Daz, while unimpressed with the general's status screen, was elated by a single piece of information held within his description. He smiled mysteriously and he was now confident that everything was going to go very smoothly.
"You must be Daz," General Miller said as he tried his best to ignore the rude and relaxed attitude of the young man. His eyes briefly glanced at Heather who was holding one of the base's standard-issue M4 assault rifles. 'So they did manage to disarm one of my units... impressive.'
"Yup, and this is Heather. Nice to meet you," Daz replied and Heather nodded when being mentioned.
"Ah, by the way, to add to my previous request, we'll also be taking another person with us. Her surname should be 'Maywood'. She's younger than Heather here, and she should be able to give you more details about the person if they're needed," Daz stated in a way that made it look like he was definitely going to get what he had previously asked for in exchange for the soldiers' lives.
Heather's eyes visibly trembled at the mention of her younger sister and her opinion of Daz instantly changed. Were he to look, Daz would see that her loyalty stat had risen, but her eyes also held some fear towards this ability of Daz's.
Knowing such detailed information about a person without having even been told directly by someone, was a frighteningly powerful tool.
General Miller's eyebrows twitched. 'How shameless and arrogant! Surely he can't seriously be expecting to get what he asked for, right?!'
"Well?" Daz asked. His tone of voice and body language suggested that he was incredibly bored and that he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and return to the skip site.
"You win. I'll give you one truck, three weeks' worth of food, three assault rifles and ten pistols. We'll also search for this person you're asking about and let you take her along with the Mayor so long as you can promise that you won't harm them. That's as far as I'm willing to go," Miller said with a gloomy and stern voice.
The soldiers behind him began whispering amongst themselves upon hearing what the general had just said.
"Look, even though the general is such a prideful person, he's willing to lower himself to this terrorist in exchange for our brothers' lives!"
"Yeah! I've always respected him, but this is different. Being able to lower himself just for our sakes... now that is truly worth my admiration!"
Naturally, the general could hear his men thanks to his enhanced stats, Perception in particular. While Dexterity also raised one's ability to hear, Perception was by far the better stat for this since it raised all of the host's natural Perception by a fair amount.
He couldn't help but smile. Being praised was always a nice thing to experience. He coughed to clear his throat before he spoke with an unyielding tone towards Daz. "So? Now that that's been decided, please tell me where my men are being held hostage."
"Eh?" Daz looked genuinely confused. "Sorry General, but I never agreed to your offer. I'm not budging. Like I said over the walkie-talkie, we'll be taking one hundred side-arms, ten assault rifles, a single sniper rifle and two trucks. No more, no less."
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The general looked disappointed. "This is the final time I'll tell you, that's not possible. Accept what I'm offering and don't get too selfish. I'm already being more than lenient enough with you in consideration of your status as a Lord and due to the fact that you're harbouring survivors."
"Is that so?" Daz said, looking as uninterested as ever.
"Yes," the general replied as he slowly raised his hand, making his men point their guns at Daz and Heather again. The two sniper dots from before quickly found their places back on Daz and Heather's chests, making the young Reaper frown.
"Greg, let me ask you a question," Daz said as he closed his eyes. He looked like the very picture of a calm before the storm and this unsettled the soldiers and General Miller slightly.
'How can he still be so calm?! Doesn't he realise we're going to kill him?! Even I can't sacrifice so much for the sake of a single unit! He's being too unreasonable, anyone could see that. Just where is his confidence coming from?!' Miller's mind reeled, trying its best to find a logical reason for Daz's attitude.
Unfortunately for the general, he soon found out why Daz was acting like he was in control of the situation. A single sentence sent the general into a frenzy.
"Does this arm look familiar to you?" Daz asked while he took a limb out of seemingly nowhere. Obviously, it was being stored in his inventory.
Daz was keeping Dorian's arm there for the sake of preserving it since the inventory appeared to freeze items in time. It was the Reaper's hope that he could use it to lessen the costs of fixing Dorian's disability.
"Where did that come from? What? An arm? Am I supposed to... recognise... that birthmark..." Greg's face paled upon seeing a simple patch of the arm's skin that was shaped like a lion's head.
The arm swiftly disappeared and was stored in Daz's inventory again. "Now that you understand my position, those supplies?"
Looking at Daz who was slowing familiarising himself with the M939 truck he was sitting in, General Miller had hate and fire burning in his eyes.
At this point, Heather had already left with all of the side-arms in another truck, heading back for the rest of Daz's group. At first, she didn't want to go until it was confirmed that her sister wasn't in the base, but Daz simply told her to leave now in case the general changed his mind and tried to kill them. Heather finally relented and made Daz swear to keep her sister safe if she was here.
After uttering that one sentence of his and crumbling the will of the general, it took only a matter of a few minutes to get the two trucks and weapons prepared. Luckily Heather knew how to drive so she had no issue leaving.
Daz didn't have a licence himself, but he had been receiving driving lessons before the apocalypse started, so he was taking a minute to get himself used to the driving mechanics of the vehicle.
"The girl you were looking for isn't here and this is the Mayor, Fiona's father, Robert Mathers," General Miller coldly stated before pushing the scrawny man in a suit who was previously imprisoned in a building.
"To dare lay your hands on me! Such gall! The President will hear of this once everything has settled down!" Mayor Mathers screeched.
"Mayor Mathers, please, get in the truck," Daz's icy voice sounded out from the driver's seat. Harrumphing, the Mayor did as told. Even if he was a haughty person, he was still aware of what was going on here, so he did as told. If anything, he was glad that he'd be heading to the safe looking walls, standing proudly on the cliffs, and, more importantly, back to his precious daughter.
"You are the devil incarnate," General Miller spat at Daz. "If I could, I would kill you this very instant, you bastard."
The general truly hated Daz at this very moment. What Daz had said had both relieved and utterly enraged the general. He felt like fate was laughing at him. What had he done to deserve such treatment from the Heavens?! General Miller swore in his heart that he would kill Daz one day.
"Don't blame me," Daz stoically replied while he twisted the key in the ignition and put the truck in gear. "Blame the system." With that, he drove off, leaving the Military base in his wake.
General Miller could do nothing but watch as a large amount of the weapons he needed, disappeared into the city along with the man he detested the most in the world.