenly approach him in the street just to offer thanks.

Before Finn could react, the man stepped forward and hugged him, wrapping both arms around his waist.

Finn was about to push him away when the man whispered into his ear.

“Long live the Holy Radiance.”

Boom!

The man exploded without warning, flames shooting into the air. He had strapped dozens of pounds of high explosives beneath his coat and detonated them the moment he got close to Finn.

Unfortunately for him, even a tactical nuclear warhead couldn’t hurt Finn. An explosion at point-blank range like this wasn’t enough to rupture his eardrums.

But the blast devastated the surrounding area.

Their off-road vehicle was reduced to a twisted metal frame. Among the crowd, the dead and wounded lay scattered everywhere, their screams filling the air. At least seven or eight innocent bystanders had been killed.

As for the suicide bomber, nothing remained of him.

“Where’s Olivia?”

Finn turned and spotted her several meters away, where the explosion had thrown her.

Her body was a mangled ruin. Her left hand and left leg had been blown off, while her chest and skull were drenched in blood and horribly mangled. She was clearly dead.

Penny, on the other hand, had fortunately escaped the blast because she was across the road trying on boots.

Everything had changed in an instant, but Finn remained perfectly calm. He was long accustomed to teammates dropping dead without warning. He didn’t waste even half a second on pain or confusion.

One moment, a teammate might be laughing and joking with you. The next, a sniper a thousand meters away would put a bullet through your teammate’s head, making it burst like a watermelon right before your eyes.

Finn had seen more than enough tragedies like this.

Even so, fury surged through him.

“Damn Radiant Path! They killed my only maid!”

Finn walked over to Olivia and held a Nine Revolutions Resurrection Pill to her head, then activated its medicinal power.

Her muscles and bones regrew. Her fair skin healed without a single blemish, and her heart began beating once more.

Olivia blinked her clear blue eyes, her long lashes trembling. Then she threw herself into Finn’s arms and sobbed softly. “Master, I’m sorry!”

Finn gently patted her back. “It’s all right. As long as I’m here, no one can hurt—” He caught himself. “Ahem. No one can stop you from coming back to life.”

“I’m sorry, Master. It was my mistake.” Olivia trembled in his arms as she whispered, “I should have used my X-ray vision to detect the suicide bomber in advance, but I let my guard down. I’ll be more careful from now on!”

Finn told her he understood and that she shouldn’t blame herself too much. Maintaining her ability took a great deal of mental energy. She couldn’t keep her X-ray vision active all the time. Mutants weren’t omnipotent.

Dewey Oliver hurried over as soon as he heard the news.

He told Finn that the bomber had been one of the Radiant Path’s fanatics—a special type of soldier known as a Martyr. They would gladly die alongside their enemies, making them both insane and terrifying.

Dewey voluntarily gave Finn a better off-road vehicle as compensation. It was a high-end model from Ironatom, with better performance and lower fuel consumption.

Finn, Olivia, and Penny climbed inside and left the city, pursuing the unidentified caravan.

...

After Olivia had driven at high speed across the endless wilderness for a day and a night, she finally found a set of tracks left by a convoy.

The long stretch of overlapping, chaotic tire marks most likely belonged to the Wilderness Rhino caravan.

Unfortunately, after entering an uninhabited region covered in yellow sand, the caravan seemed to have deliberately concealed its movements. Its tracks had been erased from the sand, leaving Finn’s group with no clear route to follow.

Penny’s mutant ability finally came in handy.

She lay flat on the ground and pressed her ear to the earth. After listening carefully, she detected the faint sound of vehicle engines. Once she identified where the sound was coming from, they resumed the chase.

After they crossed a winding stream on a desolate plain, the tire marks vanished once again.

Penny jumped out of the off-road vehicle, lay on the ground, and activated her ability—Earth Radar.

This time, however, she listened for a long while before rising with a confused expression. The vehicles were too far away. She could no longer hear their engines.

They had lost their quarry, and even Finn was at a loss. It only strengthened his determination to build a drone of his own.

Unwilling to give up, Penny lay down and listened again.

After a long while, she propped herself up on both arms and frowned.

“I can hear a faint human heartbeat!”