Chapter 301: Dean
“Although the name is lame, Mayi is still effective in this area. Most of these shops with storefronts belong to them, Mayi. We occasionally rent them for a few days to process our harvest.”
“What about the stall vendors?”
“Scavengers who paid protection fees.”
Su Huan pondered.
Wen Biao’s convoy survives by scavenging ruins everywhere. Mayi clearly relies on this supplies exchange area in front of them. Magong doesn’t have a commercial street, so they should have similar means of sustenance.
Each type of force has different survival methods. The three convoys plus two fixed camps form the fragile but barely functioning balance of Xinma County.
His goal is very clear.
It’s this Xinma Automotive Engineering Vocational School.
This is the largest talent gathering place in all of Xinma County.
Don’t think it’s just a vocational college at the bottom of the academic circle.
But the students being worthless doesn’t mean the teachers are worthless too.
According to Dong Huang’s strict standards, teachers at vocational colleges in this area must at least have a master’s degree, and most possess professional qualification certificates. Although their specific abilities are debatable, in the nation’s positioning, this group belongs to applied talents, emphasizing technology transfer.
Even if there aren’t many usable people, collecting some in advance is still good.
The square table at the small stall was greasy, with three small iron plates on it containing the leftovers from several people: one fried thing coated in batter, one pan-fried meat slice, and three meat skewers brushed with a large amount of soy sauce, black and indistinguishable.
Seeing Su Huan getting closer, several people stared at him vigilantly while quickly stuffing the meager food from the plates into their mouths in a few bites.
A middle-aged man with graying hair stepped out from behind the window, his cheeks gaunt like a starving ghost, his greenish eyes fixed on Su Huan.
“Boss, what do you want to eat?”
Su Huan raised an eyebrow. “What do you have?”
“Fried green leaves, charcoal-grilled luncheon meat, fried big meat.”
Wen Biao sneered disdainfully twice.
“They’re fried tree leaves, luncheon meat just exchanged from the train, and as for the so-called big meat…”
The middle-aged man’s complexion turned ugly as he stared at Wen Biao. “Old Da Biao, aren’t you busy making a fortune? Why come to tear down my little shop?”
“What are you?”
Wen Biao turned hostile and cursed.
The middle-aged man glanced at the convoy members hiding in the shadows behind, gaining confidence.
Xinma Gang’s Wen Biao force is big, but their Mayi is no worse than his Wen Biao.
Even if this long-haired young man came from the train, so what?
“Following the dragon crossing the river and really thinking you’re a winged tiger.”
The man muttered hoarsely in a low voice.
A ferocious beast tattoo on Wen Biao’s forehead twitched. He reached through the metal railing, grabbed the man’s collar, and yanked hard. With a bang, the man’s gaunt, skeletal face almost squeezed through the railing.
Wen Biao looked ferocious. “You’re fucking asking for death!”
This action was like igniting a powder keg. The clacking of gun bolts being pulled echoed like a storm on the street.
Wen Biao and a few younger brothers immediately bristled, drawing handguns to confront the Mayi people around them.
Wen Biao hadn’t brought many people to accompany Su Huan. The area was full of the opponent’s people above and below. The few younger brothers didn’t know who to aim at, cold sweat pouring down their heads.
“Creak.”
A large hand with distinct knuckles tore open the steel bar in front, taking a meat skewer from the charcoal grill.
Amid strange gazes, the Train Conductor bit into the meat skewer.
“Rat meat, a bit gamey. Can add more chili peppers.”
Su Huan chewed savorily while commenting.
As small animals that are relatively hard to evolve, rats are the secret to the wasteland supporting so many scavengers.
He ate plenty of this stuff in his previous life. It’s just this life, spoiled more and more by Yu Yue’s service, that made him pickier.
A woman squatting at another small stall, picking through items, turned her head in surprise. Her messy hair framed eyes like two warm glass lamps, calmly and steadily emitting a glow, giving no sense of aggression.
“Aren’t you afraid of viruses in rat meat?”
The woman who had been watching suddenly asked.
Su Huan looked toward the voice. He first saw those calm eyes, then the woman.
She had General Energy fluctuations, seeming stronger than Jiang Rong whom he met the first time.
Around fifty, slim figure, an old woman who looked very agile.
“Maybe I’m sicker already.”
Su Huan’s mouth curved to his ear.
He had a premonition that he might gain something.
In the time it took to speak, General Energy Perception had already swept over the woman seven or eight times.
Surprisingly.
The woman is a Tier 1 Evolver.
Hmm, a powerful old woman.
Besides that, another detail caught his attention: the woman’s stall in front of her.
Not regular supplies, but some oddly shaped precision parts.
“Next time you find these precision parts, bring them all back to me. I’ll buy them at a high price.”
The woman handed two cans of luncheon meat to the stall vendor and said in a low voice.
“Interested in working for me?”
Su Huan asked directly.
The woman was stunned by Su Huan’s bluntness, then gently shook her head, packed a few parts into a black backpack, stood up, and walked toward the end of the commercial street.
Su Huan tossed the remaining meat skewer back, clapped his hands. “Let’s go.”
Like young people out for a late-night snack at night, he sauntered toward the direction the woman left.
“You not coming?”
Su Huan turned back to look at Wen Biao, who was grabbing the middle-aged man’s collar.
The latter shivered inexplicably from Su Huan’s glance, then followed behind him amid gazes laced with contempt.
“What else do you want to know? I’ll take you there.”
Wen Biao quickly clarified his position.
From suddenly grabbing someone to smilingly leading the way for Su Huan, the transition was seamless, without the slightest awkwardness on his face.
“No need. Go straight to Magong.”
Su Huan said indifferently.
He already had a general understanding of Xinma County’s situation.
Anything can be faked, but this intricate web of interpersonal relationships and interactions cannot.
As long as Xinma County wasn’t a pit dug for him by Black Kite, the rest didn’t matter.
As for Wen Biao’s little schemes, they were perfectly normal.
People without desires have no handles.
People without handles get discarded, just like pots.
“Boom—”
An explosion sounded from the distance.
“This, eh?”
Before Su Huan finished speaking, the bustling commercial street suddenly descended into chaos.
Merchants hurriedly packed up their stalls, pedestrians used all sorts of tricks to flee.
A vendor at the corner hooked a stick, instantly turning the stall into a package, slung it over his shoulder, and rushed to the nearby electric bike charging shelter in two steps instead of three, then climbed onto the second-floor balcony along the shelter.
The few people who were eating earlier lifted the manhole cover without a word and drilled in.
After a series of muffled bangs, the lively street instantly became a broken ruin as if monsters had passed through, showing no signs of human survival.
Only on the Mayi hospital building, hundreds of eyes coldly watched Su Huan and the others below.
“Should be the Guangli Convoy in trouble.”
Wen Biao identified the direction and said confidently.
“Zombie tide?”
Su Huan was slightly surprised.
Wen Biao frowned. “Can’t be a zombie tide. Although there are still quite a few zombies in Xinma County, they’re all hiding in corners. Any in scale have been cleared by us. The Guangli Convoy is the weakest in strength, but they wouldn’t make such a big fuss over a few zombies.”
“Da-da-da…”
Wen Biao turned back in shock and uncertainty. “Did the big light convoy also run into trouble?”
“Quick, let’s hurry back. The two convoys are in completely different locations. It must be something affecting the entire Xinma County!”
“Emm, no rush.”
Su Huan’s expression was subtle. He wasn’t sure about the earlier explosion, but how was this “da-da-da” gunfire so familiar?
Turning back, he saw the same odd look in White Deer and Giraffe’s eyes.
……
Guangli Convoy headquarters, auto repair shop.
A man missing a chunk of flesh on his arm sat rigidly in a tire rim, his buttocks and body soaked in scalding blood, but he didn’t dare move an inch.
He watched helplessly as soldiers in five-man teams coordinated seamlessly, slaughtering the convoy members in the auto repair shop.
A bare-chested burly man crawled out from behind a pickup truck, clutching two grenades with pins pulled, roaring wildly, “You bastards, catch!”
As soon as he spoke, a hail of bullets whipped over like a lash.
Directly shredding the burly man into a shapeless mass of blood and filth.
“Boom boom—”
The grenade explosions gradually faded, but the cold, precise bursts continued, suppressing the entire auto repair shop’s convoy personnel who didn’t dare show their heads.
The sergeant responsible for perception in the squad glanced at Third Brother in the wheelchair and said coldly.
“One behind the pillar at three o’clock.”
“Two under the red sedan.”
“One in the black pickup bed front left.”
“…”
With each burst point, the firepower specialist immediately turned to suppress.
In the face of the heavy machine gun’s firepower, whether sedan or pickup was just thicker paper.
The swept areas were deathly quiet.
“Reloading.”
The firepower specialist shouted, half-squatting to change magazines.
“Cover.” The sergeant stepped forward, swinging his muzzle to cover the firepower specialist’s gap.
Because the soldiers’ voices were undisguised, Guangli Convoy members scrambled out from behind cover one by one, greeted by four assault rifles’ more accurate bursts.
Not running meant waiting to die; running meant dying faster!
When the convoy’s only Tier 1 Evolver was sniped early, they were stunned. Now they were completely collapsed.
In just about a minute, the entire auto repair shop held only Third Brother’s heavy panting and the crisp sounds of soldiers’ follow-up shots.
Each sound hammered at his heart.
What terrified him more was a cold, hard footstep.
Each step of the shoe sole on the ground made a sticky pulling sound.
Watching the soldier compare a photo to his face, then raise the muzzle, Third Brother screamed frantically, “I know Captain Lin! I want to see Captain Lin!”
The soldier hesitated briefly.
Then reported it to the sergeant behind.
The sergeant walked over, looked at the man sitting on the tire, then compared the list in hand.
It printed a picture of Third Brother trading large and small packages of medicinal materials with the convoy. Because the train’s surveillance was high-definition enough, even the scar from the missing flesh on his arm was visible.
“Using similar mutated plants as medicinal materials, quantity… three jin. Clothes of inferior quality passed as good, quantity twelve pieces. Right?”
The sergeant’s cold gaze made him shiver all over.
Third Brother’s pupils contracted. He cried out, “Just for this?”
“Just for this three jin of medicinal materials and a dozen clothes, you killed our entire convoy of over six hundred people?!”
“You think knowing Captain Lin is something to brag about over this petty account?”
The sergeant sneered, walked forward, and slapped the paper onto Third Brother’s forehead.
He drew the dagger from his waist, flicked his wrist, and viciously thrust it into Third Brother’s skull along with the paper.
The paper fluttered a few times, instantly soaked through by a gush of deep red blood.
White paper black words turned to blood words.
……
“Report to Fat Deputy, over a hundred Guangli Convoy combatants have been completely eliminated. The remaining about five hundred non-combatants are under control. Number Two squad is tallying spoils of war.”
The sergeant, radiating killing intent, reported loudly.
Pangtu’s mouth twitched. He turned to the sergeant and growled fiercely, “Pangtu is the code name. My full name is Huang Gang. If I hear ‘Fat Deputy’ three words again, I’ll sew your mouth shut!”
“Yes!”
The sergeant looked straight ahead.
“Creak.”
The door to the auto repair shop office opened, a burnt smell of roasted meat surging out from the room.
Pangtu waved his hand, placing a leaf under his nose.
He looked up and asked, “Anything from the interrogation?”
Lin Jin shook his head.
Pangtu was shocked. “So tough?”
Lin Jin was speechless. “The person’s roasted through. Tough my ass. Isn’t it possible that storeroom was all their convoy’s possessions?”
Pangtu’s face fell. “Their small leaders exchanged a lot of medicinal materials separately, all high-value supplies. By the Train Conductor’s rules, all that junk together isn’t even ten times enough.”
“Cough cough.”
A voice with a hint of softness sounded in their ears.
Both men’s expressions turned serious.
“Leave two NCO squads to transport spoils of war. There are still many targets unfinished.”
“Understood!”
……
Magong Vocational School.
The tall cover was covered in ferocious spikes, especially in the chaotic dusk, these spikes becoming the sharpest fangs in the dark night.
Actually, Magong’s teachers and students had long realized these spikes had no effect on zombies and mutated beasts, but they effectively blocked those ill-intentioned compatriots.
Just as Lu Yu thought the day would pass peacefully, he suddenly heard continuous explosions from the distance.
A majestic armed off-road vehicle arrived outside Magong Vocational School, followed by two six-seater SUVs.
“Who is it?!”
After asking, Lu Yu didn’t stupidly stand there but climbed down via the internal passage, observing the off-road vehicle through a periscope from below.
The car door opened, a rugged combat boot hitting the ground.
Lu Yu sensed something wrong, adjusted the angle, looking up through the periscope.
In view was a broad dark green trench coat, then a cold hard jawline, and the opponent’s raised silver-white muzzle.
“Armored Train Lieutenant Lu Xiao.”
“Collecting debt.”
“Bang!”
Flames bursting from the muzzle formed a huge lion’s head, roaring as it bit the periscope to pieces.
‘This is too brutal!’
Lu Yu leaned against the cover, breaking out in cold sweat.
He turned and drilled inward. Gatekeeping was just for warning. With such loud gunfire, the whole camp could hear it. No need to risk death warning again.
Just run.
A large crowd rushed past him, but Lu Yu felt no safety.
He thought and ran to the top floor, but the office at the corridor’s end was empty.
Lu Yu grew more uneasy, went downstairs, and ran in the opposite direction.
Before he could drill out, he saw a woman carrying a black backpack returning from the passage.
Lu Yu was delighted. “Dean!”
