Second Lead Syndrome (1-187) | ✓

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Cecil covered her mouth, feeling queasy, looking at Xue who raised his eyebrows at her.

Great lord protagonist, I was holding it in earlier. You kicking the corpse out of anger because it made your beloved wife suffer...it just makes it worse.

Cecil squeezed her eyes shut, looking away from the dreadful corpse, hurrying forward to the boy. She carefully carried him into her arms, the screams of terrors piercing through the air.

"Urik! Urik, where are you?"

A woman in her forties was dashing about, her face pale as her hair was disheveled. A corpse growled, its state was almost as bad as the previous corpse.

The woman clutched the shovel in her hand, gritting her teeth as she whacked the corpse without mercy. The corpse's body twisted and it collapsed to the ground, however, instead of stopping, it crawled towards the woman with its twisted body.

The woman didn't pay attention to it, still hurrying around looking for her child. That was when she saw Cecil in the distance, carrying a child she was familiar with, tears sprung to her eyes and she sprinted towards Cecil, dropping the shovel.

"Urik? Urik! Oh thank god, thank you so much, young lady. Thank you for saving my son."

Cecil handed her son over carefully. The mother fretted over her unconscious son, and Cecil tried to quell her anxiety.

"Your son simply fainted from shock, don't worry."

Hana took out her handkerchief to wipe at her mouth, she also took out the canteen from her backpack, rinsing her mouth with it. Xue naturally assisted her.

"Thank you, Xue...what should we do...about this?" Hana asked, looking at Xue.

Cecil looked at Xue as well, while patting the mother who was crying.

"I can feel...three of "me" here," Xue stated, looking at Cecil. "Did you know?"

"Vaguely," Cecil nodded, her voice lukewarm. "It is your choice, Xue. Whether you want to forsake them and find your souls, or save them and find your souls."

There are two different things this time, compared to the original timeline.

Hana is here, and so am I. So now, what Xue decides...I will just follow.

Hana looked at Xue. "You...you won't help them?" She struggled out of his embrace. "Why?"

Xue sighed, looking at Hana before glancing back at Cecil. "When you said there would be benefits for stepping in, was it only for finding my souls?"

Cecil shook her head. "I can't explain, but, it is more than what you can expect."

Xue closed his eyes, "I'll do it."

Cecil smiled, "okay, Xue. You know where your souls are, you should lead the way."

"I'll stay here, I don't think I can see anymore of those...things," Hana volunteered to stay behind, turning green as she looked at the bloody corpse strewn about in the distance.

The maggots were still wiggling around, and the long string of rotting intestines on the ground didn't help either.

"The two of you should go, both of you are strong anyway!"

"Alright, Hana. You can stay here and protect them, and any more civilians we send here."

"Mhmm!" Hana nodded, smiling at the two civilians and the mother smiled back gratefully.

She placed her canteen on the ground, taking out her blue shawl from her backpack. She then drew a small amount of water from the canteen, drenching her shawl in it.