Sitting around a large wooden table in a dining room decorated with enough luxuries to allow a person to build a whole house if they were to sell them in the past, a group of seven people was enjoying all kinds of delicacies while chatting with each other.
On the table were different kinds of dishes; there were cold dishes, hot dishes, and the variety ranged from meat soup to stir-fried and sautéed vegetables. Such a food lineup might not have meant much a month ago, but today only leaders of powerful factions or people with enough power to explore cities or villages unexplored by anyone else could enjoy it.
In fact, much of this food came from supplies in the village formerly owned by Kang Rong.
After Lu Xiaoyao proposed the idea of helping Bai Zemin with the construction of a school for children and a military academy for teenagers students, everyone moved to the dining hall where lunch for the day had been served under the guidance of a maid.
One thing that Bai Zemin had noticed as they sat down at the table was that except for those who were still busy with different tasks, all the maidens of the village were lined up on the sides of the table. While such a thing was normal among the ancient nobility, Bai Zemin was not too pleased with such a thing as it would make these women look more like slaves than employees.
Therefore, under his direct order, all the maidens retired to the kitchen where they could have their own lunch without having to wait for the leaders to finish. It was true, however, that everything necessary had already been served and prepared so their presence was not necessary.
While eating, the group chatted about base matters and Lu Yan gave many ideas to Bai Zemin on how to take control of the troops more easily besides expressing his full support. However, what surprised Bai Zemin the most was that Lu Yan's daughter, Lu Xiaoyao, was really smart.
This barely 18-year-old girl was quite proud of herself and it showed in her face and eyes, which from Bai Zemin's point of view made no sense since everything she had been and still was provided by her father. However, perhaps his display of strength affected her, or perhaps she was affected after comparing herself to women like Shangguan Bing Xue or Nangong Lingxin that she seemed to mature a bit, and finally began to analyze things logically, bringing out her own potential.
After conversing for about twenty minutes on the matter of the children's school and the military academy, during which time they discussed the personnel needed, the fields most needed, and those that did not need to be implemented in this new world, as well as the salary the workers would receive, the group proceeded to eat calmly while Lu Yan carefully explained the number of troops he controlled and the amount of firearms his faction possessed.
"Currently under my command, there are approximately 346 armed men. But only roughly 70 of them could be considered somewhat proficient in gun control, and that only applies to smaller caliber weapons without so much recoil power." Lu Yan thought for a moment before continuing, "During the clearing of Tinyuan Town, the bloody exit road we had to force open to escape from the seemingly endless wave of zombies, as well as the clearing of different surrounding minor villages up to the clearing of the current base in conjunction with Kang Rong's forces, many talented police officers died."
"I see." Bai Zemin nodded with an unperturbed expression.
That many people would die or be infected in the process of clearing areas to open a bloody path to flee or when exploring areas for supplies was completely natural. Therefore, Bai Zemin understood that Lu Yan was forced to recruit men from among the rescued survivors just as happened with Kang Rong's side.
In fact, these survivors were more than willing to take a gun in their hands as only power could make them feel safe. But even if it was only for food pay no one in their right mind would say no if presented with the opportunity to join the main forces of a faction.
"What are the most powerful weapons you have right now?" Bai Zemin asked and after a moment added, "Also, what about ammunition? You must have an approximation of how long it will last at the current rate, don't you?"
"The most powerful weapon we have at the moment would be the Type 79 assault rifle, and we only have around 20 of those. A good deal of the arsenal was lost during the breakout on day 1 as we had no way to carry everything and due to the chaos that had broken out inside the station the time was getting tight. By the time we got back to the station after things had calmed down a bit and the troops had gained some order, all the weaponry was gone... Probably other survivors took it with them." Lu Yan sighed.
The Type 79 assault rifle was a rather old gun and was based on the Soviet AK-47. There was no doubt that it was a powerful firearm, however, it was a rather outdated one when compared to weapons developed in modern times.
Still, the Type 79 assault rifle was more than enough to take out zombies and could even break through the defenses of many mutated beasts with no problem, being able to actually pierce the shells of level 15 monsters; not to mention its dissuasive power against humans.
"As for ammunition..." Lu Yuan grimaced and continued, "I'd say we have about 3/10 of the total we had left during day 1... The number of zombies and mutant beasts we've killed to clear different areas and to protect the base easily exceeds 60,000 even if we leave aside the 100,000 plus that the soul evolvers killed. Besides, it is basically impossible for an armed man to kill an enemy with a single shot. At the current rate, I'd say within a week and a half at the most we'll be out."
When those present heard Lu Yan's revelation that had practically no reservations, they all had different reactions but with dark feelings weighing on their hearts.
"That's... That's pretty bad." Nangong Yi wanted to force a smile but even that he couldn't do. He felt his appetite shut down despite the delicacies before him and put down his chopsticks as he sighed heavily.
Lu Xiaoyao stood in shock as she looked at her father with wide eyes. This was the first time she had spoken to him about such serious matters, but it was hard for her to believe that the huge stock of ammunition strictly controlled by her father could actually only last for less than half a month at most.
What were they going to do without ammunition? Even though the North Camp had approximately 100 soul evolvers in total, it was far from enough to fight off the zombies and the even more terrifying mutant beasts. It was impossible for 100 people to protect the safety of over 3000 unless these hundred were incredibly powerful compared to the enemies, reaching a level where they could ignore the difference in numbers.
The more time Lu Xiaoyao spent in this house talking about really important and serious matters, the more she realized that her previous sense of security and confidence was nothing but nonsense; little cardboard houses waiting to be blown down by the winter wind that was approaching faster than it really seemed.
Bai Zemin sighed as he listened to Lu Yan. He too put down his chopsticks and rested his elbows on the table before starting to rub his temples with moderate intensity.
Things were actually worse than he expected.
Since his family was in the south more than 2000 kilometers away from the Beginning Village, Bai Zemin's main goal was to move in a southerly direction. He simply had no interest in staying here in the North Camp nor did he intend to move northward; at least not temporarily.
Therefore, Bai Zemin's idea was to move the over 3000 survivors to the Beginning Village. Then, he would conquer Baiquan Camp in the southern area, right in between Yanqing District and Changping District, and then use this camp as a central base to gradually clear the rest of the way south until finally reaching Yangfang Town, the small town where his family lived.
However, moving over 3000 survivors was too risky and time-consuming. If he wanted to do it right, Bai Zemin would need at least three weeks of time and even a full month.
Unfortunately, the ammunition scarcity had hit him hard at an unanticipated time.
Bai Zemin raised his head and looked at Shangguan Bing Xue before calmly asking, "Do you know where Evangeline is? I haven't seen her for a while."
"Considering the time you woke up, I think it's normal that you haven't seen her." Shangguan Bing Xue replied indifferently before shrugging her shoulders slightly and saying, "She went out early somewhere and said she would be back in the afternoon."
Bai Zemin directly ignored the first part and nodded, "I see..."
Then, he stood up and walked to the back of the villa.
"Where are you going?" Nangong Lingxin stood up and asked uncomprehendingly.
"To the basement, you guys can go on without me if you wish." He replied without looking back and soon disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
The rest looked at each other before standing up and following him. Although most didn't say so, the truth was that the ammunition business had taken everyone's appetite and they were no longer in the mood to sit comfortably.
* * *
Bai Zemin soon arrived at the basement of the villa, followed by Shangguan Bing Xue, Lu Yan, and the rest soon after.
The basement was considerably large, about 80 square meters. It also had good lighting, which made things even easier.
Seeing the things inside the basement, Nangong Lingxin was dumbfounded and Lu Xiaoyao gasped for air.
"Wow..." Nangong Yi whistled excitedly.
Stacked neatly in the corners next to the walls lined with damp-proof paper were hundreds and hundreds of large bags. Bai Zemin had already opened some of them so everyone could see a vast amount of food inside.
1-kilogram bags of rice, packets of instant noodles, canned food, no less than 500 liters of pure bottled water, etc. There was even a rather large freezer with mutant beast meat inside.
"So much food." Shangguan Bing Xue frowned and the disgust in her eyes reached new heights as she looked at Kang Rong, who was tied to a pillar.
With all the food here, the situation of the survivors wouldn't be so bad if Kang Rong was more fair. It was obvious that most of what he found during his forces' expeditions was kept for himself with no intention of caring even for young children like Xiang Feng.
Such behavior was something Shangguan Bing Xue detested from the depths of her soul. She was cold, indifferent, but she did not see herself as such a heartless person as to watch another person starve to death if she herself had too much.
Even Lu Yan was surprised. Although he also diverted some of the supplies his faction found and saved them for emergencies, the amount of food here was easily five times what he had in the basement of his own villa.
"As expected from the senior pig surnamed Kang!" Lu Xiaoyao sneered mercilessly. "Clearly he hasn't been storing the right stuff in the food storage."
After almost being sexually abused by Kang Hong and narrowly escaping, Lu Xiaoyao hated the Kang family to the bone and wanted nothing more than to see them disappear from the face of the earth. She would lose no opportunity to kick Kang Rong now that he had fallen to relieve even a little bit of the hatred in her heart.
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Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3