Fourth chapter of the week (July 1)
If the Reading List on NU reaches 1000, there will be a bonus chapter! Currently: 859/1000.
Chapter 39: Killing is a Way Out and Method to Stay Alive (Part 1)
There were 20 people in the previous meeting of the Jiangnan Family Guild. The ones who were not from the Duan Family were of their loyal hunting dogs which included at least five military battalion"s commanders and six military company"s cadres. These people were the first batch of Jiangnan Family"s core members. In fact, at the 7th day of the Apocalypse, the official membership of the Jiangnan Family had already reached 200 people, with all of them being Awakened.
Some teams were quite good as they had broken through nearly 20 Secret Areas. Therefore, most of their core members already had a Main Job occupation for the Awakened. For the time being, aside from Commander Jiang from Jiangnan City"s Garrison Army, the largest force in Jiangnan City was Jiangnan Family.
However, the Jiangnan Family"s field team was quite unlucky today, because the Secret Area"s position was located in the Eastern District"s area that was controlled by zombies. At first, they thought that the possibility of the Secret Area being robbed by others was quite low, and it was quite inconvenient for them to send too many people. Thus, the Jiangnan Family only sent 13 full members as they also took the man with his small girl, Wenwen.
Since they had more goals in mind, their trip along the way from the Southern District was not easy as they encountered small wave of zombie tides, which killed 2 of their members, even though this did not stop their determination to break through this Secret Area.
Fact to be told, in the Apocalypse time, as long there was a large Blood Crystal, an Awakened could be produced, so it could be said that an Awakened person was not valuable. But the significance of the Job Scroll was of a different case. At least to their knowledge at present, the Jiangnan Family"s higher ups had unanimously recognized that the Scrolls" value was at least more valuable compared to 10 ordinary Awakened. Thus, their strategy revolved around this aspect, as they strove and spared no effort and resources in order to compete over Secret Areas.
This issue was certainly also a fact that Yun Tu, as the old bird of the Apocalypse, could not deny. The Awakened humans were powerful compared to ordinary people, but only the Awakeneds who had their occupational profession in the early stage of the Apocalypse had a future to discuss. The Apocalypse was a one-way path of journey as one decisive key moment or opportunity could lead to other decisive chances. Catching up with others step by step would prove very difficult, as at the same time, the situation threw the humans into a large-scale game universe. If one did not strive hard at the beginning period and is left behind, chasing up the ranks would be very difficult as if reaching the blue sky.
“Why should we hide?!”
“Look at that direction. Don"t talk much!"
The Secret Area"s position was located inside an iron walled warehouse with a metal front door, with members of Jiangnan Family surrounding it. Yun Tu led the two women as they quietly hid inside the third floor of a house, 100 meters away from the location.
Making these companions of his suddenly kill people would definitely drive them to have psychological conflicts, but the most difficult opponent one had to face in the Apocalypse, was actually other people. A human heart more often than not had evil roots of greed inside, and the most difficult battle in the Apocalypse was infighting and struggling with other humans.
If humanity was really a piece of monolithic ent.i.ty and had one heart and one mind, they did not have to break through the Secret Areas, and just had to patiently manage the issues as they could destroy the waves of thousands of zombies one by one. By doing this, the entire 1 million or so population in Jiangnan City could have pa.s.sed through the disaster and back to normal life.
But there was no "ifs" and a.s.sumptions in the Apocalypse, since Yun Tu was also the first person who broke open the Secret Area. He was fully aware that if he did not break the Secret Area, someone else would be able to break it. And now, everyone knew that there were layers of dangers inside the Secret Area, since after the Secret Area had shattered, the mutant beasts would spring over and aggravated the spreading of the disaster. However, at present, everyone was madly in rush to grab the limited resources from the Secret Areas.
If the Apocalypse was a game, then at the very beginning, the design of the game had already incorporated the poor and evil root of humanity. Thus, everything in fact, had not and could not be changed.
For Yun Tu now, it was no longer important whether he could enter the Secret Area or not. But when he saw that the person who led those people turned out to be that turtle, Duan Minghui, it made his killing intent soar.
“What do you want to do?!”
Qing Yi, who was right next to Yun Tu, was quite sensitive as she could meticulously tell that there was something was wrong from his complexion.
“The biggest enemy in the Apocalypse is not the zombies, but our own kind. If you only learn how to kill the zombies to survive in the Apocalypse, you still have much to learn!" Yun Tu replied faintly.
“But if you wanna kill them, you gotta have a just reason! Do you wanna kill them for the Secret Area?"
"The reason to s.n.a.t.c.h this Secret Area is already enough. But for your first time killing other humans, I can give other reasons. Do you see that black-suited handsome young fellow? He"s Duan Minghui. He was very famous in Jiangnan City before the Apocalypse."
“Huh? Who"s Duan Minghui, what has he done?” Feng Ling was puzzled and asked.
“He"s a demon in human skin, a sc.u.m!” Upon hearing that Yun Tu mentioned that person, Qing Yi interrupted as she spoke with great anger on her face.
Feng Ling did not know the name, but Qing Yi, who partic.i.p.ated in the Pop Song Compet.i.tion, knew about it. The Duan Entertainment was one of three major contractors for the event, but at the preliminary stage, some people looked for her saying they were looking for a beautiful female singer. As long as they could stay and accompany the Young Master Duan in the hotel on their own initiative, they could cross the preliminary stage. At that time, she disagreed with them, therefore she was eliminated in the stage by some contestants who were obviously amateur singers.
"Such sc.u.m b.a.s.t.a.r.d like him should really be killed!" Upon hearing Qing Yi"s explanation, Feng Ling was also incensed.
The three of them then hid, as Yun Tu prepared the sneak attack. Under the little girl"s guidance, Duan Minghui"s team was able to find the accurate position smoothly. Rays of lights then lightened up as the Secret Area was triggered.
The Jiangnan Family had thorough workflow procedures to compete over the Secret Areas and break through them. At first, they collected the information, then brought over the informants to look for the gate to the Secret Area. After it was found, they first silenced the informants and then sent some men to enter the Secret Area, keeping a certain number of people to hold off the other forces from following them inside.
Since the Gate to the Secret Area had been found, then the informant"s role had been completed. And they had no any significance whatsoever to what would happen next. So Yun Tu could guess the next scene without using his brain.
“Little sister, do you like a chocolate?”
Duan Minghui looked at the gate to the Secret Area and took out a Dove Chocolate bar from his clothes pocket, and tried to hug the little girl whilst laughing mischievously.
“Dad said that as long as I help you to find the Secret Area here, you will give us a Blood Crystal. I love chocolate, but Mom has said that as long as we have a Blood Crystal, she will also become an Awakened, and our entire family will become Awakened people later, so I will have anything later!"
Wenwen, the little girl, was obviously an obedient child. Before the family came to the Eastern District, her mother had taught her well. But still, being able to refuse the chocolate bar with her small age was truly not easy for her.
Yun Tu knew that the Duan Family was full of sc.u.mbags. After they had found the Secret Area, they would kill these father and daughter. If only that treacherous father who resold the information to the Duan Family was killed, he would not give any thoughts whatsoever, but Yun Tu did not want to see such a pure and innocent girl killed. He could only shake his head in a weak manner as he was 100 of meters away from them.
“What a beast!”
Seeing such murderous eyes from Duan Minghui, Yun Tu turned his head as he cursed in a low voice.
When he turned his head again, Duan Minghui had put the piece of chocolate with a wrapper in his mouth, and grabbed her neck.
At this time, the two girls around him were shocked and paled.
In these last few days, Feng Ling had killed a lot of zombies and also mutant beasts. She had pa.s.sed through life and death battles and thought that she had seen the entirety of the Apocalypse. And now, she somewhat understood Yun Tu"s words that killing zombies was only a small part of survival skill. In this Apocalypse, she had to learn to kill other humans, or else she would be killed by the others.
“WHY? WHY?"
Seeing his daughter lost any signs of life, and was directly grabbed by that Young Master Duan, the father screamed and rushed.
“WHY? You are just weak and poor, even if you are evolved, you will only be a lame and weak kind of people!"
Bursts of laughter came from the surroundings as one of Duan Minghui"s hunting dogs took out a long sword and threw it, as it pierced the father"s back.
"Kill them! Kill those demons!"
Seeing such situation in front, the always gentle Qing Yi was even having the intention to kill.
"What d.a.m.n beasts! Those people really are not human!!"
Feng Ling"s eyes had turned bloodshot as she suddenly pulled out the gun she had just picked up.
At this time, Yun Tu"s eyes and hand quickly stopped her hand that was about to press the gun"s trigger…