Chapter 401: Seize the Green Forest Parliament Alliance, Control Rate 89%

Deep beneath the Green Forest Municipal Building.

Three people gathered around the stove, savoring the taste of hand-ground coffee.

"Speaker, are we sure sending Watson and his people to guard the gate is safe? If—"

Before the speaker finished, the person beside him already showed a look of disdain.

"Tepp, you worry too much. In this damned weather, are you really afraid Watson and the others will betray us and let wolves in?

Come on, the snowpack is nearly two meters deep now. Who would come at a time like this? Who could even get here?

Stop fretting over nothing."

Hearing that, the man called Tepp was instantly silenced.

Because the other person spoke the truth; in this environment, forget about people—armored vehicles themselves would struggle to get through.

At that moment, Speaker Delais, who had been quietly stirring his coffee, lifted his gaze and looked at the two men.

"Don't worry. Watson and his people just got a little complacent after hearing about Big Gold Tooth a few days ago.

But in reality, who would still be willing to take in outsiders right now?

If it were the Black Shield Police Department or the Aurora Animal Assistance Association, that would be understandable.

But they were taken in by the Black Rock Caravan, can you believe that?"

Delais wore a mocking expression.

Delais had the typical look of elite nobility—thin, efficient, meticulous in both hairstyle and clothing.

Even now, with the Extreme Cold disaster and internal turmoil within the Green Forest Parliament Alliance, with factional strife everywhere, he still maintained the poise expected of elite nobility.

It was the result of decades of consistent habits.

After he spoke, the other two councilors also showed looks of contemplation.

"To be honest, I really don't understand how the Black Rock Caravan dares to recruit our people. Their strength isn't even on par with ours. They only had some use from their intelligence network before, but now the whole city is frozen. Those damn scavengers would've long since died. I don't know where they got the confidence."

"Hmph... if you ask me—"

Another man was about to continue...

Bang bang bang—

Rat-a-tat—

Sudden gunfire startled the three in the room, but they quickly realized what was happening.

"Watson... those sons of bitches!"

The room's door was pushed open.

"Speaker, Councilor Watson and his men have rioted, they are attacking our people now—"

"Damn it, go call people! With that many, they want to riot? Perfect, we'll wipe them out and stretch our supplies a bit longer."

But before he could finish, another thug ran in, his face a picture of horror.

"What's wrong now?"

A bad feeling flashed through Delais's mind.

"Speaker, it's bad. We can't wake a lot of the people who were sleeping..."

Their faces changed dramatically.

"Explain clearly. What do you mean you can't wake them?"

"It— it's—" The thug's face filled with fear, his words becoming disjointed.

"They're asleep, but no matter how we call them or hit them, it's like they're trapped in a nightmare and can't wake up. You can see them struggling, trying to open their eyes, but they just can't."

"How... how can that be..." Councilor Tepp still couldn't believe it.

Before he finished, his pupils dilated, his lips trembling as he stumbled backward.

Delais made the same motion; seeing something like an evil spirit, he immediately backed away from the thug.

"Uh... Speaker, you..." The thug stared at the others in stupefaction.

But the next moment, someone raised a gun and aimed at him, horror on their face as they squeezed the trigger.

Rat-a-tat—

The sudden gunfire inside the room caused the thugs outside to rush in.

They saw their comrade already lying on the ground, but the shadow beneath him seemed to come alive and slither across the floor.

Not only his shadow, but all the shadows in the room appeared to have come alive.

They turned into black ropes and began winding toward them.

"Ghosts... ghosts!"

A thug at the doorway turned to flee, but shadows in the corridor shot out a dozen shadow arrows that pierced and killed him instantly.

After a chaotic round of shooting, the voices in the room fell silent.

When they looked again, each person was tightly bound by shadow ropes that slithered like giant constrictor snakes, slowly tightening around them.

Crack...

The sound of ribs breaking was painfully sharp in the room.

"Alright, Zhi Zhi!"

Yu Yuan's voice rang from the corridor. He stepped over the corpses on the floor and entered the room.

At this point, Delais and the two councilors no longer bore their previous looks of disdain or confident certainty.

Only unmistakable terror remained in their eyes.

Yu Yuan glanced at them once and turned away; he had no interest in these people.

The reason he didn't kill them was purely because of manpower needs.

Right now, the Ten Thousand Nations Pact Civilization had a severe population shortfall.

The Aurora Animal Assistance Association's live-agent experiments required test subjects.

Obtaining Spirituality Concentrate required sacrificial offerings.

Even mining inside Dead Mine Town's shafts required miners.

All those tasks needed people to do them.

Anyone he could spare, he would.

Behind him, the Binding Bramble slid into the room, and the corpses that had been in the corridor were devoured by it.

With the appearance and disappearance of the Loser's Cube, the people in the room were all contained.

In fact, Yu Yuan had already pre-contained the two neutral council representatives in the Loser's Cube.

There was no such thing as neutrality to him.

Neutral types were even more detestable than diehards; they were opportunists who shifted with the wind.

Yu Yuan had no interest in them.

Their final fate would be to serve as expendable supplies or miners.

With the top leadership losing stable morale, and more than a hundred people trapped in nightmares and unable to wake, the remaining thugs couldn't mount effective resistance.

Some surrendered, some died in battle.

When Watson saw Yu Yuan again, Yu Yuan had already finished searching Speaker Delais's room.

"Sir, we've got the situation under control."

"Good!" Yu Yuan checked the time; it was already 1:00 a.m.

On the Civilization Overview page, the control rate for the Green Forest Parliament Alliance had already appeared.

—89%

Although not yet one hundred percent, considering the recent fighting and internal factional strife, this figure was quite respectable.

Once they integrated into the Recruit Training Camp, loyalty would no longer be an issue.

"Tell Watson to have his people quickly clear the battlefield. Control everyone still alive. Load all usable supplies onto vehicles; take everything that can be used. Fill the vehicles with fuel. At dawn we leave and get out of here."

"Understood!"

Watson and the others had anticipated this and immediately began organizing everyone to act.

Yu Yuan walked to the stove in the room and looked at the Virtual Light Screen.

Because just moments ago, a new notification had popped up on his Virtual Light Screen.