First chapter of the week (August 5). Sorry for the delay guys, Udeze was resolving issues IRL. Anyway, as said before, from now on there will be only 3 chapters per week. BUT! Because we pa.s.sed 1000 on the NU Reading List, there will a bonus chapter this week, for the count of four. Cheers! Now there will be bonus chapter if the reading list reaches 1500. Go GO!
If the Reading List on NU reaches 1500, there will be a bonus chapter! Currently: 1020/1500.
Chapter 56: Pursuing Narrow Gain While Being Unaware of Greater Danger (Part 1)
“We may have come too late. Could they have left for the Eastern District to find us?!" After they had reached the agreed location and Yun Tu was nowhere to be found, Qing Yi was quite vexed.
"It shouldn"t be. They won"t be able to take care of the children. Much less that even if he were to go to the Eastern District to find us, Yun Tu would have arranged Gui Jiaosan to wait for us in the vicinity, wouldn"t he?" Feng Ling expressed her a.n.a.lysis.
"Could they also have met some troubles?!" With a worrying expression, Qing Yi said.
"Don"t worry! That guy is strong. Let"s just stay here and wait. He"ll definitely come find us!" Feng Ling a.s.sured her. It was a natural kind of trust she had toward Yun Tu as she didn"t believe that zombies would be able to do anything to him.
….
The mayor of the city had died last night.
He was not killed by zombies but by refugees. Since all the military and police forces had withdrawn from the Eastern and Western Districts, a large number of refugees rushed and flocked to the Northern District. However, the government didn"t distribute the food to them. After enduring for a couple of days, refugees, driven to the edge, rioted as several thousands of people stormed the government sites, causing the city authorities to collapse overnight.
The only difference between the Northern and the Eastern District now was that there were many people in the Northern District, while zombies now ruled over the Eastern District. At the moment, it looked like that those people were safe. But from another angle, the situation was going on the brink of collapse.
Goods necessary for life were very scarce; even a piece of bread, corn, or a pack of instant noodles might at any time lead to a life and death fight between people.
"The Taipan Guild is recruiting! Anyone older than 20 that isn"t burdened by family can join us! We guarantee two meals a day!" A man shouted his guild"s slogan all the way whilst holding a big sign, but when he saw the group of people under Qing Yi and Feng Ling, he made sure to avoid them and circled around.
“The Overlord Gang is recruiting great people! Any Awakened will be treated with three meals a day! As for those Awakened with occupations, you will be able to directly enter the gang"s management and command your own team!" About ten people along the flower bed in the middle of the plaza shouted their guilds" intention, which was quite ambitious and big. Even after those original guilds" propagandists had left, a middle-aged man came shortly after, handing over handwritten small leaflets.
Whilst waiting for about half an hour in the government plaza and seeing the recruitment advertis.e.m.e.nt from five different gangs, Liu Wei deliberately asked those few propagandists a few questions and had spent some time chatting with them. He was able to get some rumors. The three meals a day from those gangsters were almost the best treatment an Awakened could get, but as for how they could securely provide this treatment for the recruited Awakened, almost all of the gangsters gave the same clear answer: looting the residents.
It turned out that those Awakened guilds were relying on looting to survive!
This fact made everyone think that it was morally wrong as they couldn"t stomach it. But then, after some thought, they also could understand it. Food supplies and the such were smoothly distributed in the peace era as most households usually didn"t stockpile foodstuffs and only stored their foods for one to two days uses in their refrigerators. But there were also a lot of households that had stocked more than ten pounds of foodstuffs in their home before. At present, it had been almost ten days since the advent of the Apocalypse. In addition, most of the Eastern and Western District"s inhabitants were now flocking to the Northern District, and those Awakened guilds in the Northern District had no other methods but to loot the residential houses if they didn"t want to starve.
On the other hand, the military force had yet to be disintegrated on the surface, but they obviously turned a blind eye toward those Awakened people"s acts who used force, robbing and looting ordinary people. The food supply chain for the city had completely collapsed, after which, all the food stockpiles for and in the city would last for only half a month. In the next couple of days, those regular army soldiers would also eventually become robbers and take the path of becoming looters and rob the civilians.
At present, the sky was gradually fading out as the darkness descended. A group of people silently sat in the public plaza. n.o.body was speaking, for they were hungry and tired after having gone through a whole day of fights. Then, Qing Yi took out some foods and water from her interspatial ring as she distributed it to each one of them.
Within just a short of few seconds, dozens of people in the vicinity quickly surrounded them upon seeing that foods were being distributed.
"What the h.e.l.l are you guys trying to do?!!" Taking out his knife, Liu Wei shouted.
Starved, those ordinary people came over out of their instinct for food. However, they didn"t immediately take action to rob them. Certainly, had their group looked weak, the robbing could have happened in the next second.
“Look, take a look at my wife. She hasn"t been "eaten" for one whole day. Brother, please do us some good and give us half of the radish. In exchange, you can immediately take and "work her out" to that side there!" A man with a wretched appearance pushed a quite beautiful woman to Liu Wei"s front. Not only was the woman not resisting, she even nodded her head as though a chicken pecking the rice.
"Working her out there?"
"What the f.u.c.k? You wanna set me up with her?"
Everyone was crystal clear that in a chaotic era such as this Apocalypse, n.o.body could ask someone else to act according to the moral code of the peaceful era.
As girls, Feng Ling and Qing Yi felt quite uncomfortable upon seeing such a scene. Driven by her flaming anger, Feng Ling took her gun out and fired it, causing the man who was pimping his own wife be scared s.h.i.tless, even wetting his own pants. As for the encircling onlookers in the surrounding, they also quickly scattered as though they were birds dispersing.
Everyone in the team was at a loss as they looked at each other. Wasn"t this Northern District the safest area in the city? The place where the survivors could take refuge?
…
“Big Brother, I"ve long been observing that group of people. They have just come here from the Eastern District and they apparently are waiting for some people. That group has two girls and each one has an interspatial ring!"
"Interspatial rings are always a good thing and there should be a lot of good items stored inside. But, there are so many of them. Those two men are definitely not weak, and those three women are also Awakened. Since they wear interspatial rings, they should have taken on a Main Job. It"s way too risky to deal with such people who can charge through the Eastern District full of zombies!"
"But Big Brother, who doesn"t have any risk to boot nowadays?"
Whilst Qing Yi, Feng Ling, and their group were like fools who were waiting for Yun Tu, on the second floor of a building about three or four hundred meters away from them, two men with caret-shaped beards with six other ordinary Awakened behind them were anxiously discussing as they observed Qing Yi"s team.
Amongst the eight people, two of them were Awakened with occupations while the other six were only ordinary Awakened. They were the members of the Overlord Gang from a while ago.
"It"s eight against five and they still have five or six teenagers. Even if we can win against them, it would be a hard-fought victory so we mustn"t storm them over. By any means, we need to make a strategy to take them on."
In contrast to his younger brother"s rash ideas, the leader with a handlebar mustache made an a.n.a.lysis, after which he drew such kind of conclusion.
"Scheming? Take them with strategy?"
After the younger brother heard his big brother"s view, he walked back and forth twice as an idea suddenly struck his mind.
Quickly after, he immediately approved his Big Brother"s idea and praised it, "The strength of that group is definitely not weak. But if we can separate them and those two little chicks, then we can gang up on those two chicks with the power of eight men. No matter what, even if they have flying devices to escape, they will never be able to escape from our hands. Not only will we get their interspatial rings, maybe us brothers would be able to taste those beautiful Awakened women!"
"d.a.m.n! Big Brothers, both of those Awakened beauties really are pretty, even you don"t want to miss them!" After the two brothers agreed, the other members behind them smiled and echoed their thoughts.
It was a bold move that only people with guts could act out! Although that new group of people was just like a big herd of fat sheep and could crack their teeth if they weren"t careful enough, the Overlord Gang finally made the decision to take them on after having spending a while thoroughly planning.
At this time, Qing Yi, Feng Ling and their team didn"t know that some people in the surrounding were thinking that they were only a flock of fat sheep that was about to be slaughtered.
Shortly after, the young man changed his clothes into a neat blue suit and led his brothers to come to them.
"h.e.l.lo, are you the friends who have just returned from the Eastern District?"
“How do you know?”
Feng Ling was quite astonished as the approaching person"s appearance didn"t resemble his original appearance of an advertiser who was able to guess their origins correctly.
"Not only do I know that you"ve just come and broken through the hollow Eastern District; I also know that you are waiting for some people, right?!" The man with a handlebar mustache said with a smile on his face, as his other man also let out tranquil smiles in agreement.
"Is it possible that they are Yun Tu"s friend?!"
These people wore clean clothes. There was not even a sign of beating around the bush. They simply didn’t look like bad guys, as they were even full of confidence in saying they their team was waiting for some people. This naturally made Qing Yi instinctively feel that these people and Yun Tu could be connected. However, even though she thought like this, she wasn"t stupid enough to blurt it out.
"Anyways, you all are waiting for Eldest Brother Yun Tu, yes?!"
Apparently, the man was as if able to see through Qing Yi"s mind. It was because they already had exposed themselves, as some of their brothers had long been here and could hear that they mentioned Yun Tu once in awhile.
"Do you know Yun Tu? Where"s he right now?"
Upon hearing the man mentioning Yun Tu"s name, everyone quickly put away their vigilance.
Seeing that this group of people was fooled by only hearing the name, the man with a handlebar mustache knew that there was an eighty-percent chance that his guess was true, so he laughed cheerfully, "Well, to be honest with you, Eldest Brother Yun Tu is my friend. He has once helped our Gang"s leader, and the Boss wants me to greet you. Who amongst you is Feng Ling and Qing Yi? Let"s go see Eldest Brother Yun Tu with us together!"
In fact, he also had clarified Feng Ling and Qing Yi"s ident.i.ty as well as knowing which one of them was, but he pretended not to know about them. The reason as to why he called out these two girls, was obviously because of the interspatial rings they were wearing on their fingers.
"I"m Qing Yi and she"s Feng Ling. Anyway, why did Yun Tu want you to pick us up? How come he didn"t come himself?" Qing Yi was still having some suspicions toward them.
"He"s having a drink. Eldest Brother Yun Tu has long been a friend with our leader for whom he hasn"t seen him so many years. As they met again after the advent of the Apocalypse, they felt some melancholic memories and mixed feelings and then decided to have a drink together."
"If our Gang"s leader didn"t take the initiative to ask him whether he has any other friends, you may have been forgotten by him. By the way, the two beautiful ladies must not have eaten hot meal for a couple of days right? Let"s go now, I also want to have some!" The man who had first approached them shipped out a straight and forthright look, displaying himself as someone trustable as he blurted his lies without any hesitation.
Upon hearing that a hot meal was prepared for them, everyone was quite astonished inside. How would Yun Tu have such a forthright friend who was full of consideration?
"Your gang is a big one, yes? How many Awakened members do you have?"
Hearing that Yun Tu sent someone to look for Qing Yi and Feng Ling, everyone was very happy. Even Liu Wei also accepted and believed them as he inquired about it.
Yun Tu was a true savior for them. They witnessed as Yun Tu gave a Main Job Scroll to Qing Yi and let her become a Priestess. And when they saw Feng Ling again who had only just followed Yun Tu for two days and became more formidable with her b.u.t.terfly Sword Dancer Main Job, in their hearts, Yun Tu had become an omnipotent existence. They also heard from Qing Yi that Yun Tu also had a plan to establish a guild and they were dead set on joining him. Yun Tu even had such a supportive and straightforward gang leader as a friend. If it were not because food was very scarce in the Apocalypse, they also would have asked to have some hot meals together.
"Ah, I"m really sorry and feel embarra.s.sed since I have to tell you that you have to wait here. Our gang has only just been established and we only have a few members. Besides, we are also unlike the other guilds that loot and rob the civilians clean. So, everyone surely understands that everything has been very difficult after the Apocalypse, especially the food…"
In order to add some real feelings into his words, he also pretended to sigh, giving off the appearance that he was embarra.s.sed and had no face for being unable to bring them to the meal.
"It"s alright, we understand that. Besides, we also have just eaten…" Liu We and the others who were previously quite ecstatic, hurriedly replied to him, as he also reluctantly refused the cigarette offered by the other party.
In the opposite street near the plaza, Yun Tu and Gui Jiaosan were leaning against the wall in the corner. They could clearly hear each and every word from the dialogue between the man with the handlebar mustache and Qing Yi"s group. They could only shake their heads and stand up with a helpless expression upon seeing how fast they believed those people.