Chapter 33

The others exchanged glances, their eyes unconsciously focusing on him.

"…I don’t like that Su guy giving orders either. But from the current situation, he probably hasn’t lied to us."

A short, chubby man frowned and said, "When we left the city, we all saw the cars blocking the roads and the zombies and dead bodies. These things can’t be faked or disguised with props, they…"

"There are two vehicles outside—"

Li Yongxiang rudely interrupted him, speaking urgently and firmly, "The oil drums in the storage tent are full, and under the tarp are rice and flour. With food, fuel, and vehicles, we can set off tonight and enter Sichuan by early tomorrow morning."

"He can’t possibly give you these things."

Another middle-aged man shook his head repeatedly, clearly not optimistic about this so-called plan: "The vehicles and supplies are guarded. Su Hao won’t agree, nor will he let us use them casually. Of course, I don’t like that young man either, and I want to leave. We should talk to him properly, ask for some food and water, and then leave on our own. I think he would agree to such a request. At least, he wouldn’t refuse in front of everyone."

"Leave on your own? Hmph! Where can you go?"

Li Yongxiang sneered at this idea: "The epidemic caused by this virus has a wide range. The towns along the way are likely to be infected, and any house might hide a zombie. Once you encounter them, can you outrun those monsters? Even if you escape by chance, how long will the water and food you carry last? Do you know where to find food? Where it’s not a quarantine zone? How far can you go on your own?"

The middle-aged man's expression turned sour. He turned his face away, clearly unhappy, and asked in a harsh tone, "What do you suggest? I don’t want to stay here, and I certainly don’t want to be treated like cattle."

Li Yongxiang gave a sinister laugh. He leaned forward, looked in the direction of the distant sheds, and then pulled back, lowering his voice, "You’re right, no one has the right to give orders. If we want to leave, we need vehicles, plenty of food, and water. That Su kid won’t even feed us, let alone give us these things. If we want them, there’s only one way—"

As he spoke, he raised his right hand and brought it down forcefully, his face twisted in a fierce growl, "We have to take them by force!"

The men and women in the tent felt their throats tighten. They looked at each other, their eyes trembling slightly. The short, chubby man, sitting on the opposite military bed, hesitated and asked, "How do we take them? Be more specific."

Li Yongxiang slowly scanned the people in front of him, his snake-like gaze carefully examining every subtle change on their faces. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly sneered and lowered his voice, "They have guns. To be precise, Su Hao and another young man named Tao Yuan have guns."

He raised his left hand, spread his fingers, and then clenched them into a fist, "There are only two of them. And we have six."

The middle-aged man said with concern, "Numbers don’t matter. They are younger and stronger than us. Even if we go three against one, we might not win. Besides, there are two women."

"They will have their moments of weakness."

Li Yongxiang licked his lips, his eyes twitching with excitement, "We all attack together. Six against one, there’s no problem. Once we get the weapons from one of them, we kill him and then take out the other in the chaos."

...

The night in the wilderness was darker than in the city.

A cold-toned energy-saving lamp was wrapped around the top of a wooden stick, standing tall among the heavy grain bags, illuminating the entire camp. Countless mosquitoes were attracted, flying around it as if it were the most beautiful and alluring female insect. Driven by this irresistible temptation, the insects, their minds clouded, continuously attacked the lamp, suffering injuries and broken limbs, yet still charging forward without fear of death.

The camp was silent, with people resting in their tents. They slept deeply, their minds completely relaxed from numbness and fatigue. At this moment, only sleep and rest were the core of everything. As for other things... they didn’t matter.

Su Hao, carrying an assault rifle, sat atop the tower that had been completed with cement, smoking and gazing thoughtfully at the distant city. The tower was high, and from here, the view was wide and unobstructed, making it easy to keep watch.

The enhanced human was superior to ordinary humans not just in physical strength but also in metabolism and cellular activity. Although the silver bone Su Hao had taken had not yet evolved him to the fifth stage, his daily required rest time had already been reduced to about three hours, or even less.

Hundreds of wooden poles were buried around the perimeter of the camp. Supported by these poles, a dense net made of fiber and wire was woven, with various sizes of empty cans and soda cans tied to it. If any object broke through, the net would immediately sound an alarm with a "ding-dong" noise.

About twenty meters from the tents, in a sheltered spot, was a makeshift toilet built with bricks and a rain tarp. Tao Yuan's pants were down to his knees, his bare buttocks exposed as he squatted over the pit, his eyes bulging, holding his breath, and straining to defecate.

Enhanced humans were stronger than ordinary humans, but they were still human. Eating, sleeping, and excreting... these normal physiological activities were still necessary.

The makeshift toilet had no door, and the winding entrance barely provided any privacy. Just as Tao Yuan released the first clump of waste from his colon, feeling an immense sense of relief, he suddenly heard the sound of light footsteps outside.

"Who’s there?"

He asked casually—there was no unusual noise from the alarm net, and Su Hao, who was on night watch, hadn’t fired a shot. This meant the person approaching was likely a member of the camp.

Getting up to use the toilet was a normal thing, not worth getting worked up over.

There was no response, and the person directly walked into the toilet, coming to stand in front of Tao Yuan.

Tao Yuan’s mind-sensing range was far inferior to Su Hao’s, but even so, he could still identify the person standing in front of him through his senses and vision.

Her name was Wang Yanli.

The name itself wasn’t important, but the key issue was—she was a woman.

And Tao Yuan... at that moment, he was bare-bottomed, squatting over the pit, performing the standard act of defecation.

Anyone encountering such a situation would experience a few seconds of mental blankness. Shock, surprise, and the instinctive human sense of shame would completely paralyze their judgment.

Tao Yuan was no exception. Despite being a first-stage enhanced human, he couldn’t react quickly to this sudden event. His mind didn’t sense any danger. He instinctively reached into his pocket for some tissue, trying to quickly finish wiping himself and pulling up his pants. As for reaching for his gun and aiming it at the person while shouting a warning... he didn’t even think about it.

Previously, Su Hao had discussed the new team members with him.

They both felt that these people wouldn’t absolutely obey orders and wouldn’t unite like core members in a short time. Conflicts and disputes were inevitable. However, based on their own enhanced abilities and the ordinary nature of the others, Su Hao and Tao Yuan didn’t think they would face any danger from the new team members.

Neither of them expected that the others would launch an attack in the toilet.

Tao Yuan’s mind sensed five people rapidly approaching from outside the toilet. In just a few seconds, they had already rushed to the entrance. The woman in front of him pounced like a mother leopard, growling lowly, and used her large, fat body to press down on Tao Yuan, who was still in a squatting position, unable to stand up, and was completely at a loss. She pushed him down forcefully, pinning him under her.

Chaos ensued.

There were noisy footsteps, and muffled curses and shouts. Tao Yuan had already seen the faces of each person who had rushed in to attack him. The leader was Li Yongxiang, and it was clear they had planned this in advance, with clear roles. As they pinned down Tao Yuan’s shoulders and thighs, two steel bars smashed into his knees.

Everything happened too quickly. If the time and place were different, Tao Yuan’s reaction would have been much faster. Li Yongxiang had indeed grasped his psychological state. Although his physical strength and power were far inferior to Tao Yuan’s, he launched a sudden attack when Tao Yuan was unprepared. The consecutive heavy blows to the knees and shoulders were not fatal, but they gave them enough time to successfully take Tao Yuan’s gun.

Tao Yuan felt his kneecaps almost shatter. The ground beneath him and his back were wet and slippery, emitting a nauseating odor. He tried to push himself up, but his hands plunged into the feces, grabbing nothing but shit. Embarrassment, shame, and anger... these complex emotions collided in his mind like cannonballs. He ignored everything, roaring in rage, and swung his right fist, smashing it into the side of the woman’s head. The sound of a crisp bone fracture and a scream mixed together, and the obese body immediately flipped over. In the weak light from the distant tents, it was clear that the left side of the woman’s face was sunken, her eyeball had been violently jolted out of its socket, and was hanging by nerves and blood vessels, resting beside her nose.

Li Yongxiang, holding the "95" pistol he had taken from Tao Yuan, forcefully opened the safety and pointed the gun at Tao Yuan’s head.

He had a few friends in the military. Although he wasn’t very familiar with this pistol and wasn’t skilled in using it, he knew how to operate it.

A hint of hesitation flashed in Li Yongxiang’s eyes.

In a law-based society, murder was an unforgivable crime.

After a moment, this habitual thought was completely dispelled, and his gaze turned cruel and fierce. He gritted his teeth, preparing to pull the trigger.

"Bang—"

A flame suddenly burst from the darkness at the entrance of the toilet. Li Yongxiang felt a sharp, hard object pierce his brain, releasing unbearable heat and pain. His vision distorted, oscillating between blood and darkness. They quickly covered everything he could see and swallowed the last bit of consciousness.

Su Hao’s eyes were filled with murderous intent. He held a combat knife in his left hand and a gun in his right, like a raging beast, ruthlessly slaughtering in the panicked and terrified crowd. The sharp tip of the knife accurately cut a man’s throat, spilling warm blood, and then turned to stab into another person’s cheek from the side. It knocked out teeth, severed the tongue, and pierced through another layer of fragile flesh, accompanied by a heart-wrenching, indistinct scream, and was forcefully pulled out.

The people sleeping in the tents had been awakened. They ran over in shock, surrounding the toilet in minutes. Tao Yuan, injured in the leg and covered in filth, was helped out. The man with a severe facial injury was carried to the central open area of the camp. The other two surviving participants stood trembling, their faces full of fear.

The interrogation didn’t last long. Faced with the threat of death, most people chose to confess. Besides, the dead and severely injured companions lying nearby were the best evidence.

People stood around in an irregular circle.

"I saved you, provided you with food and water, and a safe place to stay. I told you that the world has changed, there’s no rescue, and there won’t be the army and police you imagine. We have no one to rely on except ourselves. The city will soon become dangerous, and food and water will be consumed quickly. We must establish a new camp here, plant, and farm, to obtain the things that sustain life from the soil... Well! I admit you are a group of deaf and blind people, ignoring everything that happens outside. Your hearts are still filled with illusions, believing that the world can and must operate according to fixed thinking. Other cities are still prosperous, money can be used there, and you can regain your lost status, identity, and property... Hahahaha! Your stubbornness and rigidity surprise me. I have to admit, you are a bunch of stubborn fools. So much evidence, so much reality, so many bodies, and even death and blood, cannot make you wise."

Su Hao paced back and forth in the center of the area, unsure of the words to express his anger. He finally felt the huge gap between the future and reality. The current survivors couldn’t understand or appreciate the hardships and pain of the nomads in the future. Their minds were filled with illusions, and they had no awareness of self-rescue or self-reliance. They only relied on others, imagining that rescue teams would bring food and medicine, and that there would be large donations from society...

Humans in the civilized era were indeed proud. They had a complete disaster relief system. The nomads of the future envied this and sang about it in books and poems. People even used the time of the virus outbreak as a dividing line, calling the past the "Civilized Era" or the "Old Era of Beautiful Memories." The future, on the other hand, was endless terror, death, disease, and hunger... This view was universally recognized in the future, and May 11, 2020, the day of the virus outbreak, was seen as the boundary between glory and decline, called the "Black Era."

No one responded to Su Hao’s words. The eyes of those around him reflected various meanings: indifference, numbness, anger, fear, ridicule... But no matter who it was, they could feel the raging fire brewing inside Su Hao, ready to erupt at any moment.

"We are building our own home."

He raised his hands, waving them angrily in the air, "I never forced you. I always saw you as companions, as friends. Yes, you have never done this kind of work before, and it’s natural to resist it. You think these things have nothing to do with you and refuse to take on the corresponding responsibilities and obligations. I didn’t want to have conflicts over such things, so I used a relatively gentle method, exchanging actual work for the necessary food and water each day. Was this wrong? It made you think of killing, of killing your own companions... Don’t forget, Tao Yuan saved your lives, he saved you—"

As he spoke, Su Hao clenched his teeth and rushed to Li Yongxiang’s corpse, grabbing the headless body and roaring like a mad lion, tearing the corpse apart into two halves.

Blood and flesh splattered all over him, and under the distant lights, he looked like a fierce demon just rising from a pool of blood.

The crowd began to stir, people looking at him in terror, instinctively stepping back, wanting to stay further away, quickly creating a space trampled by countless footsteps.

A middle-aged woman wearing deep glasses stood at the back of the crowd, looking at the blood-covered Su Hao with tension and fear. Perhaps she felt that such a barbaric and crazy act was contrary to normal thinking, and the expressions of the other two people standing next to the corpse were truly pitiful. She was unwilling and indignant, shouting, "What right do you have to order us to do such dirty and tiring work? What right do you have to distribute food and water? Don’t forget, you are not a government official, and these supplies were obtained from the city. They belong to the people, to the country, not to you—"

After a moment of silence, Su Hao parted the crowd, slowly walking to the woman, looking into her extremely nervous and slightly regretful eyes, and asked calmly, "Do you really think so?"

"You, what are you going to do?"

The woman took a few steps back in panic, her voice trembling, "No! Don’t come closer! You... you just killed someone, you’re a murderer."

Su Hao lowered his head, grinning like a devil, "Yes! You’re right. Those things indeed don’t belong to me. But you haven’t eaten less either. Not just you, everyone here has eaten and drunk... Right, what did you say just now? They belong to the country? To the people?"