Those People Will Never Come Back!

I Have Medical Insurance Charge First: "Drop your weapons! Surrender your arms and you will be spared!" Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm: "Fuck?! Why isn't anyone resisting?" Construction Boy and Bricks: "We charged for nothing!" Midnight Chicken Slaughter: "Refund! Mosquito, refund our money! We didn't even get to use the rocket!" Borrow Another Ten Centimeters From Heaven: "Brother Chicken, forget it, forget it. It was only five silver coins. Trust me, not having to use it is a good thing!" The battle proceeded extraordinarily smoothly. By the time the players stormed through the main gate, Bet Street's garrison had already discarded their weapons, squatted down in the corner of the wall of their own accord, and surrendered with their hands behind their heads. This left many players who had anticipated a thrilling brawl feeling as though they had thrown a heavy punch into a pile of cotton. Why did they give up so quickly? Couldn't they have put up at least a little resistance? Following the Administrator through the wooden gate that had been blasted open by the cannon, Wu Tiefu's face was filled with shock and reverence. So powerful! Previously, he had only seen that these bluecoats possessed superior equipment, but he had never imagined that their combat prowess and discipline would match it so flawlessly. Even though their charge had lacked strict formation, their sheer momentum had completely crushed the defenders' morale, leaving them without even an ounce of will to resist. At the thought, Wu Tiefu secretly celebrated his earlier decision. Aligning himself with these formidable figures had truly been an indisputably wise choice. "Plant our flag on the outer wall!" Chu Guang glanced around with a touch of nostalgia before turning to Walter, who was squatting by the wall. "You, get up." Walter froze for a second, then stood up with his hands still clasped behind his head. "...My Lord, what are your orders?" "Don't recognize me?" Old Walter offered an awkward, sheepish smile. "I do..." Chu Guang smiled faintly, took a knife from Wu Tiefu's hand, tossed it into Old Walter's grip, and gestured with his chin toward the men huddled in the corner. "Keep an eye on them for me." Old Walter hastily caught the blade and bowed his head respectfully. "Yes, my Lord." With their weapons confiscated, the guards had completely lost the will to resist. Since they had surrendered so cooperatively, Chu Guang had no intention of making things difficult for them. As long as they behaved themselves until the dust settled, he would naturally release them to run home to their mothers. Leaving two players with high contribution points to guard the main entrance, Chu Guang then instructed Zhao Shu to go with Yu Hu to comfort Bet Street's survivors. They were to tell the people not to panic, to remain in their homes, and to wait patiently for the fighting to conclude and for Old Leech's public trial. Noticing that the combat had died down, Old Charlie emerged from a nearby alley. When he caught sight of Chu Guang's face, an expression of shock flashed across his features. He clearly had not expected that the leader of these bluecoats would turn out to be that seemingly naive foreigner who had once wandered aimlessly across the wasteland. However, he reacted swiftly. After mere seconds of astonishment, he bowed his head with deep respect and spoke: "Honored Lord, welcome! The survivors of Bet Street are prepared to receive their new master." "Lift your head. The era of Old Leech is over. From now on, the people here can decide their own future." Watching Charlie nod, Chu Guang skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point. "Since you are here, that works out perfectly. I need Bet Street's people to understand that we are here to liberate them, not persecute them. Aside from the Mayor being hanged, no one's daily life will be disturbed. Therefore, while we assault the castle, I expect no one to step out and get in our way. Do you understand what I mean?" Old Charlie naturally understood. He bowed his head respectfully and answered: "I will reassure everyone on your behalf!" Chu Guang nodded, turned toward the eager players behind him, and waved his arm toward the castle standing at the center of Bet Street. "The rest of you, advance with me!" The players were exceptionally disciplined. Following Chu Guang's command, they marched along the street without harassing any of the survivors trembling inside their shacks. The only restless soul among them was a single individual. Mosquito, having blown open the town gate earlier and still hungry for more action, was just about to order the newbie player pulling his cannon cart to blast a shell at the castle, only to be promptly stopped by Chu Guang. What a joke. The wealthiest place in all of Bet Street was Old Leech's castle. It was his own war spoil. How could he let the guy blow it to pieces? Meeting zero resistance along the way, the players followed Chu Guang past several brick buildings near the town center and soon arrived before the castle's entrance. When the party reached it, the castle gates were sealed shut, and the windows offered no view of what lay inside. Through the VM, Chu Guang directed the players to split into three teams. One team surrounded the castle perimeter, another seized the armory beside it, and the remaining force launched a frontal assault into the castle to capture Old Leech alive! "Demolition team in position!" "Light it up!" Even though they could have simply battered the doors down, the players assigned to storm the building gleefully placed their explosives at the entrance anyway. The fuse burned out, and with a deafening boom, the castle's main doors were blown to splinters, crashing heavily inward onto the floor. "Go, go, go!" "Charge!" Fixing bayonets to their rifles, the players hollered and dashed through the thick smoke of the blast, storming inside. When they took in the extravagant decor of the great hall, everyone was stunned. "Holy crap, is this the kind of aesthetic the wasteland is supposed to have?!" "Badass, these pillars are solid marble!" "The pillars were probably built before the war... but damn, this carpet is stitched from bear pelts!" "Filthy rich, this guy is filthy rich!" While everyone else was still starving, the old Mayor was already living in pure luxury! Beyond the rugs crafted from beast skins, there were ornate wall hangings and a crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling... Everything formed a stark, vivid contrast with the squalor of the streets outside. This place resembled a palace rather than a wasteland settlement. Besides the obviously valuable furnishings, the players soon discovered that this seven-story castle actually possessed an elevator! However, its generator appeared to have stopped running. The players sweeping through the interior quickly divided into two groups. One cleared the floors upward along the staircase, while the other began a systematic sweep starting from the ground level, searching for the generator and Old Leech's whereabouts. Yet to everyone's bewilderment, the players turned the entire castle upside down without finding the key quest NPCs—Old Leech and his family. It was as if they had evaporated into thin air, vanishing completely from the castle! Before long, however, a player named Midnight Chicken Slaughter made a fresh discovery while exploring the underground wine cellar. Carrying an axe, Midnight Chicken Slaughter hurried back before the Administrator and reported with excitement: "Lord Administrator, we found a tunnel in the wine cellar downstairs!" Dug a hole and ran? Hearing this, Chu Guang was not surprised in the least. With a tyrannical, extortionate ruler like Old Leech, if he hadn't built an escape hatch right beneath his own rear end, he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep peacefully at night. Looking at Midnight Chicken Slaughter, Chu Guang immediately issued an order: "Take two men down there and pursue them. See if you can catch up." "It doesn't matter if you can't, but I must know where that tunnel leads!" At the same time, a quest notification popped up on the VM strapped to Midnight Chicken Slaughter's forearm. [Quest: Explore the underground tunnel in the castle wine cellar (Shareable with up to two players)] [Reward: 5 silver coins, 50 contribution points] Glancing at the prompt, Midnight Chicken Slaughter clasped his fists excitedly. "Understood!" With that, he gathered two nearby teammates and sprinted off toward the tunnel. Watching the players dash toward the cellar, Chu Guang stroked his chin. Come to think of it, Old Leech certainly knew how to enjoy life—he had even built a wine cellar in the basement. Conveniently, when they celebrated their victory tonight, the old Mayor's private collection could be handed out to the players as rewards. With that thought in mind, Chu Guang walked over to the armory next to the castle. The warehouse keeper stationed there had already raised his hands in surrender, squatting obediently in the corner. Stepping through the open door, Chu Guang glanced inside, and an expression of astonishment—mixed with bewilderment—surfaced on his face. Thirty pipe rifles produced by Boulder City, identical to the weapons Liszt had sold him. There were also handmade pistols, shotguns, and other firearms laid out on the tables, along with crates of ammunition and fragmentation grenades. It was enough to arm an entire guerrilla unit! Their weaponry was far from weak. In fact, it was noticeably more standardized than what the marauders carried. Yet right up until the castle fell, not a single one of these weapons had been distributed to Bet Street's survivors; instead, they had conveniently fallen straight into his hands. Wu Tiefu's face was etched with confusion. "Their equipment is quite formidable." Chu Guang nodded. "Indeed." "...Then why didn't he distribute the weapons to his people?" "Because those people are not his clansmen. They are merely his servants and slaves. If he didn't need them to hunt, he wouldn't even have allowed them to carry bows and arrows." Chu Guang paused in thought for a moment, then turned to Wu Tiefu and continued: "Have your clansmen load these spoils onto the covered carts and haul them back to the outpost to find Luka. He will know how to handle them." Wu Tiefu had not anticipated such deep trust from the Administrator. Overwhelmed by the honor, his expression turned solemn, and he accepted the command with grave respect. "Yes, my Lord!" Meanwhile, Chu Guang waved his hand, motioning for the players behind him to follow. "Let's go." "Time to take a look at Old Leech's private collection!" ... Just as the outpost players planted the 404 flag on the castle's spire, Zhao Shu, who had been ordered to venture deep into the alleys to reassure the residents, finally reached his own home. Seeing his family, the gaunt man burst into tears and embraced them tightly. "Dad! Mom! Big Brother! Sister-in-law! I'm back!" His elderly mother's eyes brimmed with tears. "Son, you're finally home!" "Thanks to those bluecoats, I managed to keep my life." Zhao Shu sniffled, his eyes red, and forced a smile onto his face. "The salt I asked the second Yu boy to bring you... did that lad deliver it?" His father nodded, his expression somewhat apprehensive. "He did, he did! Son, tell us honestly, where did you get that salt? How is its quality even better than what we trade for at the general store?" Beside them, his elder brother also nodded, asking anxiously: "Yes, you didn't steal someone's property, did you?" "What do you mean, steal someone's property? Am I that sort of person?" Zhao Shu said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I earned that with my wages!" His elder brother looked completely baffled. "Wages? What wages..." Whenever they did labor for the old Mayor, they had never received any wages; at best, they were thrown a meal. Sometimes, if the work ended at four in the afternoon just shy of mealtime, they wouldn't even get that—they'd simply have a ram horn potato tossed into their hands and be chased away. Zhao Shu grinned and explained: "Working for those bluecoats, they don't just cover food and lodging, they pay one silver coin every day, which you can use to exchange for goods at their warehouse. That salt is what I traded for there! It's far better than what's in the town's general store!" At this point, he grasped his elder brother's hand. "Brother, why don't you come along too? I saw they're still hiring! Those silver coins don't just buy salt, they buy food too—they're even more useful than chips! Winter makes game hard to find anyway, so you might as well fire bricks for them. The work isn't exhausting, it's warm, and it's far better than lying in the snow waiting for game!" His elder brother's eyes widened. "Is it really as good as you say?" Zhao Shu nodded vigorously. "Of course! Would I lie to you?" His brother scratched the back of his head and murmured: "Then I'll think about it... By the way, are you staying home, or leaving with those people?" "I plan to work until next spring. We don't have enough food at home anyway, so I won't stay here for the winter!" Looking at his younger brother, the elder brother said with a twinge of guilt: "...You've suffered." Hearing that, Zhao Shu couldn't help laughing. "Ah, what suffering is there in that! Brother, you have no idea how good life is over there. I feel like I'm actually putting on weight. Never mind, next time you come over, I'll tell you all about it!" Though reluctant to part, he still had duties to fulfill. After bidding farewell to his family, Zhao Shu stepped out the door and continued on to the next household. Meanwhile, a similar scene played out at the Yu home. Seeing his younger brother return, Yu Xiong, who had been guarding the house with an axe in hand and dread on his face, pulled him inside anxiously and asked: "What happened outside? Who are those people who came?" Yu Hu smiled and said: "Brother, don't worry, those are Brother Chu's men!" "Brother Chu?!" Hearing that it was his savior, Yu Xiong froze, his tension evaporating. Dropping the axe from his hand, he pressed his brother: "Why has he come?" "Isn't it all because of our Mayor!" At the thought of that letter, fury flared within Yu Hu, and his words took on Chu Guang's tone. "That Old Leech actually colluded with the marauders behind our backs! What an utter piece of scum! Bah!" The wasteland's survivors despised marauders to the marrow of their bones, hating them even more than mutants. Yu Xiong looked bewildered. Unaware of the whole story, he couldn't comprehend how the Mayor could have allied himself with marauders. "If it's them, then my heart is at ease," their father said from the side, relaxing his grip on his weapon with a sigh of relief. "As long as it isn't the Bloodhand Clan, everything is fine!" Looking at his father, Yu Hu suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right, Dad, I forgot to tell you—the Bloodhand Clan won't be harassing us anymore!" "Won't harass us anymore?" His father glanced at him and chuckled. "Which winter do they not come? Just because you say they won't harass us, they won't?" "It's not just me saying it," Yu Hu replied with an honest, proud smile. "The Bloodhand Clan's lair has already been flattened by Brother Chu!" "Those people will never come back!"