Chapter 410 - Prelude
-The next day.
Before the first rays of sunlight had even risen, some of the soul evolvers who were used to waking up early to go out and hunt some zombies were already up and out of their tents to do their morning training.
From the moment it was discovered that even zombies could generate a Soul Stone in their heads even though the odds were much lower compared to beasts, all the soul evolvers tried to earn some extra money.
For example, 1 Unclassified Soul Stone could be exchanged at the base for 1 red cupon. In other words, as long as you had the courage and hunted enough zombies you could earn extra income by selling those Soul Stones that were useless to them except to improve some skills occasionally.
Most soul evolvers had a few passive skills and very few possessed more than two active ones. After all, obtaining skill scrolls from low level monsters was getting harder and harder and so the difficulty of acquiring runes increased tremendously.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, level 8 zombies were basically mutations among mutations. However, now the majority of zombies were level 8-9. The speed at which zombies grew under the growth of the world itself was undoubtedly frighteningly fast.
At the same time, if before a level 8 or 9 zombie had a high chance of dropping a skill scroll, those chances were now a lot lower, if not nil. After all, it was basically impossible for a normal human to defeat a creature eight or nine levels above them. This was because, slowly but surely, the zombies were starting to get faster.
They were still somewhat manageable if one was careful, but it was no longer as easy as it was two months ago.
While the soul evolvers could sell Soul Stones to the base in exchange for food coupons, which were basically the faction's currency at the moment, the armed soldiers couldn't do such a thing. After all, the guns and ammunition belonged to the base and not to them; they could not just take the guns and bullets to do whatever they pleased. Another thing that limited them was that all the loot obtained in working hours belonged to the base; this was a very severe rule that had to be respected or otherwise one would not only lose their privileges, titles, and even the housing granted by the government but would also be blacklisted from ever getting anything from the base ever again.
With such severe punishments, everything went smoothly.
It was about 6:20 in the morning when Bai Zemin opened his eyes. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Bai Zemin stepped out of the tent and noticed that Wu Yijun was already supervising everything with the help of Cai Jingyi.
The two women also noticed him and smiled at the same time.
Bai Zemin approached and after returning the good morning casually asked, "Wu Yijun, when do you think we can leave?"
"In about 30 minutes should be fine." She answered after thinking about it for a moment. Wu Yijun looked at him and asked back, "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing important." Bai Zemin shook his head. "It's only been around 35 hours out of the 48 hours I promised to give the enemy camp and we are only roughly 10 hours away from reaching the vicinity of Baiquan Camp. That leaves us with 3 hours to relax a bit."
"Haha..." Cai Jingyi couldn't help but laugh ironically and pointed out, "If the enemy camp's high commanders heard your words I wonder what kind of expression they would have on their faces?"
"Although I don't know what kind of expression their faces would have, there is something else I do know." Bai Zemin replied with a faint smile.
"What is that?" Cai Jingyi asked curiously.
Wu Yijun looked at him as well, blinking her big bright eyes as she waited for his next words.
Bai Zemin smiled coldly and said with indifference, "I know that if they knew that no matter what they may do they would not be able to escape from being defeated they would obediently kneel just as I suggested they do.... Because by the time I set foot inside their camp, the vast majority of the higher ups who currently enjoy undeserved privileges by making use of past connections despite having no real power whatsoever will be sent from heaven to hell."
In the Transcendent faction established by Bai Zemin, all the higher ups possessed some sort of ability; none of them were useless trash who just relaxed without working. Even those who were not soul evolvers such as Lu Xiaoyao possessed brilliant natural skills such as management, leadership, ability to devise, knowledge about X thing, and so on.
However, even without ever having been there, Bai Zemin was sure that 90% of the top commanders of the Baiquan Camp were people who made use of the power they had possessed from before the apocalypse but in reality, probably had no real abilities at all.
By the time he had conquered the enemy territory, all those arrogant characters who were still stupidly daydreaming that they were the favorites of the world regardless of the changes would come face to face with a rude and fierce awakening that would drag them back from that dreamland they were in.
Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun looked at each other before smiling helplessly at each other. This was especially so for Wu Yijun as she was really beginning to realize that people in positions of power were really quite mediocre.
Having grown up in a government family with great power, Wu Yijun naturally had some inclination towards those chosen by the higher-ups like the president or her grandfather to occupy great positions. However, the North Camp proved to be a great disappointment, and the Baiquan Camp that was about to fall proved that they were no different from the former.
Wu Yijun only hoped that her father and grandfather were not stubborn people who only looked at the ground beneath their feet without caring if the world around them collapsed.... Because regardless of her falling in love with him, she truly believed that Bai Zemin could not be defeated unless a huge armored army surrounded him.
Of course, Wu Yijun didn't know that even though she believed she was already thinking highly of Bai Zemin; she was actually horribly underestimating him.....
But this would be proven in less than 24 hours.
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Wang Zhen was a vanguard police, leader of a team tasked with guarding the base's immediate vicinity from an observation station twenty kilometers away from Baiquan Camp.
Of course, while it was not the only duty Wang Zhen's team had, today was the day that this dangerous yet boring mission fell on his shoulders.
Why was observation a dangerous mission? This was a question with many possible answers.
For example, if a mutant beast of great power came out of the forest on a random whim, the guard team in the area would undoubtedly be decimated. After all, all the teams charged with this task carried only a few light weapons such as old machine guns, pistols, and some country shotguns. In addition, they were not provided with too much ammunition either; each soldier had about 2 magazines for their weapons apart from a small pistol with a full magazine. With such a low firepower it was impossible for a team of humans to defend themselves against a powerful mutant beast or a group of low level Unclassified.
But this was also reasonable, after all, who in their right mind would give great firepower to a group whose mission was basically to become cannon fodder to warn the main camp? Probably no sane leader.
However, there was also another purpose for the observation point mounted twenty kilometers north... This purpose was simple: to alert the base immediately of any suspicious human sightings. This was because the war between Baiquan Camp and other enemy faction was imminent.
"That bastard Bai Yong!" A police officer complained as he muttered through gritted teeth, "Just because we are unwilling to follow him actually sent us to die here!"
"Little Lu, be careful with your words." Wang Zhen scolded lightly.
"Team leader Wang! We are clearly being treated like throwaway rats!" The officer called 'Little Lu' complained this time without hiding his voice at all. "Those dogs know that the enemy is probably coming right now but they still sent us to the front with these shitty weapons that are good for nothing but killing pigs!"
The other eight members of the small vanguard team nodded at the police officer's words, and seeing this, Wang Zhen couldn't help but sigh.
This small group, as well as a few others, refused to join either Mayor Bai Yong's side or Commander Jin Shun's side since even though no one said anything everyone knew that the two men were not as righteous as they appeared to be on the surface.
For example, Mayor Bai kept two cute little foreign twins barely 14 years old in his villa. There was no need to explain that the least he wanted was to behave like an upright adult.
Commander Jin Shun had a hobby of occasionally kidnapping other men's wives. Rumors had once spread that the reason behind this behavior of his was because in the past his wife had knitted him several green hats and even his children were not really his; unfortunately, the rumors soon died with those who spread them as soon as the culprits were found.
No one dared to openly oppose the two great giants of the Baiquan Camp because the power they controlled was too great. Even if there were people like Wang Zhen who abhorred such behavior, there was nothing they could do about it as many of them still had families to worry about to let righteousness take over their actions.
Therefore, the only thing they could do was to do their job but not support any side. Even if they belonged to the police troops this did not mean that they were 100% dogs since at the very least they would never receive missions that went against their principles.
"That bitchy old bag Bai Wei! She thinks that just because that old shit of a brother of hers gave her the position of police leader she can do whatever the fuck she wants! That position should belong to Team Leader Wang since he's the only one who kept his head firmly on his shoulders among the other corrupt police station leaders!" Another policeman snorted with disdain.
"Okay, that's enough!" Wang Zhen raised his voice and looked at everyone sternly as he said in a flat voice, "Even if what certain people do is not to our liking, we have to do our duty no matter what. Not for them, but for the 20,000 innocent people behind us."
Hearing these words, they all shut their mouths even though the anger and reluctance in their gazes never completely died down. Even if they were unwilling, they all believed that at the very least they had the right and obligation to protect the weakest.
"You are an interesting bunch of people, but you are also stupid.... That's what our Legion Leader would say if he were here after listening to your conversation."
A soft voice clearly belonging to a woman sounded from the top of the watchtower built of trunks and plywood.
"Who's?!" Wang Zheng felt a shiver run down his spine as out of habit he drew his pistol from the holster and turned around in a hurry.
The other nine policemen also turned around hurriedly and pointed their guns at the intruder.
"Oh, by the way... Our Legion Leader is actually His Majesty Bai Zemin. The person in charge of leading the attack of this occasion." Cai Jingyi was sitting at the makeshift window of the small guardhouse at the top of the tower as she looked at the ten people in front of her with a small smile on her face.
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