Chapter 36

Everything had happened so suddenly. Many survivors have believed that the shelter had no better choice than to compromise.

But a moment later, they saw those Awakened who had wanted to negotiate with the shelter fleeing for their lives, with one of them already dead.

Dead?

They were stunned. They hadn’t even been able to tell what had happened.

Just when they believed that the shelter would press the attack and get rid of all these people that threatened the shelter in one go, Ironface Roger put away his sword and took his place behind Chief Tang.

They were somewhat confused.

It was true that they were just ordinary survivors, low-class people wherever they went, but they weren’t stupid. Since the shelter had already taken action and turned hostile against these people, there was no reason to let them go.

Just when they thought this…

They saw those fleeing Awakened running back in disarray.

Their clothes were in tatters and some of them had been heavily injured, vomiting blood as they ran.

Each Awakened was followed by a round automaton.

The survivors with sharper eyesight noticed that the swords wielded by these automatons were stained with blood.

All of them were far too familiar with these automatons. Weren’t these the same automatons that demolished stone and moved around materials each day?

Though they had always felt that the weapons wielded by these automatons were very sharp, they had never imagined that these automatons were this strong.

From the look of it, the fleeing Awakened had been no match for the automatons.

How long had it been? Each Awakened had faced only one automaton, yet in such a short time, they had all lost. But there were many more of these automatons in the shelter.

It was no wonder the shelter didn’t care about their threats.

They had an expert in Ironface Roger, and if there were too many demonized beasts for Captain Roger to deal with, they had these automatons.

As expected, they had been too young and inexperienced. How could anyone who wanted to establish a shelter be that simple?

As the survivors watched this farce play out, they couldn’t help but swallow.

They were afraid, but none of them felt that the shelter was being cruel. More of them felt that the Awakened had brought this on themselves. In living, they would only waste food.

The Awakened who had been escorted back hatefully glared at Tang Yu.

The bearded Awakened roared, “Come on! Kill me! A shitty shelter without Awakened can’t escape the fate of being destroyed by demonized beasts! I’ve seen plenty of terrible shelters like this one! Haha, I’ll be waiting for you down below!”

His laughter was crazed, as if he had finally found an avenue to vent his emotions.

Some of the Awakened wept and begged for the shelter to spare them.

Tang Yu’s face was emotionless as he waved his hand at Chen Haiping. “Continue the registration. Anyone who wants to join the patrol team should apply with Roger.”

The bearded man continued to roar, “Patrol team? Heheh, you really think that other Awakened will die for you?!”

He was certain of this.

The other Awakened hadn’t stood at their side, but joining the patrol team, obeying the shelter’s orders, dying for the shelter… other than that Peng Bo, who had been secretly recruited, who would be willing to join?

Impossible!

Suddenly, a voice came from next to him. “No Awakened will join? Ridiculous! Can you represent all Awakened? And that’s not even considering that I happen to be a natural Awakened!”

The bearded man turned to look and saw that the speaker was a youth. He had some impression of this boy, and he truly was one of the Awakened of the shelter. But after some small conversation, the bearded man had realized that this youth wasn’t of the same mind as his group, so he had swiftly put the boy aside.

He hadn’t expected this youth to step forward at this time.

The announcement had clearly stated that anyone joining the patrol team had to go out to hunt demonized beasts, and they also had to obey the commands given by the terrifying Ironface Roger, against which resistance was hopeless. The only choice was to obey, and if they needed to fight against demonized beasts, the patrol team would probably be on the front line and be the first to be endangered.

Even so, he wanted to join the patrol team?

Was he in his right mind?!

It wasn’t just Lu Xiaopeng. The bearded man watched in disbelief as several other survivors applied to join the patrol team—not just Awakened, but ordinary survivors too.

The bearded man didn’t get it.

Lu Xiaopeng berated, “A person like you can’t understand the power of Chief Tang and Captain Roger. Demonized beasts? They’re nothing! Only awful Awakened like you would be afraid of them. Forget it! You’re such trash that you wouldn’t understand even if I told you. Better for me to save my energy.”

The bearded man was speechless.

His face had turned dark.

I never offended this guy before, right? But this youth had spat all over his face, and he could neither dodge nor resist with that mining automaton still staring at him. His complexion was starting to pale.

After so many twists and turns, by the time everything had settled down, the survivors had come to grow more confident in the shelter.

At this time, the survivors who had served the traitorous Awakened were trembling in fear. Their masters had been taken care of in the blink of an eye, so what would happen to them? They were filled with both despair and regret.

This was Tang Yu’s goal: removing these people harboring ill intentions while squeezing the last bit of value out of them.

It was perfect.

Of course, he knew that if he wanted to make this place into a real shelter, for the survivors to have a sense of belonging, he still needed to put in some work, but he was in no rush. In any case… there was plenty of time.

Without these troublemaking Awakened, the registration process went very smoothly. The majority of survivors chose to become residents, and a small minority did not, perhaps because they lacked trust in the shelter or didn’t like being restricted. However, at least they obediently registered with their name, age, and other basic information.

In truth, they had been scared out of their wits.

Once the registration was done, the work was assigned.

Other than the usual moving team, there was also a construction team and a farming team, which was the smallest of the teams.

No matter which work team one was assigned to, the benefits increased, but food was still distributed according to one’s performance.

There was currently a lack of administrators. Tang Yu planned to divide the survivors into teams of three to four people, with the performance evaluations carried out per team.

The teams weren’t randomly distributed, but based on how the survivors had performed in the past. Diligent workers were placed together with people who liked to slack off.

They were better off than the ordinary survivors who had followed Ding Qiang’s group.

Tang Yu had used Ding Qiang and his group as examples to cow the others, but there was no need to waste the ordinary survivors. He divided them into three teams. As punishment, these people received greatly reduced benefits. Unless they worked themselves to the bone, they would grow hungry. As for whether or not they would slack off, if they didn’t want to go hungry, they would have to keep a close eye on each other.

On the other end…

Chen Haiping was just calling up several trustworthy survivors to assign them work.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.

Chen Haiping paled.

He was far too familiar with this sensation. He had felt it only a few days ago.

Tang Yu spoke. “Have the survivors withdraw into the walls.”

Many of the survivors still didn’t understand what was going on or why they had to withdraw into the walls.

The trembling intensified, the debris on the ground began to vibrate, and a rumbling came from the distance.

It was a thunderous sound that resounded endlessly.

Several survivors went ghastly pale. They could already see countless figures appearing on the horizon.

These were bizarre figures in all shapes and sizes, some of them even flying. But all of these monsters shared one thing in common: they were charging straight at the shelter.

“It’s a demon flooood!”

‘Demon flood’ was the most terrifying term in the apocalypse. Numerous shelters had been wiped out by demon floods.

Quite a few survivors had only heard about demon floods, but never seen one for themselves. At the sight of this surging pack of demonized beasts, they finally understood how puny humans were in the face of this terrifying calamity!

The bearded Awakened, who had already grown pale from despair, saw the approaching demon flood and smiled. “Ha! Haha! I didn’t think that your shelter would be finished so soon!”

He knew that he wouldn’t survive, but it was fine. The sight of all those ghastly pale faces gave him joy.

He wasn’t even afraid of death!

The bearded man only now realized that he could be so courageous and daring. He raised his head, hoping to see the look on Tang Yu’s face. But he saw that Tang Yu’s face was calm, and in the calm was a hint of joy. Tang Yu tilted his head and looked over with an indescribable smile on his lips.

“Heh, you know nothing of power.”