Chapter 388 – Complete Nonsense
TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
As of now, Liu Gan had several tasks at hand that he could accomplish. The very next day he would have to arrange for the installation of the communication device to be finished. After that he would have to find a way to reach the airship Brave. Then, Liu Gan would board the airship when it picked up DongDong.
The next task was that Zhan Nan Shan had given Liu Gan a map. On the map was an indicator of the secret laboratory’s location. If it was indeed the location of the laboratory, then there was a high chance of obtaining treasures.
Zhan Nan Shan had handed over the map with clear warnings about the dangers of the laboratory. The dangers within the laboratory warded off Zhan Nan Shan from ever trying. Without any intention of ever entering the laboratory, Zhan Nan Shan handed over the map to Liu Gan.
There was also… the possibility that this was part of Zhan Nan Shan’s plot. Second Elder’s performance was quite strange today. The claims of leaving behind a village without any strings attached were just too suspicious. Liu Gan didn’t quite believe that people didn’t have any selfish motives. Zhan Nan Shan could be waiting, but what it could be was still hard to tell. The first step was to monitor his actions to see if he was true to his words.
***
The very next day, Liu Gan started establishing his army. This world was very different from the real world. There was no such thing as weak elderly and defenseless women. If they could walk and swing, then they could fight, kill zombies, and level up. As long as they didn’t have any untreatable disability, then they can enroll into the army.
The workload was immense, Liu Gan merely suggested the idea and outline of the plan. As for executing this plan, Han GuangMing and QiuTao would be left in charge of leading the Elder Committee to implement regulations.
Liu Gan took the opportunity to announce a very important new rule. From that point forth, all local survivors were emanc.i.p.ated. All the local survivors and players would have the same rights and benefits. Players would not have any ownership of survivors. The capable survivors would have to register their information onto the roster. All this would be managed by Fifth Elder LuLu.
The Beginner Village would not tolerate any slave ownership. Raping a female local survivor was equivalent to raping a female player. The punishment would be equally severe.
This new rule stirred up a lot of player’s fundamental benefits. Amongst the Elder Committee, nearly eighty of those Elders were collectively protesting and rebelling. Liu Gan killed the ten leading organizers for spearheading the rebellion. The bodies of these ten organizers were hung on a tree in the plaza center for everyone to see. From then on, no one wanted to stir up any trouble.
On the other hand, instead of rebelling, several Elders and several regular players tried to escape the village with their private property. They were preparing to escape and establish a new base to continue their slave owner lifestyle. Fortunately, they didn’t get a chance to escape too far away when NaNa caught up and killed the leader of the group. These escapees were escorted back to the village.
On the other hand, there were many that voluntarily pledged their allegiance to Liu Gan. This way they could be put into an important position, like QiuTao. Some of the more quick-thinking local survivors signed up for the new patrol squads. These new few days were very tense, so frequent patrols were necessary to suppress any conflicts.
Regime takeovers were b.l.o.o.d.y occurrences, especially when it involved a change in the social structure. Without shedding some blood, it was impossible to realize. Liu Gan was never a fan of democracy, since he felt the democratic leadership was inefficient. When there was an imbalance in power, then the democratic leader t.i.tle was complete nonsense.
His method of ruling this society was similar to a dictatorship. Liu Gan was determined to create an organized community of over four thousand strong-willed soldiers. To ensure strict obedience, no one could challenge or disobey him, unless they had enough power to overturn his regime.1
All it took was one new rule, and the emanc.i.p.ated local survivors changed from farming and prost.i.tuting to many more choices. Naturally, they were very supportive of their new leader. With the majority of the people being survivors, there was even more support for the leader. The minority group were the players, as they barely numbered over a thousand. Even if the players wanted to disrupt society, it would be hard for them to go against the majority group. Although restructuring society was going slowly, it was being firmly implemented.
Northern NinJing City was larger than Southern NinJing City. After a month-long campaign of recruiting and tribal wars, Zhan Nan Shan and Qiu Zi were able to gather all the players into this Village. There were probably some remnant forces hiding in the jungle or mountains, who weren’t satisfied with the way things were working in Beginner Village. As of this moment, these remnant forces weren’t a threat to the village.
In the early stages, Zhan Nan Shan and Qiu Zi Tao were easygoing with their followers. They gave the players privileges like slave ownership, and provided a safe haven. That unified the players together. Now that Liu Gan had arrived, it was a definite change of dynasties. They changed from a slave society to a feudalistic society. The original Elder Committee that followed the ineffective democracy also changed to something more efficient, like a monarchy.2
After two days of readjusting and reorganizing, the transition period for the Beginner Village was nearly over. By the afternoon of the third day, Yin He led Jiang JinYuan and a few others back from looting the parts at the Biochemical Intelligence Research Center. Installing the parts to the communications device didn’t take long, and it was once again usable.
For these two days, Zhan Nan Shan wasn’t in the village. He didn’t communicate with his close aides about what he was doing, so no one knew if he had left the Village forever, or was out attending to his business. It was the first night when someone tipped off Liu Gan with that information, but Liu Gan didn’t find it too surprising. Liu Gan felt that Second Elder’s true intentions were still hidden.
***
“In the city, we encountered Black-Spot Variant Zombies, and there were quite a lot of them. It was lucky of us that Vice-leader He was with us. She wounded all of them and I was able to get the last kill. I’m level 7 now,” Jiang JinYuan reported back to Liu Gan.
“Black-Spot Variants?” Liu Gan glanced at Yin He.
“Yes, it is the same type that we encountered at Green Station Mountain laboratory. I don’t know why we are finding them here,” Yin He confirmed.
“Seems like something bad has happened...” Liu Gan frowned.
Han GuangMing was in the communications room, he was able to contact the prison compound. Zheng ShengLi urgently reported the updates back to Liu Gan.
Zhang ShengLi represented w.a.n.g DeCheng and the entire prison compound as he spoke on the line with Lord Liu. They had a startling news. A few days prior, the prison compound was besieged by another corpse tide. This time among the normal zombies were mixed an absurd amount of Black-Spot Variant Zombies. There were several hundred of these Black-Spot Variants!
The prison compound had high walls that was capable of defending the first wave of attacks. The floor on the outskirts of the compound was soaked in gasoline and lit on fire as the corpse tide encroached. Various rock boulders were thrown at the corpse tide to eliminate as many as possible. The battle against the Black-Spot corpse tide had lasted one day and night, from two days ago until yesterday night.
[TL: There’s a lot of terms thrown by the author, so I’ll just clarify some of it. The MC thinks it is easier for a decision to be made if the leader has full control on the direction where he wants it to go. The committee was just a tool for him to do his bidding and not the other way around.]
1: (Ed. Note: This is dictatorial fascism, by the way. Rule of the strong, i.e. I am stronger than you, so I am in charge.)
2: (Ed. Note: Uh, no. It wasn’t a democracy, it was a fascist republic, meaning inherently ma.s.sively corrupt. But, okay. Glorify imperial regimes as you like… democratic republics have been proven to outperform monarchies the world over… and you’re not a monarchy. Just so you readers don’t get the wrong idea with the terms the author is using...)