Chapter 53: Chapter 47: Entering the Base

Before the tall man could even react, the bald driver, who had been in the driver’s seat just moments before, lunged forward.

A sharp, three-edged bayonet had appeared in his hand out of nowhere. With immense momentum, he plunged it deep into the tall man’s back.

The blade was long, piercing straight through the man’s body. Blood gushed from the wound, splattering all over Ah Lian.

Even Tang Mo, who had lived two lives, had never seen such a violent, blood-soaked scene.

But Ah Lian sat there, unnaturally calm. He just wiped the blood from his face with his hand.

"Hu Da, you’re so messy. You get my clothes dirty every time. Don’t you know water is scarce at the base right now?" Ah Lian complained to the bald driver.

The tall man’s body went limp, and the driver casually tossed it aside.

"Don’t... don’t come any closer, or I’ll kill him!" Seeing his accomplice killed so easily in a matter of seconds, the fat man holding the middle-aged man hostage completely panicked.

"Go ahead and kill him, then," the driver said nonchalantly, wiping his blade as he started walking toward the other thug.

To the fat man, his slow steps were like those of a Devil. Death was approaching, one step at a time.

"I... I’ll really do it!" The fat man’s body was trembling just as much as the middle-aged man he held hostage.

After a few seconds of hesitation, the fat man seemed to make up his mind and viciously stabbed the fruit knife in his hand into the middle-aged man’s body.

Perhaps because he was inexperienced, the fruit knife didn’t hit any vital spots. Instead, it only made the middle-aged man’s struggles more frantic.

A woman sitting nearby tightly covered her child’s eyes, while the glamorous beauty who had been with the middle-aged man shrank back, trying to make herself as small as possible.

At this point, the passengers weren’t sure who they feared more. The driver and conductor, who watched all this without a change in expression, seemed even more unsettling than the robbers.

The spattering blood didn’t slow the driver’s steps. He walked slowly but steadily to the fat man, who was trembling uncontrollably, and with a swift slash, put him out of his misery.

Freed for a moment, the middle-aged man beside him quickly clutched his wound and scrambled away from the robber’s body.

"Hey, need bandages and medicine? I’ll trade you for that case in your hands." The driver pointed at the case the middle-aged man was still clutching.

Clearly, he’d been coveting that case for a while.

"Okay, okay! I’ll trade! I’ll trade!"

His eyes filled with reluctance, the middle-aged man slowly loosened his grip and pushed the case forward.

Even a fool would know there was no way he could keep the case now.

The driver seemed pleased with the man’s sensible decision. He snatched the case, pulled some gauze and other supplies from his pocket, and tossed them on the floor.

He turned and went back to the driver’s seat, started the engine, and pulled away—all in one smooth motion, as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Ah Lian had slung his bag over his shoulder again and was counting his "tickets," showing no sign of having just survived an attack.

Perhaps Tang Mo had made too good of an impression on Ah Lian, or perhaps her calm reaction had been too hard to ignore.

Ah Lian turned his head, gave Tang Mo a harmless-looking smile, and patiently offered an explanation.

"In our line of work, we run into things like this almost every day. We’re used to it. Nothing to be surprised about."

Tang Mo nodded. ’In this day and age, anyone who can run a bus line is definitely no ordinary person.’

’People’s hearts aren’t what they used to be. Morality, justice... those things vanished long ago. Without some real power, who would dare to earn money like this?’

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"They weren’t good people, either. Did you catch that stench on them? It’s the smell of our own kind. People these days... they’ve gone mad just trying to survive."

Ah Lian didn’t spell it out, but Tang Mo understood.

’In these days of scarcity, people will eat anything to survive. Dirt, paper, cotton... or... their own kind.’

’Once someone has eaten human flesh, they can’t be called human anymore. They’re more terrifying than mutant beasts.’

’To ensure their own survival, they’ll do anything. They’re like Devils crawling out of Hell.’

Tang Mo nodded at Ah Lian to show she understood.

Ah Lian hadn’t acted during the fight, but Tang Mo made a mental assessment of the bald driver.

’His Comprehensive Attribute Value might not be as high as mine, but his Strength is definitely off the charts.’

’If it had been me,’ Tang Mo replayed the fight in her mind.

She wasn’t afraid of those two, but if she had to take them out, she couldn’t have done it as cleanly as the bald driver.

’Ah Lian hadn’t joined the fight, but judging by his composure and the driver’s deference to him, his strength is likely even greater than the driver’s.’

’In this era, people only respect the strong. That’s an ironclad rule.’

The ten-minute ride wasn’t long, and the bus soon stopped at the entrance of Huacheng Base.

"When we get off, you should come with me. I’ve been at this base for a while, so I know my way around. I can be your guide for, say, half a pack of biscuits. How about it?"

Tang Mo wasn’t sure why Ah Lian was treating her so differently from everyone else.

Tang Mo had short hair, a baseball cap pulled down over her eyes, and a grimy face. There was nothing aesthetically pleasing about her appearance.

"Alright, deal."

’She was planning to stay at this base for a while anyway and needed to find the Alliance Exchange. Meeting someone who could be a guide wasn’t a bad thing.’

The passengers got off the bus one by one before the gate of Huacheng Base.

It was still the early days of the base’s establishment. All the major bases were accepting survivors for free and even provided a certain amount of food each day.

Later on, Tang Mo knew, entering or leaving the base would cost one or two Crystal Stones.

Daily food rations would also have to be earned by completing missions.

’There’s no such thing as a free lunch.’

The glamorous beauty had already separated from the middle-aged man; the two of them were standing far apart.

After all, a man who had lost his case and was now injured was nothing more than a burden to her.

"Can the base really house this many people?" Tang Mo couldn’t help but wonder, looking at the streams of people coming and going.

Huacheng Base was just a small base. Calling it a base was a stretch; it was only about the size of two residential communities.

However, high walls had been built around the perimeter, with watchtowers at the four corners to survey the surroundings.

The gate was guarded 24 hours a day by men with guns, which gave the residents of the base a strong sense of security.

The vegetation now grew unchecked, and the ecosystem had changed dramatically. Many of the buildings inside the community were being pushed to the brink of collapse by suddenly sprouted, towering trees, and they were impossible to repair.

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