Half a kilogram of white rice was enough for a family to eat for a whole week if diluted with water to make gruel. Paying such an amount to park a vehicle was a bit too expensive. Moreover, according to Mei Lin, they were only willing to pay five kilograms of rice for the vehicle which was equivalent to only ten days of parking.
Of course, five kilograms of rice was a large amount of food nowadays. A normal family would not have to worry about starving for a long time at least. Besides, maintaining a vehicle in this new chaotic era was considered extremely expensive as most of the fuel in the surrounding area had been collected by the high command of the camp, and if one wanted to find some fuel, one would have to go deep into unexplored cities, towns, or villages; which meant a high probability of dying.
Although half a kilogram of white rice per day was basically a steal, Bai Zemin and his group did not plan to stay here for a long time. In fact, the reason he was not attacking yet was due to two major factors.
1) Shangguan Bing Xue had said earlier that she wanted to see what the two camps set up by the government forces were like. Only then would she judge whether she would really follow in Bai Zemin's footsteps or not.
2) If Bai Zemin and his group launched an all-out attack without regard for the consequences, many innocent people would be involved. While he did not consider himself a saint and his hands were stained with the blood of over a hundred human beings, he was not a killer lunatic either. If he could prevent the death of those not involved, he would gladly do so.
Unwilling to sell the car, Bai Zemin shook his head and said bluntly, "We are not selling the jeep. We will keep it and pay the parking fee."
Mei Lin's eyes flashed strangely. She nodded and pointed calmly, "In that case, you two follow my colleague, and the two ladies come with me."
Bai Zemin and the other three looked at each other before parting.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Nangong Lingxin followed Mei Lin.
Bai Zemin and Nangong Yi followed the man who had so far remained silent.
Although they were separated, the truth was that both parties entered a different room and that was it.
After entering a simple-looking room inside the building from which the two government officials had previously walked out, Bai Zemin noticed that there were already two other men present and both were armed but their guard was down to the point where their Type 54 pistols were resting comfortably at their waists.
The man in formal clothes pointed to a wooden table and said, "My name is Wen Ru. You are welcome to put your items on the table. We will inspect them to make sure there are no objects belonging to the Soul Record."
"What?" Bai Zemin furrowed his eyebrows slightly and asked.
Wen Ru looked at him and explained calmly and nonchalantly, "You are not allowed to bring firearms inside the base. All firearms will be confiscated and handed over to the superiors while you will receive compensation in return in the form of food. All equipment or treasures coming from the Soul Record system must be handed over to the base. Otherwise, it will be considered a serious violation of concealment of goods and weapons."
Although Nangong Yi had explained it to him before, hearing it by himself really surprised Bai Zemin a lot. By removing the items from the Soul Record system of the soul evolvers, the government would undoubtedly have more control over these new rising powers. However, the consequence was to generate great unpleasantness and in case they encountered a reckless madman they could end up in big trouble.
Such a thing did not happen inside Bai Zemin's Beginning Village as he used the carrot and stick trick to lure the soul evolvers to his side to fight for him and obey him. In that way, Bai Zemin could control the entrance and exit of treasures carefully.
Such an idea was proposed by Lili and everyone felt it was a pretty good way to avoid so much trouble. Instead of binding the soul evolvers, what Bai Zemin's group did was to limit them and shortly thereafter demonstrate to them the only way they could break those limitations.
Bai Zemin looked at Nangong Yi and nodded. The two put down the backpacks they were carrying on the table and stepped back.
The two armed men grabbed one of the bags and opened it. However, when they saw the contents of the bag, both men couldn't help but be shocked.
"Sweet cookies, milk cartons, candies, sweet drinks, chocolates... Damn! There are even some cartons of cigarettes in here!" one of them cursed as he rummaged through the contents.
"Hahaha! To think that someone chose all these luxuries over real food!" The other laughed out loud as he scrubbed his hands together. His eyes glittered with greed.
The job of receiving the survivors was actually quite good as the attendants could fish for diverse articles. In fact, these men made a small fortune every day when new survivors arrived.
A lot of useless mobs. Bai Zemin thought and his eyes flashed coldly. He naturally understood the thoughts of the two armed men. But before he could say anything or do anything, a somewhat anxious yell stopped the two men.
"Assholes! Get your pig's feet out of there!" Wen Ru jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on and kicked the two men in the butt directly.
The two armed men were astonished and looked at Wen Ru strangely.
What was wrong with him now? This was not the first time they had colluded for profit but now he was acting so scared.
Wen Ru ignored the glares of the two armed men and looked back into the bag in front of him while audibly swallowing saliva.
"Three big bags of rice, no less than thirty packets of noodles, flour, spices, canned chicken and fish..." Wen Ru muttered to himself. This was the first time he had encountered a group that had so much food with them!
Such a quantity of supplies was something only the high officials inside the base could dream of. A small government official like Wen Ru could never come into contact with such things.
But what really shocked and frightened Wen Ru the most was the meat that was stuffed in one corner of the bag.
"Mutated beast meat..." He muttered under his breath but due to the silence inside the room, everyone heard him clearly.
In the past, just by coincidence, Wen Ru arrived at the house of a high official inside the base to report some matters. It turned out that it was dinner time and that high official's family was having dinner, so after receiving the invitation from the other party, Wen Ru agreed to join the dinner.
It was then that he saw the most perfect meat he had ever seen in his life. As for the taste... The taste was heavenly and the hot rushes that traveled through his body with every bite still remained fresh in Wen Ru's mind. Even to this day she occasionally dreamed of tasting that meat again.
When he saw the mutated meat, Wen Ru immediately recognized it and realized that the people he was dealing with this time were not people that someone like him could afford to offend.
After all, only those who were really strong could hunt mutated beasts. Even the weakest mutated beast had enough strength to decimate a team of ten armed men if it wasn't hit on the head.
Wen Ru slowly turned around and looked at Bai Zemin and Nangong Yi. His voice was extremely cautious as he asked, "Two... Two gentlemen... You could be... You two are soul evolvers...?"
Since the opportunity to avoid trouble presented itself before him, Bai Zemin took it with great pleasure.
Suddenly, under the astonished eyes of Wen Ru and the two armed men, the young man in front of them vanished.
While looking intently all around, Wen Ru felt his shoulder being tapped behind him. Even without turning around he already knew who it was... Because the two armed men froze in place as they looked behind him with their eyes wide open.
Wen Ru turned around, but there was no one there.
A deep voice sounded in front of him, "In fact, the two of us are soul evolvers."
When Wen Ru turned his head forward again, he was almost scared to death to see the young man from before standing in the same place he was standing before he disappeared.
Wen Ru's legs felt weak and he nearly fell to the ground as did the two armed men.
Such an ability to disappear under the eyes of so many people... Such ghostly speed...
Unconsciously or not, Wen Ru touched his neck and swallowed heavily.
Fortunately... Fortunately we didn't offend these two people! Wen Ru rejoiced beyond words.
Although he had some position in the base, he was only one of the lowest rungs. If a soul evolver with mysterious skills wanted to deal with a small role like him, even if someone investigated his death later they would most likely find nothing; and even if they found the murderer it would be of no use as Wen Ru himself would already be dead!
* * * * * * *
Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3