Chapter 576 – Siege

“These days… everyone is talking about that Miracle Squad,” a member suddenly mentioned during a small meeting of the F Team.

These small meetings had recently become a daily routine for the F Team. With the F Team’s formal development just starting, there were countless issues to handle, and a group of “Elders” were always gathered together, endlessly debating various matters.

However, mentions of Ling Mo had noticeably decreased compared to before.

But now, someone brought him up again.

And as soon as the person spoke, all eyes immediately turned to Lucy, who was sitting at the other end of the long table.

The seat next to her, reserved for Ling Mo, was empty. Ling Mo hadn’t attended any of the meetings these past few days.

Everyone knew why. In fact, they preferred it that way, hoping Ling Mo wouldn’t meddle with any of the F Team’s affairs.

Not attending the meetings was one thing, but running off to tinker with the Miracle Squad and openly poaching their members left them feeling quite disgruntled.

“Now there are four people, plus three new members, who follow him around all day. From what I’ve heard, others seem to admire Ling Mo greatly and have even expressed interest in joining that squad,” a core member stated. “This situation… you all should be aware that this is not what we originally intended, right?”

“Yeah, he made quite the statement…” The speaker had heard in detail about the events during the member selection process.

“If this continues, it will completely undermine our strengths. If their hearts aren’t with us, can we even consider them our people?” another member boldly said.

Another nodded in agreement: “Wasn’t he just supposed to be a figurehead… is he planning to stay here indefinitely?”

“He can’t be… if he’s going to stay, it should be at the Falcon Second Camp…” one person questioned.

Another shook their head: “Maybe the plan is to eventually take us over?”

“Right, that makes sense…” The questioner was stunned and immediately felt they had sniffed out some sort of conspiracy.

Finally, someone directed the conversation towards the silent Lucy: “By the way, President, I remember you agreed to his request, right?”

Lucy had her arms on the table, resting her chin on her hands, appearing lost in thought.

Upon being called out, it took Lucy a few seconds to react. “Huh?”

The person repeated the question somewhat helplessly while everyone waited to see how Lucy would respond.

“Oh, that…” Lucy seemed a bit distracted. She gently rubbed her temples and squinted slightly. “I agreed to it, but weren’t you all present at the time? If you had objections, who stopped you from voicing them then? As for the Nominal Regimental Commander… we practically begged him to accept, and now you’re dissatisfied?”

“But…” The person suddenly found themselves at a loss for words, unable to come up with a rebuttal.

Stopped? Those present exchanged furtive glances, unable to suppress a slight smile.

The reason was an open secret… who among them wasn’t wary of Ling Mo?

“As for merging us… that’s not going to happen. He’s not the type to be constrained,” Lucy denied.

“You can’t base this solely on your assumption, President…” someone said.

“It’s not an assumption; it’s based on his actions. Besides, if he really wanted to merge us, why go to such lengths? Don’t forget, we didn’t have a management structure before. If Ling Mo had proposed we stay at the Falcon Second Camp, how many of us would have chosen to stay?” Lucy added.

Her words once again silenced many.

A lot of them, if they were honest, would admit to feeling somewhat tempted.

Besides, Falcon hadn’t brought it up at the time, and none of them had proactively wanted to stay, so only a few had even considered the notion.

A voluntary surrender and being invited were two different matters, after all.

“Even so, what about him recruiting our people?” someone else questioned. “That’s seven people! How many do we have in total?”

“Yeah, exactly…”

“Exactly, who knows if he’ll keep recruiting our people in the future!”

“How can anyone guarantee that?”

…

The meeting room was in complete chaos, with everyone talking over each other, rendering Lucy’s attempts to speak futile.

In the blink of an eye, the meeting seemed to have turned into a forum for criticizing Lucy and Ling Mo, leaving Lucy sitting there, looking utterly helpless.

“Enough!”

Lucy’s expression shifted several times before she suddenly slammed the table and stood up.

The clamor immediately died down, and all eyes turned back to Lucy.

Lucy locked eyes with the crowd for a moment and saw distrust in their gazes, which made her furious.

“You… you people don’t know Ling Mo well, so when you need his help, you send me to ask. And now, when you think Ling Mo is a threat and want to offend him, you send me again…” As she spoke, Lucy suddenly let out a cold laugh and said, emphasizing each word, “Do you see me as the President, or are you all just using me?”

As she spoke, her eyes slowly scanned each person’s face.

It was at this moment that the group realized Lucy’s eyes were different from before.

That always straight-faced, serious, slightly stubborn Lucy was not in the office right now.

The Lucy standing there seemed a bit unfamiliar…

Her eyes were slightly red, as if she hadn’t rested well, but under her stare, they felt as if their skin was being pierced by needles.

That killing intent in her eyes was something they rarely saw in Lucy before.

Some people think that widening their eyes and putting on a fierce face can be intimidating, but in reality, no matter how wide they open their eyes, it wouldn’t work.

True killing intent is like a wild beast ready to pounce, searching for the weaknesses of its prey, making people feel that any show of weakness would result in being torn apart instantly.

And that look was now in Lucy’s eyes.

Her words were also sharp, directly poking at the selfish motives of those present.

“A bunch of grown men, using a girl like me? You all have some nerve!” Lucy chuckled and said.

Most of the people present felt somewhat ashamed after hearing this and averted their gaze, pretending not to have heard it. However, one person brazenly responded, “How can you call it using you? You’re a member of the F Team, leveraging your resources to contribute to everyone. What’s wrong with that? Besides, if it weren’t for you and Ling Mo…”

He stopped himself immediately, but Lucy was already angrily asking, “What do you mean by that?”

The person was initially startled, then looked around at the others with a mix of shame and annoyance.

Feeling humiliated and watched by so many people, he was both embarrassed and angry. “Fine, let’s be straightforward. Why do you think you became the President? Sure, you know how to deal with people, but everyone knows about you and Ling Mo…”

Lucy’s face had turned extremely ugly by this point.

She wasn’t someone who hid her emotions well. Normally, confronted with such insults, she would have already erupted in rage.

But right now, she felt a sense of humiliation, as if her innermost thoughts had been exposed.

Especially thinking about the things she had done for Ling Mo, Lucy felt even more ashamed.

Everyone was staring at her, and seeing her reaction, they all understood the situation.

The person speaking felt a surge of triumph, feeling that he had regained the respect lost when Lucy had yelled at him earlier. “Frankly, there’s no problem with you being President. But regarding Ling Mo, can you honestly say you have no ulterior motives? Now that things have spiraled to this point, you should step up and resolve it. At the very least, you should clarify what Ling Mo’s intentions are…”

He was getting more and more carried away, and seeing Lucy remain silent with her lips tightly pressed together only fueled his sense of satisfaction.

This was power, status, the ability to dictate direction! It felt incredible!

The more he spoke, the more he convinced himself he was right. Appointing Lucy as President had been a mistake; he would have been a better choice!

It wasn’t as if she didn’t rely on Ling Mo…

His frustration led him to speak even more harshly to Lucy, “If he won’t talk, you can ask him. He might ignore others, but you… you know what I mean.”

“Ha ha…” A few awkward laughs came from the crowd, but most people were too embarrassed to participate in this kind of attack.

“You can ask me directly.” Suddenly, an unexpected voice joined the conversation.