Chapter 379 Acting
Lily hurried back to the shelter.
Her anxious appearance caught everyone's attention.
Steven looked at her curiously. "What's wrong, Lily?"
Lily ran up to Steven, panting, "Steven, something terrible has happened! My students—they've all disappeared!"
Everyone was shocked upon hearing this.
"What? Disappeared!"
"How could this happen? All of them are gone?"
"Could they have gone out to look for wood and food?"
Concern was written on everyone's faces, but their eyes showed indifference.
In the entire shelter, only Lily cared about those people.
The others had no fondness for her students.
Lily shook her head. "I've searched everywhere I could. I didn't find a single person! Steven, I suspect that some factions have extended their reach here."
Steven crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. "Could be. But why target your students? You got any old grudges?"
Lily was totally lost. "I... I don't know. I've been teaching at Innovation Academy for three years—no enemies."
Steven comforted her, "Don't worry about this for now! Worrying won't help; we need to stay calm and think of a solution."
Steven signaled to Cindy and Aubrey.
The two girls came over to Lily, pulled her to the sofa, and comforted her.
Steven locked eyes with Lily, his tone dead serious. "Lily, first off, I had nothing to do with this. If you don't believe me, I'll pull up the shelter's security cam footage. I was stuck in there all day yesterday—didn't step foot outside."
Lily's eyes widened, and she said anxiously, "No, no! Steven, how could I suspect you?"
Steven had already become a kind and gentle man in her heart.
She naturally wouldn't suspect Steven.
Steven shook his head. "Better to clear the air. That way, there's no room for suspicion. Since your students vanished, everyone in the shelter's a suspect."
Cindy jumped in, "Yeah, none of us would pull something like this, but it'll put everyone's mind at ease."
Lily shifted uncomfortably. "This... this isn't necessary! I know Steven's not that kind of guy."
Even as she said it, a sliver of doubt crept in. After all, not everyone's got the skills to make people vanish into thin air.
"It's okay. We can also check the surrounding surveillance to ensure no strangers have appeared nearby." Steven called up the shelter's AI, Aurora, and had it pull up the surveillance footage from yesterday until now.
Soon, the large screen on the living room wall started playing footage from over a hundred surveillance cameras.
After fast-forwarding through the footage, they quickly finished watching it.
Yesterday, the area around the shelter was as quiet as usual, with no signs of anyone coming or going.
This ruled out everyone's suspicion, at least proving that the students' disappearance wasn't their doing.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief; the result she feared the most hadn't happened.
Steven crossed his hands under his chin and said seriously, "This is troublesome! We don't know who took them or why. It's left us completely in the dark. We know about the four big players in Starlight City, but there could be other unknowns out there. For now, we're stuck playing the waiting game. But since they grabbed Lily's students, they've got a reason. I say we sit tight—they'll reach out eventually."
Lily clenched her fists. "But what could they want from me? I don't remember offending anyone!"
Steven smiled, "That's a complicated question. But since they took your students, who else would they be gunning for but you? Still, I'm just suggesting a possibility."
Lily frowned deeply.
She really wanted to do something.
But she found herself at a loss, unable to do anything!
Not knowing who the enemy was or what they wanted, she could only sit there in a daze.
At that moment, Steven's warm hand grasped her cold one.
Lily's heart skipped a beat, and she looked up to see Steven's gentle eyes gazing at her.
His voice was calm but firm. "Lily, don't sweat it. Your mess is my mess now. I promised I'd look out for your students, and I don't break my word. The second we get a lead, I'm on it."
Lily felt a warmth in her heart, and she could only follow Steven's lead for now.
Steven smiled and squinted, feeling very pleased inside.
Finally, those nuisances were taken care of.
It was only a matter of time before they die. Even if the folks from Emberwick Base didn't finish them off, the poison Steven had been slipping into their food would do the trick.
The best part? Lily would never trace it back to him, so he'd avoid any messy fallout with her.
Everyone comforted Lily for a while, and she felt a bit better but still couldn't completely relax.
Steven then had Aubrey and Cindy take Lily back to rest.
After they left, Elinor came to Steven with a worried look, leaning against him and asking, "Steven, could it be one of those factions planning to attack us?"
"Yes, that's right." Steven nodded without hesitation.
He hadn't told anyone about killing Christian and the others.
But he knew that a conflict with the major factions was inevitable.
Only by fighting and proving their strength could they make those coveting West Mountain Base's territory back off.
This was an unavoidable situation.
Nora sighed lightly, "We haven't had peaceful days for long, and now we're starting to fight again?"
Steven shrugged with a wry smile. "You're wrong. It's not the fight messing up our peace. It's us using the fight to snag a little slice of it. In this apocalypse, chaos is the default—peace is the exception."
He leaned back on the couch, running the numbers in his head. "If it's just two factions coming at us, we can hold our ground. But what if all four decide to team up?"
Steven's brow furrowed. "Well, that could get dicey."
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