Chapter 70: Food Tax (Part 2)

Seeking for foodstuffs in the suburbs might look simple, but in reality it was a very risky and dangerous undertaking. Taking their safety into account, they didn't force their way through the Eastern District nor did they directly traverse to the suburb through the end border of the Northern District.

Although it was only a few days ago Yun Tu had brought Feng Ling and Qing Yi to find foodstuffs in the suburbs' greenhouses area; however, the changes the Apocalypse had brought were much faster than the average people could have ever had expected. After they arrived there, the environment in the outskirts of the city had changed entirely compared to a few days ago.

Since the suburb was in the northern end of the town in the Northern District, it was estimated that the place had already been ransacked from the search for foodstuffs. Even the houses had long been searched and looted countless times; even the plastic greenhouses had also been trampled flat and spoiled.

The further they ventured into the suburbs, the more they saw that the landscape after the Apocalypse had changed greatly compared to the past. The rain of blood had caused the dead trees to grow back, and the new buds and leaves were completely different from the original ones. Some leaves even emitted out a dark halo, giving off the feeling of some alien world people used to see in science fiction movies.

From time to time, they also encountered zombies and ferocious beasts along the way as they fought their way forward whilst also improving their teamwork in the fights. After they had traveled for a few kilometers outside the city, they finally saw a greenhouse area for vegetable cultivation, which seemed to still be well preserved.

Everyone was overjoyed as they thought that they could finally return home fully loaded. But then, an accident happened.

They cleaned up the way to the greenhouse with their blades. But after they entered the building, all the fruits and vegetables had all been wasted. It was a complete mess, as animal footprints could be seen everywhere along with a lot of holes on the ground that looked like rabbit or snake holes.

It took nearly six hours to get to this place from the base, as they also travelled on foot with great difficulty to this greenhouse area, only to find nothing. Feng Ling, who was hot headed, as always, begun to feel somewhat irritated and angry as she unceasingly swung her machete to cut everything inside the shed. Everything was broken and messed up.

"It must be because of those vicious beasts, I'm sure of it!"

The greenhouse area was quite big, but even such a vast area was ruined by some beasts. Then it could be estimated that the number of the beasts were certainly ma.s.sive. Upon thinking about it, suddenly, Gui Jiaosan felt a bad premonition.

"Withdraw! Don't ask or complain. Everyone! Let's draw back to the road. It seems that we have to rethink our next plan!"

Since he could feel that danger was looming, Gui Jiaosan immediately issued a command.

At this time, Qing Yi suddenly felt that the soft soil under her feet had began to collapse. Whilst shouting "IT'S BAD", half of her body began to go down.

It turned out that the spot she was standing upon was on top of a huge rat hole, so when she walked above it, the soft and loose soil couldn't support her weight as a large chunk of mud-like soil under her feet collapsed.

Fortunately, the rat hole was not built in a vertical line as it was slanted, causing Qing Yi to only fall down three feet before she fell onto a solid ground on the bottom.

Previously, Yun Tu had made an arrangement that Li Xin would be the main person who was responsible for Qing Yi's safety. So she was also beside Qing Yi. Upon seeing that Qing Yi suddenly falling down, she immediately extended her hand and pulled her up.

Just when everyone thought that the alarm was false, suddenly, tens of thousands Demon Rats came out of each and every rat hole in the entire area of the shed, encircling everyone in the middle all of a sudden.

In this critical time, Gui Jiaosan didn't panic, but immediately made arrangements, "Feng Ling, Xiao Bao, you two move to a separate position in the front. Everyone, all of you create a circle and protect Qing Yi in the middle. We'll move with a circle formation, and we must maintain this formation and draw back to the road. Pay attention to your footing and don't step on a patch of loose soil!"

While travelling all the way here and having gone through several fights, more or less he had some understanding about each person's characteristics.

A single Demon Rat was quite weak, but they relied on their numbers to win. Feng Ling had a group attack technique and her speed was very fast. While Xiao Bao's Flame Master technique, which could release flame b.a.l.l.s, would be a difficult adversary for this kind of small Demon Rats. So, his arrangements, either the the line-up formation or the member's positioning, were very accurate and scientific.

However, this horde of Demon Rats was truly big, as they had to fight them with their teamwork, fighting bitterly and hard for more than an hour before they were finally able to come out from the greenhouse area and back to the concrete road.

Although they had returned to the road, but they were still surrounded by these evil beasts.  But since they didn't have to worry about the sudden collapse of their footing on the ground, the speed of their formation was greatly accelerated. And soon after, they were finally able to shake off the encirclement of the Demon Rats.

They ran back in the city's direction for a few kilometers. And after they believed that those Demon Rats didn't follow them, they finally caught their breath and heaved a sigh of relief. They set off from the city br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence, and now all of them got injured. Even Qing Yi who was in the middle of the formation and heavily protected by everyone, was no exception.

Whilst enduring her own pain, Qing Yi began to heal everyone, causing her own injuries to become more serious. Finally, Feng Ling had to give her a piggyback to take her back to the city.

For this one-day action, except for Li Xin who was able to collect a small amount of materials, they basically achieved nothing. Thus, it could be said that the execution of the food sweeping plan, had ended in failure.

On the other side, the failure of the team's operation in the field, was something Liu Wei, who was responsible to take care of the children at the base, would have never imagined!

While everyone was risking their lives outside, only he was idle alone at the base. He felt that since he was the only male adult now, he thought that he must take the initiative to find something to do; otherwise, he wouldn't take the situation more seriously of having had meals and drinks without doing anything.

He thought that he must go out, since he felt that sooner or later the guild would have to recruit new members. Then, the first thing he should do, was to make an advertis.e.m.e.nt when he came out. He looked to East and West, looking for some paper for him to write the ads on, but didn't find any. Afterward, he walked to the street and finally found a pack of A4 size paper and a few pens from an ads printing shop. After which, he returned back to the base and began to write recruitment ads.

Taking Yun Tu's character into consideration, as well as compiling some of the ads other guilds had done in the public square yesterday, he finally compiled a piece of advertis.e.m.e.nt as followed:

The Dark Night Guild is Recruiting!

The number of members we are recruiting is not limited. Men and women are eligible to join us!

Condition

The message for the ad wasn't long. After he had composed it, he immediately mobilized some of the children to copy the message. It didn't take long for them to make nearly two hundred copies as he then led the children to the wall nearby the public square, and then posted the ads on the telephone poles everywhere.

Then, after he finished posting them, he went back home, cooked some food for dinner and waited for the other members in the food sweeping team to come back. However, the other members had yet to come back when some people came to the base after seeing the posted ads.

Although these people came to ask about it, but Liu We didn't permit them to pa.s.s through the door. However, when the door was half opened and those people could see that there were only Liu Wei and a few children around a big table with some vegetable dishes, some people began to have crooked intentions.

"Brother, joining the Dark Night Guild will guarantee us to have a full meal, you say?!"

"Yes, but the Guild Master isn't here today. We only have just posted the ads outside today, while the recruitment process will begin tomorrow!"

"We are brothers of three. But we are sincere with our intention to join you. About your condition, we got no problems with that. Say, how about we join your Guild today? It's much more convenient for us!"

At the beginning, these people really came to inquire and find out about the situation with the guild. However, the smell of rice attracted them. These three brothers were people who successfully s.n.a.t.c.hed the Blood Crystals and evolved into Awakeneds; they didn't want to go away.

Liu Wei could tell that their conversation had headed to the wrong direction upon hearing him. So he slanted his eyes and said with a hostile tone, "I've f.u.c.king already said to you, that the Guild Master isn't here today. Everything will have to wait until the Guild Master comes back!"

"Huh? That won't do. There's no way in h.e.l.l you could treat us like this. You posted those ads and now we've come and you f.u.c.king kick us out? Do you think you got the rights to toy us?"

They could see that Liu Wei was the only adult inside the building, while the others were only children and teenagers. Naturally, since the three of them were adults, they weren't afraid of them. The three of them pushed the door forcefully and finally rushed inside.

After they entered the room, the fragrant meal made their eyes turn wide. They once again confirmed that there was no adult aside from Liu Wei inside the building, as the three men who had long been starving didn't care about anything anymore and directly grabbed the bowls.

"Stop those f.u.c.kers!"

As Liu Wei shouted his order, the two teenage orphans immediately ran into the back room, quickly coming back with long blades in their hands, while Liu Wei was holding a submachine gun.

There were no bullets inside Liu Wei's gun. That day when Yun Tu gave it to him, he said that he would use it to scare off people. He didn't expect that he would use it so quickly.

The three hungry ghosts who had their hands stretched out to the tables finally shrunk. They instinctively felt fear as they had to face the gun, since they had only just become Awakeneds.

This small disturbance was seemingly going to subside, but at this very moment, someone from the outside squeezed in into the room and the man came to the front of the three brothers and seemed to be their acquaintance.

Upon seeing the submachine gun in Liu Wei's hands, he instinctively felt surprised. But then, he immediately recalled that since he was playing as a tough guy, there was no need to order the two teenagers to stop them. Moreover, he also heard that the bullets from the military had been spent. So Liu Wei was highly likely only playing as a tough guy without any bullets in his gun.

"Yo Bro, I also saw that ad, after which I came to this place. Since you've posted those ads to recruit people, it's way too unsightly if you receive the would-be members by pointing the gun at us!" The following man probed out.

"Get the h.e.l.l out! Else I'll kill all you for sure!"

Having to face four men all of a sudden, Liu Wei was also slightly afraid. He knew that there were no bullets in his gun, so he made a fierce and ferocious appearance on the surface, but even so, there was no imposing manner behind his acting.

"Bro, there's no bullets left in your gun, I know it!"

From Liu Wei's tone, the man was convinced that his suspicion was correct.

"Bullets or not, relying on the four of you, you want to take on our Dark Night Guild? Haven't you f.u.c.king heard that we are the ones who pulverized those men from the Overlord Gang?!"

Liu Wei finally acted ruthlessly. He smashed the empty gun in his hand toward the man's face and then pulled out a sword from his waist.

These newly Awakeneds people basically had yet to see a powerful sword that originated from the Secret Area. They were simply unable to tell that the sword and blades in Liu Wei and the two teenager's hands had all been altered by Yun Tu.

Upon seeing that Liu Wei took out his sword, the man also took out some kind of watermelon knife, as those three brothers also took out their weapons respectively. The situation turned very tense in an instant.

Since both sides had exchanged hostility, the situation was no longer able to be resolved peacefully. On the other hand, Liu Wei knew what kind of people Yun Tu was fondest of. There were still only a few people in the Dark Night Guild who killed humans. Even he was the only male adult in the guild that had yet to prove his worth. So he needed to prove and showcase his strength to the guild.

Not to mention that today's accident was solely because of him. If he couldn't fix this, it would only make the others in the guild see him as a lame joke.

Meeting and facing the adversaries in front, only the brave and strong would triumph. The ones who struck first would hold the advantage, while the ones who defended would suffer. Liu Wei's strength was only ordinary, but his brain was still nimbly calculating.

"DIE!"

Lu Wei suddenly attacked with his sword. At the same time, the two boys beside him also charged.

The Awakeneds' reaction rate was indeed faster than any average man. But, even if he was fast enough and slashed the watermelon knife in front, Liu Wei directly cut it as it broke into two pieces, causing him to be greatly surprised.

The man withdrew under great shock, but unfortunately, even though the room was quite big, there were seven or eight people; there was only a narrow s.p.a.ce for him to draw back. His move was quickly denied by the wall behind as Liu Wei's sword didn't change its trajectory and finally split his shoulder. If he didn't get a timely treatment, he could only say farewell to his wasted arm.

On the other side, the two orphan teenagers and the three brothers were also fighting. Under normal circ.u.mstances, it should've been easy for three male adults to bully two teenagers and have the upper hand. But the chances to kill them had never appeared for the three brothers. Although today they wanted to showcase their strength, but never once had they the chance to show it, as each one of them had been wounded by the opposite party's weapons.

These two orphan teenagers had a quite character. Not to mention that they also had seen their friends die violent deaths all the way to the Northern District from the Eastern District. These last surviving children were no longer the friendly children they used to be.

One's strengths and weaknesses could never be seen or calculated from their build nor from their stats. As the strong had always had a strong will and heart. Against Liu Wei and the two children, those four "applicants" unexpectedly suffered a defeat as all of them covered their wounds and fled from the room to the outside in panic.

On the other hand, Yun Tu certainly didn't know everything that was currently happening in the base. In regards with the plan for his Dark Night Guild, he also had his own. But regarding the members of his guild, they also should be able to do some tasks without him arranging it for them. Therefore, he simply didn't worry that others would be able to wipe out the Dark Night Guild's members. Even if that happened, then it was meaningless to retain people in his guild who had no ability to rely on themselves.

After he separated with Jiang Xiaoya and w.a.n.g Ze, Yun Tu traversed alone toward the Southern District. The situation in the Southern District was basically the same as the Northern District, a complete chaos and mess.

The Jiangnan Family Guild's power and influence had expanded once again. And they also had forcefully taken over all the surrounding villas and made them their stationary base. The entire villa district basically had become the Jiangnan Family Guild's base. And for safety and security reasons, they also controlled the two highest buildings next to their base area, where they build their guard post as they watched over the entire base area from the high vantage point.

Before Yun Tu arrived, Duan Hongyu had returned back to the Southern District. His plan to incite a mutiny in the army didn't result in what he had hoped. He couldn't even gain any benefits from it. Shortly after, the news came to him that the ambush at the bridge also fell through.

Since the enemy didn't return from the East Bridge to the Northern District, then it was highly likely that he would return to the Northern District via the Southern District. The enemy's strength was outstanding. He also had a stealth technique. So Duan Hongyu immediately convened the core members of the guild to discuss about preventive measures against any attack from the enemy. Simultaneously, he also reminded all the members to strengthen the security and their preparedness.

Returning again to the Southern District, Yun Tu's original intention was to find a shooting point and use his sniper rifle to shoot at the enemy. However, when he saw his inventory, there were only six rounds of bullets for his sniper rifle- he didn't want to use these treasures for those ordinary members of the Jiangnan Family Guild.

However, since he came, he must give a lesson to the Duan Family. Even if he must brave the risks, then take it he will!

Yun Tu entered the clothing store and looked for a set of black suit the Jiangnan Family Guild's members had always used along with black sungla.s.ses. He put them on and then infiltrated the Jiangnan Family Guild's station successfully.

Previously, he believed that that n.o.body knew that he had entered the area- as he entered it stealthily. However, when he had yet to set his eyes onto a specific target, he suddenly heard a group approaching the villa with light footsteps. From his ultra-hearing ability, he knew that his whereabouts had been exposed!

At this point, he didn't know as to how he was exposed. He also didn't know what means of transmission or communication signal the enemy had. But since this place was the Jiangnan Family Guild's den, being reckless and incautious would make him surrounded by hundreds of Awakeneds. Even if he were to succeed in promoting to the Third Level Awakened, he didn't dare say that he would be able to come out of this place unscathed.

His mind flashed as though lightning as he quickly turned around in the corner and rushed to the wall. Then, he executed his Stealth Movement skill and suddenly disappeared on the spot.