Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

“Alright, everything is in the past now.”

Zhang Su slung the rifle over his shoulder, releasing a long-held sigh of relief, the knot buried deep in his heart finally resolved.

“Let’s throw the bodies down the mountain together, I’ll go check how Zu Meng and Zu Tong are doing!”

“Oh right, Zu Meng and Zu Tong didn’t take part in this, did they?”

Zheng Xinyu asked curiously.

“Last night when I was eavesdropping by the window, Zu Meng and Zu Tong were extremely unwilling for Liang Xiaocheng to cause conflict with us, but later got controlled by Liang Xiaocheng…”

Zhang Su spread his hands, looking towards the direction of Qingfeng Xiaozhu.

Lu Yubo said, “Damn, didn’t expect Old Meng to be quite loyal.”

“Yeah, people like that are rare now. Brother, how about we invite them to join us?” Zhao Dezhu suggested.

“I’ll go get them out, see what they’re thinking. If they can stay here peacefully that’d be great, we need manpower for base construction.”

With that said, Zhang Su headed towards Qingfeng Xiaozhu.

“Brother Su, I’ll go over there and check it out too!” Liu Tianji’s slightly chubby body huffed as he caught up with Zhang Su.

He needed to plan, which meant understanding the situation in the Celestial Horse Island inn area.

“This area is quite big, constructing it might take quite some effort…”

Walking on the wide concrete road, Zhang Su couldn’t help but look around. Their team had almost become the nominal owner of this inn area, it was time to seriously consider construction issues.

“The main issue is not having large machinery, but thankfully we have plenty of manpower, it can be done!”

Liu Tianji said optimistically, “We need to set up walls on the road leading to the mountain… and over there, I always feel like someone could climb up from the bottom, even without walls it needs traps. The road down the mountain is easier to handle, mm, the highest point over there at White Cloud Garden can be used as a lookout…”

“Hmm?”

Zhang Su was listening to Liu Tianji’s plan when an unusual sound suddenly reached his ears.

Owwww.

The zombie’s low moan rang from the second floor of Qingfeng Xiaozhu.

“Damn!”

Zhang Su looked towards the place the sound came from, his expression instantly dark and cold, he drew his pistol and ran towards Qingfeng Xiaozhu taking three steps in two.

Bang!

Zhang Su kicked open the door of room 204, unsurprisingly two zombies were tied to chairs, their necks stretched out and snapping open their sharp white teeth at the two of them. It was the Zu Meng and Zu Tong siblings.

“What… I, they actually killed Old Meng!?” Liu Tianji leaned against the door, full of disbelief.

“Ah… I really didn’t see this coming, damn!”

Zhang Su lowered his arm in irritation, feeling a bit sorrowful.

Last night, they had the chance to catch Liang Xiaocheng’s team off guard, annihilate them without pressure, but if action was taken at night, apart from him seeing everything clearly, others’ vision would be obstructed, and accidents might happen, so setting traps for defense and counterattack was more prudent!

Plus, Liang Xiaocheng only said to control the Zu siblings for one night, he would release them once the affair was over, so didn’t consider too much. Who would have thought it’d turn out like this.

From the standpoint, Zu Meng and Zu Tong were not enemies, they could become friends, from a benefit standpoint, as two people familiar with Celestial Horse Island they could provide valuable help for the base construction, but now it’s all too late.

“Zhang Ya was right, Liang Xiaocheng is a madman, damn. I always tell people I’m the bad guy, compared to Liang Xiaocheng, I’m a living Buddha!”

Zhang Su put away the gun, pulled out a dagger and walked forward, with complicated feelings he completely sent off Zu Meng and Zu Tong.

When everyone learned of the Zu siblings’ tragic end, their hearts were somewhat heavy, in the apocalyptic world it’s rare to find someone as warm-hearted as the siblings.

“Brother Su, did we cause Old Meng and Sister Tong’s deaths?”

Zheng Xinyu furrowed her brow, her face full of conflicted emotions.

“You’re saying if we hadn’t come, the Zu siblings wouldn’t have been doomed? I think as long as they didn’t collude with Liang Xiaocheng, being killed was sooner or later…”

Zhang Su rubbed his temples in some distress.

Tragedies are enacted every day, it’s just this time it happened beside everyone.

Throughout the morning, everyone disposed of the bodies of Liang Xiaocheng’s ten men, and dug two pits for the Zu siblings, for a final dignity in this apocalyptic world, to rest in peace.

After the hustle, Zhang Su’s group thoroughly checked all the inns on Celestial Horse Island, ensuring no one was hiding, then they felt completely at ease.

“Folks, the crisis outside isn’t lifted, Celestial Horse Island is our safe home. I won’t say much, just one thing: unity and no internal conflict, build our shared home well. Can we do that?”

At the parking platform at the scenic area entrance, Zhang Su stood on a step and delivered a speech to his companions.

“No problem, we’ll listen to Brother Su!”

Lu Yubo responded enthusiastically.

“We can do it, Brother Su, rest assured!”

“We can do it!”

Following close behind, everyone responded one by one.

The team consists of twenty people in total. Zhao Xue and Wu Lue have known Zhang Su the longest, having known him for several years, and they have always had a mysterious trust in him. Even Jia Shiqin, Qi Xiaoshuai, Lü Leiyang, and Tan Huajun’s daughter Mo Qianlan, who have only known him for a few days, have already fully recognized Zhang Su’s leadership abilities.

Everyone acknowledged Zhang Su’s abilities. Even if he was occasionally ruthless, it was for the protection of the entire team. Without any accident, he had already become the real leader of this team.

“Good!”

Rarely able to speak out loud, Zhang Su’s voice rang out clearly: “If there are any troubles you think are hard to manage, come to me, I’ll manage them. It’s not easy for us to come together in this post-apocalyptic world. As long as we stay united, we can live well!”

“Live well!”

Everyone echoed this most sincere appeal.

“In terms of accommodation, this area can fit not just twenty people, but even two thousand people… However, we can’t live everywhere. If our living area is too large and people are too scattered, it will be risky!”

Zhang Su pointed to a place not far away and said, “Based on the distribution of the inn rooms, we’ll choose rooms from the Wangshan, Zhiyuan, and Little Lucky inns. The rest of the space will be left to store things, or if any survivors join us and our people expand, we can then move into a larger area!”

These things have always been arranged by Zhang Su, and everyone was already accustomed to following his arrangements to do things, with a kind of inexplicable trust and no objections.

It’s like a team playing a game; there must be someone to command, and the team members used to following the command only need to have execution power, not make decisions.

Seeing that everyone had no problem, Zhang Su continued: “I’ll reschedule the sentry duties. Today, we’ll follow the previous arrangement, but there won’t be any training today. Choose a house you like, tidy up your rooms and inventory supplies, and relax. If anything else comes up, we’ll handle it tomorrow!”

“Yay!”

“Long live Brother Su…”

“Haha, can I go down the mountain for a walk?”

“Bullshit, the activity range is limited to above the parking lot and below the mountain stream.”

Zhang Su immediately stopped the delivery guy Qi Xiaoshuai, who wanted to go downhill for a walk.

“Run, grab a room!”

Someone shouted, and only then did everyone react, and they rushed toward the three designated inns by Zhang Su.

“Xinyu, quickly grab the largest room on the second floor of Little Lucky!”

Zhang Su shouted from the steps.

“Leave it to me! Out of my way, or I’ll knock you over…”

Zheng Xinyu raced towards Little Lucky, with Corgi Good Fortune running even faster, surpassing everyone with a swoosh!

The inns themselves have a family-friendly atmosphere. While this kind of decoration is not expensive, it requires care.

Each guest room, under the owner’s careful arrangement, appears very cozy. It might not be everyone’s preferred style, but it definitely has a homey feel.

The rooms in these three inns number over twenty, enough for everyone to reside. Each person found a room of their own, and some naturally shared a room together.

The rooms were clean and tidy, the bedding was as good as new, and there was air conditioning and a TV. However, the TV had no channels, and the air conditioning couldn’t run properly due to the insufficient power of solar panels. But this did not affect the satisfaction in everyone’s hearts.

Long-lost smiles returned to everyone’s faces as they took stock of their wearable clothes and shoes in the room. Some even had the leisure to brew a pot of tea, sipping it cheerfully, and everyone felt as if they had returned to life before the disaster struck.

It felt like, instead of seeking refuge on Celestial Horse Island, they were here for a team-building vacation.

Though there was no training task in the afternoon, there were still many things to do after tidying up the rooms.

The storage area was planned out, and all items from the few cars were sorted and stored. Zhong Xiaoshan was officially appointed as the supplies manager, responsible for detailed records of all supplies, including the daily consumption that needs to be recorded and accounted for in the future.

Lü Leiyang, who was somewhat flamboyant, became Zhong Xiaoshan’s assistant, and some heavy lifting tasks were assigned to him, which he was quite happy to do.

“Including all the supplies left in the inns, calculated at high consumption, our food is enough to support us for sixty-five days. This doesn’t account for the chickens, ducks, and fish because with the reservoir as support, our water usage is secured. However, we need to pay attention to preventing the domestic water system from freezing!”

By around five in the afternoon, everyone except the sentry personnel gathered in the backyard of Little Lucky Inn. Zhong Xiaoshan spoke to everyone about the current situation in the safe base, holding a notebook in hand.

“The food is only enough for two months? That shouldn’t be right, there’s so much!”

Zhang Su was the first to express doubt. Just the grain brought in from West Camp Village and United Village exceeded 1,500 pounds, and it took some effort to transport them in the afternoon. This doesn’t include the previous stocks, and he thought it was enough to last for half a year, essentially getting through the coming winter.

Zhong Xiaoshan shrugged and said, “With the cold weather and daily training, the speed at which we’re consuming food is more than double the normal rate. There are two greenhouse vegetable sheds over there. Xiaochen measured them and found they cover about half an acre combined. If we maintain good planting and farming, we can extend our supplies for a few more days.”

“It seems that achieving self-sufficiency on Celestial Horse Island is still quite difficult, especially in winter when we can’t cultivate and plant,” Yuwen lightly frowned, pondering over sustainable development methods.

“Should we consider reducing the training intensity a bit?” Zheng Xinyu tentatively asked.

“No!” Zhang Su decisively rejected: “A stable living environment gives us more time to learn how to survive in the apocalypse. If we slack off, the next time we encounter danger, it could be catastrophic!”

“Don’t worry about the food situation. There’s land waiting to be cultivated in the inn area, and it can slowly be transformed into greenhouses for planting. With so many villages nearby, there are surely more like Shuwa Village. We’ll find time to slowly clear out zombies, and bringing back a cart full of food is enough for one or two months!”

Everyone felt Zhang Su made sense. The shelf life of food was there, so hoarding too much isn’t feasible. Only by establishing a virtuous cycle can it be sustainable, but training must not be neglected. Once people become complacent, they risk becoming desensitized when facing danger again!