Chapter 571: Walk Straight Into The Trap
Xiong Wei and Su Lun sucked in a deep breath and did their best to control their expressions and emotions.
Both of them smiled at the same time.
“Now, gather your squads and prepare to move out so that we can capture Meng Chao and fight against the monsters!” Lu Siya said. “I will talk to Poison Scorpion so they will work with all of you. I trust that if Golden Tooth, Black Bone, and Poison Scorpion work together, the other middle-sized gangs and small gangs won’t make any noise.
“However, I’m very curious as to whether you have any specific plan to handle the situation. Where are you going to look for Meng Chao and his master? You’re not thinking about searching everywhere like blind fools, right?”
“Ever since the explosion in Leprosy Village, the leaders of the other gangs have gathered together to discuss things, and they’ve already set up a rather perfect emergency plan,” Su Lun said quickly. “Aside from setting up an isolation zone in the lair and locking down Leprosy Village, we’ve also located twenty-two locations, which are all important facilities. They also happen to be the places that are the easiest for the enemy to attack.
“Next, Gang Leader Xiong will personally lead the people to the twenty-two facilities and perform a thorough search to ensure that there are no holes in the security that Meng Chao and the abnormal beast could take advantage of.”
“That’s good.” Lu Siya nodded in satisfaction. She then changed her tone and said, “But I suggest that you add a twenty-third location and add a lot of forces to prioritize searching through it.”
Su Lun and Xiong Wei looked at each other. “Ms. Lu, which place are you talking about?”
“This one.” Lu Siya tapped the ground lightly with her toe. “The underground area of Mutual Gold Coliseum, specifically, the area right under us.”
“This place?” Su Lun’s eyebrows flew up. “The leaders of the gangs are all gathered in Mutual Gold Coliseum. There are plenty of people and resources gathered here. If Meng Chao really dared to sneak into this place, wouldn’t he be walking straight into a trap?”
“That’s why I’m saying that you don’t understand Meng Chao at all. If you didn’t have my help, it’d be impossible for you to capture him.” Lu Siya smiled. “Meng Chao is a really aggressive person. If he faces an enemy attack and the chance of performing a perfect dodge is less than 50%, he will usually choose offense instead of defense. He doesn’t care if he’ll be severely injured if he can deliver a fatal strike in exchange.
“It’s just as you said, Mutual Gold Coliseum is the command center of the gangs and the logistics warehouse. The moment he took this place down— No, as long as he damaged this place and created chaos here, the lair might end up destroyed entirely.
“With Meng Chao’s greed, he won’t take a fancy to those so-called ‘important facilities’. They’re not important to him.
“He will either not attack or attack the heart, and it’s this place!”
Su Lun looked enlightened.
Xiong Wei’s expression also became slightly more pleasant.
He slowly started to believe that it was the right choice to work together with Lu Siya.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, explosions came one after another from the edge of the lair. They were not far from Mutual Gold Coliseum.
The explosions came from different directions, and rolling smoke as well as brilliant fireb.a.l.l.s rose into the air, causing the already complicated situation to become even more confusing.
“Meng Chao and the abnormal beast have attacked once more.” Su Lun’s expression turned stark white. “Hospitals, drug warehouses, water purification plants, and other important fundamental facilities in the lair are in the direction of the explosions. If these places are destroyed, the order in the lair won’t be maintained for long.”
“Then, Commander Su, hurry up and mobilize your forces to provide reinforcements and defend those places!” Lu Siya’s voice was just as calm as before. “But I’m going to be firm about my judgment. This is just Meng Chao throwing feints. No matter how fierce the explosions at the borders of the lair are, they’re just a diversion. His real goal is this place.”
Su Lun was stunned for a moment, then he asked hesitantly, “Why are you so certain that the explosions are just feints to capture our attention?”
“Because you’re still alive,” Lu Siya said.
Su Lun did not understand what she meant. “What do you mean?”
“If it weren’t a feint and Meng Chao really attacked, then at the moment you heard the explosion, you should have died, “Lu Siya said faintly.
At that moment, the distance between Meng Chao and Mutual Gold Coliseum was just one hundred meters. He was in the slums under the lair, and the place was like an ant’s nest.
Meng Chao wore a tattered, hooded cloak and a pair of goggles that were as dark as night. The cloak covered his face and hands, and he had meticulously put on a disguise that made it look like he had pus and rotten flesh. He looked disfigured and like his entire body was rotting away.
He had also shrunk the muscles and bones of his left leg, making it shorter than his right leg by two centimeters. He limped as he walked, and at first glance, it looked like he was really sick.
At that moment, he was a homeless man like many others who could be seen everywhere within the lair.
Even if his sister, Bai Jiacao, or his tutor, Gu Jianbo, stood in front of him, they would be unable to recognize him based on his looks or his posture.
With this disguise, he and A’Ji could swagger closer to Mutual Gold Coliseum through the underground tunnels. They did not need to go through the sewers or ventilation pipes, as they did before when they went to other places.
On their way, they were checked by three batches of armed gang members.
But there were just too many homeless people in the lair, and even if the lair was fortified, there were still plenty of men and women who could not find shelter.
The gangs could only do their best to point these people to the underground shelters, but not delay them so long as they did not run out and cause trouble. In such an urgent situation, it was impossible for them to check their ident.i.ties one by one.
Meng Chao and the team had split into two groups. He and A’Ji served as the vanguards to see whether the secret tunnel leading straight to Mutual Gold Coliseum still existed.
Su Mulian and Song Jinbo stayed at the back.
Su Mulian could use the time together to tell him about what had happened in Leprosy Village, the will of the villagers led by Wild Wolf, and the tragedy that might happen nine hours later.
Song Jinbo was a local of the lair. He had been Saber Jin Wanhao’s right-hand man for years, and even though things had not been going well for him the past few years, no matter what, he still had his ways. He naturally had some plans to solve the situation and good friends that he could trust to have his back.
The moment Meng Chao found a breakthrough point and concrete proof, Song Jinbo would stake the connections, resources, and the reputation he built over decades to work with him.
But at that moment, Meng Chao heard m.u.f.fled explosions that came from everywhere.
He saw the ceiling above him tremble a little.
The intersecting cracks became larger and denser.
A few spiders were creating their webs at the corners, and they got so terrified that they climbed up their threads, crawled into the cracks, and disappeared.
The lair citizens in the area became restless.
Rumors flew everywhere, just like in Leprosy Village.
No one knew where the news came from, but all the gra.s.sroots citizens in the lair knew that an incredibly dangerous abnormal beast and human traitors who were tempted by the monsters, corrupted, and turned into puppets had made home deep in the lair. They were hiding around them and were about to turn the lair into a literal h.e.l.l.
Some people said that monsters had already occupied Leprosy Village and were using rapid-growing fungal sheaths and plants to turn the city into a b.l.o.o.d.y forest.
Some people said that the monster had created a terrifying drug known as Deification Capsule, which could turn humans into monsters. The villagers had all been “turned” and had now become the most evil and terrifying monster army. They were about to rush out of Leprosy Village and rip apart as well as eat all the lair citizens.
Some people even said that the abnormal beast had not tempted the Leprosy Village, but the villagers had willingly joined the monsters, because the infectees’ descendents had always been so deformed and ugly that they did not look human, so they no longer thought of themselves as humans. They would kill all humans as monsters, for this was the only way they could vent the anger and resentment they felt over the decades of discrimination.
Other people said that it did not matter whether the villagers did it willingly or not. The village was already a chaotic vortex, and the monsters’ paradise. This was an undeniable truth.
Before long, the horrifying vortex was going to expand and devour everything around it, even tear down the order in the lair.
The major players sitting high up in the city never cared about the survival of the lowest cla.s.s citizens. Now, they had even sent all their elites to the borders and left the lair citizens to their own devices.
If the lair people did not want to be torn to shreds, they had to save themselves.
There was only one way for them to survive, and that was to charge through the barricade at any cost.
If the dirty and smelly citizens of the lair rushed to the cla.s.sy residential areas where the superhumans stayed, those powerful people would not continue ignoring them and would protect them at least for their own benefit, right?
Of course, the last view was not the main view. For the moment.
Most of the lair citizens still believed in order, the superhumans, and that the Survival Committee would definitely not abandon them.
Even the homeless people who had nothing had a hard time making up their mind to charge the barricade at the borders of the lair.
However, Meng Chao was not sure how much longer the lair citizens’ confidence in the superhumans and Survival Committee would last.
If the Vortex and its puppets started brutally attacking the lair’s fundamental facilities, resource warehouses, and densely populated residential areas and the monster puppets lurking in the gangs, such as ambitious people with high positions, like Red Brows Su Lun, continued fanning the flames and adding fuel to the fire, it would be far too easy for them to crush the lair citizens’ confidence toward the outside world and make the outside world misjudge thes situation in the lair.
At that time, the entire lair would go through the same thing as Leprosy Village, and Meng Chao would be unable to do anything to bring it back from chaos and destruction.