Chapter 25

Harboring their suspicions, the four ‘survivors’ followed Wang Zhou into the villa area, where they were led to a rather isolated villa.

The bodies and miscellaneous debris in this villa had all been cleared away, making the place feel rather empty. The walls were damaged in a few places, adding on a sensation of bleakness and depression.

The four team members felt that there was something strange about this environment, but they had no time to think about it. The moment they entered, they were assailed by an intense pressure that had them struggling to breathe.

Other than Wang Zhou, who had led them here, there were two other people in the villa.

One was a young man in casual clothes.

The other was an iron tower of a strongman. On his body, what should have been loose-fitting clothes were stretched taut.

The strongman stood behind the youth, radiating a terrifying, fiendish energy. This iron tower of a man was the source of that intense pressure.

What was going on?

They didn’t understand. They were survivors who were just seeking shelter and fleeing disaster!

In normal shelters, even if they weren’t welcoming to survivors, there was no need to make such an impressive show of force on the first meeting. Moreover, there were two Awakened in their number. Any other shelter would have welcomed them with open arms.

There was something very wrong.

That young man in casual clothes placed his hands behind his back and scanned them. “Talk! What’s your purpose in trying to infiltrate this place?”

The pupils of the four slightly constricted. How had they managed to expose themselves? Or was it…

The oldest of the four put on an ingratiating expression. “Big Brother, we’re survivors from Nanling Town. We’ve been hiding all over this place, and when we saw a sign pointing to this shelter, we went to find it. We–we don’t have any sort of purpose.”

Deep down, he was somewhat uneasy, but he was sure that the missing team was connected to the shelter.

This was the only explanation for why the shelter was so wary of outside survivors.

The eldest did not believe that they had done anything that could expose them.

They were originally survivors who had survived out in the wilderness, so disguising themselves as such came naturally.

He felt that the shelter was suspicious of them purely because they were on guard and doing a routine inspection. Through the expert’s fiendish pressure, they could unsteady their hearts, upon which a subsequent interrogation might cause the four to accidentally divulge the truth.

Fortunately…

The eldest considered it fortunate that the four of them had gone through training and originally had determined mindsets, so they had not exposed any sort of flaw.

This meant that they were probably safe.

With this thought in mind, the eldest maintained his ingratiating expression, but he discovered that the man across from him was expressionless.

It was like it didn’t matter what they answered.

He heard Tang Yu continue, “Of course, it’s not that important if you talk or not. I actually know who all of you are. What I want to know now is this: why did Lin Wei’s group send you?

“Mm, you have the right to remain silent, and you can continue remaining silent. In any case…” Tang Yu spread apart his hands. “We’ve already killed so many people that killing a few more won’t matter.”

The eldest was tall and strong, and maintaining his ingratiating expression was very difficult for him. At this moment, his flattering smile became a little stiff.

Who was Lin Wei? They knew, of course. This was their boss’s boss, the biggest boss of all.

But they still clung to a little sliver of hope. Without evidence and only speculation, these two wouldn’t possibly kill them… right?

The eldest wasn’t sure, but he had to persist.

As for attacking or running, he had never entertained the thought. The pressure of that strongman alone made it difficult for them to move. If it really came to fighting, the four of them wouldn’t even last one move.

This was an expert, far more capable than them.

At this time, the young man in glasses walked out and bitterly smiled. “I’ll talk.”

“Old Third, you…” The eldest stared in disbelief.

The young man in glasses had a helpless look in his eyes as he glanced at the others. “Eldest, Second, Little Fifth, what’s the point in struggling on? We’re just employees to the boss. They sent us over to investigate this incident, and we did our best and even sacrificed two of our members. We no longer owe them anything, let alone have to sacrifice our lives for them.”

He sighed. “You really don’t think that we can safely leave here if we say nothing, do you? Don’t forget—this is the apocalypse. Human life is the most worthless thing around, and do you think that if we die, we’ll be able to keep the secret? No, even if we die, the bosses will send another team, and today’s events will repeat themselves.”

Old Third had a very thorough understanding of the situation.

After saying all this, he confessed to the people of the shelter their goal, not hiding a single thing.

The others fell silent.

They couldn’t be considered loyal.

They had initially persisted because they had clung to a small hope that they had not been discovered.

Even after Tang Yu spoke Lin Wei’s name, they believed that he was just trying to frighten them.

Answering was the same as confessing. Even if they didn’t die, they would probably be harshly punished for sneaking into a shelter.

But if they insisted that they were fleeing survivors, they had a chance of successfully mingling with the others.

This was what they thought.

The young man with glasses had initially thought the same, but he was quicker to understand.

The other side had spoken those words not merely to scare them. Even without evidence and only suspicion, in this era where people were butchered like chickens, there was no need to hesitate.

Only frank confession could win them some chance of survival.

But the young man with glasses was still confused. Where had the flaw been?

…

This team that had tried to infiltrate the shelter didn’t know much.

When it came to knowledge on Lin Wei and his faction, they knew even less than Han Jing’s team.

Tang Yu understood. Han Jing had been Lin Wei’s trusted subordinate, whereas this team was one of the many unremarkable teams under Lin Wei’s command.

This team naturally didn’t know the secret of the Origin Crystal vein. Their mission was to seek out Han Jing’s missing team.

But it was not just the one team that had been given this mission.

The young man with glasses had divulged that there were at least seven of these teams who had been sent to investigate different areas. Their team was responsible for investigating this particular region.

“In other words, the disappearance of their team is certain to draw Lin Wei’s attention, and the shelter will become his focus sooner or later.”

In truth, he had long ago expected this situation.

By now, Han Jing’s team members had already died in various ways, but Lin Wei cared enough about the Origin Crystal vein that he would definitely send an endless stream of people to investigate. The discovery of the truth was only a matter of time.

But for Tang Yu, time was the key.

Lin Wei was part of the upper echelons of the Lindong Shelter, and while he couldn’t command the army, he had countless Awakened under his command. From what Tang Yu could tell, Lin Wei definitely commanded more power than his domain. However, transmitting information in the apocalypse was difficult. It wasn’t like one could just send a message through WeChat.

Lin Wei would have to be informed of the disappearance of the team Tang Yu had captured, then he would have to send another team to investigate, and this team would have to start investigating…

Just coming and going would consume an enormous amount of time.

By using this time well, Tang Yu was confident that he could upgrade the buildings of his domain to another level.

He also couldn’t waste this team. He could perhaps make them miners. Awakened were much more efficient at hard labor than ordinary people.

Tang Yu thought about Han Jing’s people and felt his heart wince. Wouldn’t it have been awesome to have Tier 3 Awakened as laborers?

But he understood that making Han Jing’s men into miners was far too dangerous. As the lord of this land, he needed to walk the safe and steady path. He could not afford to be reckless.