A fair, jade-like hand released the corpse's shriveled neck.
With a dull thud, the body collapsed to the floor.
Jiang Yu looked down at her bloodstained lapel. A disgusted sound escaped her lips, and she tore away the soiled fabric, exposing a generous expanse of pale skin.
"My, my... when are you ever going to get over that germaphobia of yours?" a mocking voice drifted from the side. "You sure don't mind getting filthy when you're rolling around in pools of blood with men."
Jiang Yu turned her head and saw a young girl leaning sideways against the shop entrance. Narrowing her eyes, she said, "Are you done, Ding Ling? What do you want with me?"
"Nothing much..." Ding Ling answered casually, turning to face Jiang Yu and stepping closer with a smile. "Just wanted to talk business."
"What business?"
"The people we've been hunting these past few days are all ordinary folks. It's boring. But that man who was driving down the street that day—the alien the little nurse mentioned—and that girl who can prophesy... I haven't been able to get them out of my head. So I thought I'd talk it over with you and see if we should go check them out together."
"You and me?" Jiang Yu let out a soft, teasing laugh. "Then what about Liang Cui and Gao Tianfang? We're a team, remember?"
"A team? Heh... we were thrown together by sheer coincidence. Since when were we ever a team? If you ran into prime goods, would you really hold back from taking them?" Ding Ling closed the distance step by step.
Though she had the stature of a child, she gave off an overwhelming sense of oppression. That was especially true of the grotesque bug, as long as a person's forearm, writhing incessantly across her arm.
"If we're really a team, why did you go scout Rencai Community ahead of time? Don't bother lying; you can't fool me." Ding Ling weighed the grotesque bug in her hand as she finished.
"You've been tracking and spying on me?" Jiang Yu's delicate face instantly darkened.
"If I didn't track you, wouldn't you have devoured all the good stuff yourself?" Ding Ling didn't yield an inch, pressing on. "What I don't understand is, since you already scouted the place, why didn't you strike? Why did you come straight back? If I had to guess, the situation was tricky and you couldn't handle it on your own! But with me, it's a different story. Could the two of us really fail to deal with one man?"
With things laid bare, Jiang Yu dropped the pretense and sneered. "If it were just that one man, do you think I would've returned empty-handed? He's no ordinary human. He's already pulled together a massive crew—over two hundred people. On top of that, there should be two others among them who possess supernatural abilities."
"Over two hundred people? None of our kind?" Ding Ling asked curiously. "With that many people, there should be some, right?"
Jiang Yu shook her head slowly. "I didn't spot any, nor did I sense any... I didn't dare get too close, and I didn't observe for long."
"Then that's wonderful!" Ding Ling beamed and clapped her hands. "They can have some now! Since you can't chew through that tough bone on your own, why don't we cooperate? We'll infiltrate together and claim that fat prize! No need to tell Old Gao about this. If he comes along, we'll only get leftovers. As for that slut Liang Cui, there's even less reason... you've been sick of her for a while, haven't you? Gao Tianfang went far away and probably won't be back for a day or two, and that bitch Liang Cui isn't around either. How about just the two of us? With your status and abilities, plus mine... tearing that group apart for a feast will be effortless. We might even grow much stronger."
Jiang Yu lowered her eyes in thought, then looked up. "The man is mine, and the prophet girl is mine. You get all the rest."
"Based on what?!" Ding Ling's brow shot up in displeasure.
"Based on my status. You'd never sneak in alone."
The two stared each other down until Ding Ling finally backed down, scoffing, "Big deal, being a famous celebrity. Fine, have it your way... but if you're not up to the task, don't blame me for striking first."
"Then cut the chatter. There's no time to lose; let's head out now."
"Hold on." Ding Ling called her back, looking her up and down. "You're far too clean. You'd better disguise yourself properly so you don't give yourself away. If something goes wrong, I won't stick my neck out for you, and you'd better not drag me down either."
***
Inside the Rencai Community activity center, a dense crowd moved about in a flurry of activity.
Two days had passed, and the groups formed earlier had already begun carrying out their tasks.
The smallest unit was a five-person squad operating in organized shifts. Each member submitted a daily report, cross-referencing and supervising one another's actions. This maximized the chances of suppressing any covert mutants that might be lurking within the group.
So far, no problems had surfaced, and progress was advancing at a remarkable pace.
A portion of the teams had already been dispatched to the outskirts of the residential complex to search for vehicles. In just one day, more than twenty decent cars and several large freight trucks were parked outside the complex. Large amounts of fuel had also been siphoned from lesser vehicles to serve as reserves.
Inside the activity center, efforts to repurpose supplies and sew clothing continued steadily.
Su Jin had not been idle either. In a series of high-intensity sweeps, he raided several police stations and secured a large cache of arms. He did not dare distribute these firearms to the team just yet, but he had devised a relatively safe way to put them to use: distribute the guns only when the convoy set off, and install crude weapon limiters on every vehicle so the barrels could only fire outward. That way, both firepower and safety would be guaranteed.
During the process of preparing their firepower, he had also harvested a flesh bulb. However, he kept it stored for the time being inside his briefcase.
He had originally considered giving it to Elder Sun and Elder Wei, but both men flatly refused. Their reasoning was simple: at their advanced age, the effects might prove unstable, and even if their strength increased, the gain would be far less than that of a young person. As for Zhang Wan and Auntie Liu, they had no talent for combat and were not suited for the battlefield, making the bulb's value on them quite low. Leaving the opportunity to someone else would yield far greater benefits.
After consulting with Elder Sun and Elder Wei, Su Jin decided to keep it in reserve. Once they had observed enough candidates, they would select a strong, reliable young recruit to use it.
As for Fu Qingdai, her duties were simple yet demanding. She had only one responsibility: serving food to everyone in the activity center every day.
Dressed in clean clothes each day, she moved among the crowd carrying a faint fragrance. A gentle word and a warm smile from her were enough to fill the survivors with motivation and hope. After two days, no one looked upon her as merely an ordinary girl anymore.
At that moment, Su Jin sat beside the raised platform in the hall, bent over as he sharpened weapons needed for combat. Every now and then, he looked up at the bustling scene before him, feeling a deep sense of drive.
Just days ago, it had been a small band of eight; now it had grown into a large collective of over two hundred people. Disciplined, orderly, and brimming with vitality. Although their living conditions remained brutally harsh, that old-world vigor—the sense of all things striving and flourishing—seemed right before his eyes.
*Protect the client to safely survive the early apocalypse. Once the client possesses independent survival capability in the apocalypse, the mission ends.*
Once they successfully reached the military district and set up camp, his mission might very well be considered complete!
If even that didn't count, surely he wouldn't be expected to fight all the way through to the end of the apocalypse, would he?
The thought gave Su Jin another surge of motivation.
At that very moment, three squad members walked in from outside the activity center. They came to a halt right in front of Su Jin and snapped a crisp salute!
"Reporting, Director! While on perimeter watch, we discovered two female survivors—a child and an adult. Awaiting your instructions!"
Chapter 64