Chapter 45 – Blame them
In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun spattered and gradually disappeared behind the mountain.
This marked the end of survivors’ daily work load since risk of danger rose sharply after dark. Tang Yu wasn’t a cruel man. The survivors weren’t his slave or something. If they died, the loss was actually on Tang Yu.
A survivor once requested to continue working after dark because he was idle and bored during the night which, of course, Tang Yu refused the request with amused expression.
The survivors who had finished working gathered in small circle of two and three in the small square while waiting their food portions while chattering.
Suddenly someone shouted. “The patrol team is back!”
The patrol team went for an outing for the first time. Everyone in the shelter knew that these patrols weren’t the type that oppressed the survivors like in other shelters. Without Ding Qiang and his gang, the entire shelter’s atmosphere was pleasant. Most of the survivors sincerely hoped they return safely.
“Here they come!”
Zhao Xingping stood among the crowds. They were all chatting. He was familiar with some of the patrol members. Seeing them approaching, he felt anxious. Other shelters would send teams for gathering for supplies, when they returned, often the team was incomplete. Zhao Xingping was somewhat afraid that it would be the case this time.
“One, two, three… all members are back!”
As the team approached, someone counted the members of the patrol team and found they were complete. The atmosphere suddenly brightened with joy.
Zhao Xingping also found that although some of the members looked a little fl.u.s.tered, they were not seriously injured. The most serious one was a cut wound on one of the patrol member’s arm, which was not a big deal since hunters would recover from the wound in less than two days. He even felt that they’re somewhat different about the patrols after they came back from this trip. He couldn’t figure it out but they all seemed to be…somewhat more confident!
Although the survivors were watching on the sidelines, they knew their boundaries and not disturbed the returning patrols. So they separated a road to let the patrols pa.s.s. They continued to chat, waiting for their work reviews and food distributions.
“Hey, it seems that they finally come back.”
When Zhao Xingping heard a person say this, he looked away and saw several figures holding each other and staggering into the shelter. Their condition didn’t look very good.
“aren’t those the hunters? How could they look so messed up?”
Zhao Xingping wondered that although these people were never in a real danger, obviously their condition looked more miserable than the patrols. What did they do? Could it be that these hunters took a dangerous task?
For a time, Zhao Xingping felt that these hunters were also admirable. Although they didn’t join the patrol team, they also contributed to the shelter. He originally blamed them, but now…
He watched as the hunters walked towards the city wall.
But Zhao Xingping had no idea they were just stalking the patrols from afar. They provoked demonic beast and almost got killed.
Those people were in a gloomy mood. They felt the world was not friendly.
………..
Lu Xiaopeng felt very excited. Today his record was three demonic beasts’ heads. Unfortunately, Peng Bo killed more than him. He lost, but he was full of confidence and decided to cultivate his spirit power tonight. He was determined to surpa.s.s that fat man on the next mission!
Of course before that, he had planned to eat a full meal, clean up and go to bed. He was so tired that he didn’t even want to move his legs.
Suddenly, the front patrols stopped, causing the daydreaming Lu Xiaopeng to b.u.mp into Peng’s fatty back in front of him. Fatty Peng ignored him and looked up to found that everyone was standing in front of a large building.
“Wasn’t this area a wasteland? Am I seeing it wrong?”
Lu Xiaopeng thought hard.
That was not the case. It was indeed a wasteland before, but now it was drastically changed, which left out the only logical explanation; Leader Tang’s masterpiece.
Leader Tang was his model hunter, his source of admiration. Before that, his dream was becoming a master hunter, punching demonic wolf and kicking demonic tiger. But after witnessing how Leader Tang dealt with the demonic wave, his old dream was long extinguished with new one.
But he couldn’t surpa.s.s Leader Tang no matter how hard he tried. But it didn’t matter, as long as he could exceed the fat man in front of him, it’s more than enough.
“This is the training camp building specially made by the shelter. It has various training devices. These facilities will be a great help to your training…”
Lu Xiaopeng and the other patrols thought carefully. If there’s a building dedicated to training, it means that they could improve their strength even faster.
“…So I’ll give you an hour to eat and rest. Meet me here in front of the training camp in precisely one hour from now.
Lu Xiaopeng was surprised. What did Captain Roger just say? They should continue training after one hour of rest?!
This was bad. He had spent the whole day training. The first-half was training those difficult movements and the rest of it was hunting the demonic beast. His whole body was tense. He was too naïve to think that he could finally lie on bed like a canned-sardines.
That was just how hard-work should be. Even if it looked impossible, it’s even more impossible for them to refuse. They finally contributed to the shelter. They had combat skills, equipment, and now there’s training camp. Everyone held their breaths. They had no choice but to grow stronger.
Slacking off? Now that they had reached this stage after surpa.s.sing so many difficulties and hardships, how could they stop now?
With mixed feelings, they hurried back to their residences. They would make use of the one-hour time to rest properly.
………
An hour later, the patrols a.s.sembled in front of the training camp. They follower Roger and walked into the building.
On the first floor, all kind of training equipment was visible. The cold metal and the appearance of it quickly attracted the attention of the patrols. In Tang Yu’s view, these equipments were ordinary compared to the facilities on the upper floor. But if it’s compared to the training facilities before the doomsday, it’s definitely much better.
The patrols quickly rushed forward to try these training devices. They were all surprised.
Especially for the hunters.
Since they awakened and grew stronger, they couldn’t use the training equipment. Their strength was too powerful for the training equipment before the doomsday that was prepared for ordinary people. They could barely exercise except for gymnastics and several other methods. If they tried using ordinary training equipment, they would only break the device.
Peng Bo was standing in front of a tensile tester. He was the strongest among the hunters. They doubted if the device could withstand his power.
“This will be your training venue in the future. The first and second floors are free for the patrols.”
The patrols fully understood the meaning. If they weren’t a member of the patrols, they should pay in order to use the equipment. Obviously, this was another patrol team welfare benefits. Yet again, they felt lucky to be in the patrol team.
They noticed that if the first and second floor were free, it meant there’re higher floors. From the external appearance, this building was obviously more than two-story. So, what was the difference between the equipment on the upper floor and here?
“On the third and fourth floors, the training facilities are more advanced. The Leader made them specially. But these facilities are limited and require payments. You need to pay in order to use the facilities with your contribution points.”
In fact, that wasn’t Roger’s original words. Tang Yu had delivered the message though the contract message after he finished building the camp.
The first two floors were free for the patrols to highlight their welfare and enhance their sense of belonging and loyalty to the shelter. However, things that were easy to obtain were often not worth cherishing so he left the other half to be not free, so that the patrol members would have enough motivation to get stronger.
Tang Yu praised his wit.
Everyone in the patrol team thought they would train on the first two floors tonight when Captain Roger suddenly said, “As the first members to join the patrols, you have special benefits. You can train on the third and fourth floors tonight, free of charge. Just to get you know the facilities on the upper floor so you can started planning for upgrades in the future.”