"Oh my God..."
The news that everyone survived caused a massive cheer to erupt from the camp.
Morales leaned against the truck, wiping the blood and sweat from his face as he watched the crowd by the campfire supporting each other and checking their wounds, his voice tinged with excitement.
He looked around, his gaze finally landing on the uninjured blond boy.
The boy's clean and tidy appearance stood in stark contrast to the bloody mess around them; his composure was particularly striking.
Morales joked, "Hey, I'm saying... could there really be a Wizard among us?"
Louis looked confused on the surface, but alarm bells were ringing in his mind!
Had he... been exposed?!
However, he saw Morales's gaze pass over him and look directly at Jim, who was resting on the ground.
"Jim! You were actually right, you rascal!"
Morales laughed and walked over, slapping Jim hard on the shoulder. "Carl's father... Rick, he brought back hope!"
The others also reacted, remembering Jim's delirious ramblings before he fainted.
"Hope?"
Jim blinked blankly, seemingly not quite back to his senses yet.
He wiped the dark blood from his face, looked at the excited Morales, then followed his gaze, dully looking at the blond boy looking over not far away.
Fragments of memory began to piece together in his chaotic mind.
"I remember now," Jim's voice was still a bit raspy, but his eyes were clear. "The dream I had."
"Why I had to keep waiting there." He sighed. "I dreamed that many people died tonight, but there was nowhere to bury them. I kept digging holes, but then Rick came back, and then..."
He paused. "I can't remember what happened after that, only that the person who returned changed the tragedy, and those holes weren't needed."
These words caused those who remembered the eerie scene from the afternoon to feel a sense of shock.
Could it be... Jim really can predict the future?
And what did the "hope" he spoke of refer to? Did it mean Rick's return, or... almost subconsciously, everyone's gaze fixed on Louis.
Their gazes were complex, filled with surprise, confusion, and scrutiny, even mixed with a hint of fanaticism or fear.
Being watched by everyone with such eerie looks, Louis felt incredibly uncomfortable, a look of confusion appearing on his face.
"Why is everyone looking at me?"
"Wasn't the original plot that Jim dreamed the camp was attacked by Walkers, many died, so he dug holes all day, and then it came true?"
"What's the situation now?"
"Louis!"
Seeing his confusion, Duane ran over excitedly and began to chatter away, telling the story of Jim's afternoon to Rick and the others who weren't yet aware of the situation.
"...And then Jim kept saying that Carl's father would bring back hope! Look!"
Duane pointed at the Walker corpses scattered around the camp and summarized, "Uncle Rick brought you back, then you warned everyone that the Walkers were coming, so we prepared in advance, and in the end, everyone survived!"
"I told you long ago that you were the savior sent by God! Carl also said you were our hope! But some people just didn't believe it!"
Now, even the adults who had previously thought it was a coincidence looked uncertain and suspicious.
On the surface, Louis didn't react much, only putting on a surprised expression of "Really? There's such a coincidence?", but his heart was already in turmoil.
"No way, man!"
Louis really wanted to complain.
"I changed the plot, and your dream changed with it??"
"Is that even right???"
"Jim? You might as well just change your name to Sybill Trelawney from now on!"
"I was just joking and teasing earlier, but you really are a great prophet??"
Luckily... Louis secretly felt relieved. This so-called "prophecy" was ambiguous enough to leave plenty of room for interpretation.
All in all, the current situation was still somewhat favorable for him.
Although in the original work, Jim did show some prophetic abilities.
But what Louis hadn't expected was that his arrival would actually cause such a specific change in Jim's dream content.
Maybe this guy's sixth sense really is quite sharp; he's got something.
Because of Louis's early warning and secret help, Jim wasn't bitten in this Walker horde attack like in the original work, but instead managed to survive.
He didn't know if Jim would be able to continue predicting the arrival of danger like this in the future.
If that were the case... Louis grumbled inwardly. It seemed he would have to make some plans to deal with it; he couldn't let this "unstable factor" ruin his disguise.
It wasn't that Louis was cowardly; it was just that his current strength was too limited.
If he currently had the level of Dumbledore or Grindelwald, with the Elder Wand in one hand, the Resurrection Stone in the other, and wearing the invisibility cloak, then why the hell would he hide?
He'd just save the world with magic, create hype like "Descent of the Son of God" or "The Chosen One" for himself, win people's hearts, and build a power base. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
"What Walkers? What virus? Taste my Fiendfyre, Orb of Water, and Blasting Curse!"
"What? Someone has bad intentions? Want to slice me up for research? Go talk to my Imperio, Legilimency, and Avada Kedavra!"
"You have a lot of weapons, right? I'll use Transfiguration to turn them all into fakes!"
"You're hiding far away, right? I'll use Apparition to teleport instantly!"
...But the problem was, he didn't have that kind of power!
Louis was now just a half-baked wild Wizard. Although his Levitation Charm was strong, in terms of overall magical level, he might not even be as good as those Hogwarts students.
He only knew a few spells in total, and he had to use them sparingly.
Under these circumstances, a regular bullet could probably take his life easily.
Granted, most people in this world were religious and more or less superstitious. If Louis truly showed his "miracles," he might indeed attract some fanatical The Believers.
But don't forget, where there is light, there is shadow; where there is religion, there is judgment.
There are not only pious lambs here, but also fierce wolves.
Abnormal power can attract faith, but it can also draw endless greed and covetousness.
So, before he had enough power, the best situation was to "rationalize" everything as he was doing now.
To make himself a "precocious child forced to mature under the pressure of the apocalypse," and explain his magic as some kind of gifted "skill" or "luck."
Superstitious people would think he was blessed with luck, a hope sent by God. Those who believe in science would only marvel at the world having another once-in-a-century genius like Da Vinci.
Although geniuses are beyond ordinary people, there are at least precedents to follow; they are still within the scope of human understanding.
But magic is not.
It's hard for a genius to make someone's faith collapse instantly or their worldview crumble.
But magic will.
Thinking of this, Louis took a deep breath, intending to say something.
For instance, to humbly state that it was all just a coincidence, or to credit everyone's hard work, to slightly deflect the overly intense gazes fixed on him.
But a voice full of sarcasm suddenly rang out from the edge of the crowd.
"Are you kidding me? Hope? I'd say he's more like a jinx!"
Everyone looked toward the sound and saw the abusive husband, Ed, leaning against the door of a pickup truck, his face filled with undisguised contempt and disdain.
Unlike the original work.
This time, because at the very first moment of the Walker intrusion, Ed had very "heroically" put others in front of him and then unhesitatingly dove into the safest RV until the battle was over.
So he also successfully relied on his own efforts to survive unscathed.
Normally, he might have been a bit wary of the relationship between Louis, Rick, and the others, not daring to be too insolent.
But at this moment, having drunk a lot of alcohol and experienced a life-and-death crisis, his nerves were extremely frayed, and he immediately shouted without restraint:
"If it weren't for his big mouth, saying some bullshit about Walkers coming! How could we have run into this kind of thing!"
He pointed at Louis, shouting with spit flying, "I see! All those bad things you guys ran into before, Daryl's brother being left behind, the horde of Walkers surrounding you, maybe they were all brought by this guy!"
"Otherwise, how do you explain that we were doing just fine here before, but as soon as he came, we were short-handed and ran into a horde of Walkers?!"
"What were you saying before?" He looked fiercely at the little girl hiding behind Carol, looking at him in fear, and his daughter, Sophia. "Saying he's a lucky star?"
"Unbelievable! How could I father such an idiot like you!"
Then, he turned his spearhead toward his wife, Carol. "It's all because of what you, this bitch, taught her!"