NOVPUBChapter 96: Chapter 96 Trouble Occurs
Chapter 96 -96 Trouble Occurs
Gu Pan whispered to Lu Ruisheng, “Someone must have leaked information about the Inner Circle. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been wiped out so easily.”
Because she had seen before that the Inner Circle had secret sentries outside, they had Combat Power inside and shouldn’t be so easily defeated. It must have been an internal betrayal.
Lu Ruisheng thought the same, “Yeah, those who have come here probably aren’t short on supplies. It’s too hot outside, and the Inner Circle is located at the foot of the mountain, with water sources and basements. It’s indeed a good choice.”
“Yeah, those lacking supplies wouldn’t come here. The fuel cost for going in and out is high, so these people must not be short on supplies.”
“With so many people not short on supplies, and not the kindly sort, we probably can’t stay here for long.”
“We originally planned to make do until we could join a base. I thought we would hear news about bases recruiting within a month.”
“Let’s see what happens. This place is fairly comfortable even when it’s extremely hot. So if it’s just a matter of paying a protection fee, there’s no need for us to leave. Just keep a low profile.”
“Yeah, let’s see what happens first, and see if they’re killing the innocent inside the Inner Circle. If the situation is bad, we’ll retreat immediately.”
“Okay, let’s observe first.”
After their quiet discussion, they stopped talking.
The gunfire from the Inner Circle didn’t last long, just about twenty minutes, and then it quieted down.
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng returned to the room and, through walkie-talkies, asked everyone to retreat to their rooms for a meeting, leaving only Chen Lang to keep watch.
After everyone had returned, Gu Pan spoke first, “Let’s see what happens. If it’s just a matter of paying a protection fee, then we’ll stay here a while longer. After all, finding a new base is not easy. Plus, this place is by the mountains and has a basement; it’s more comfortable than other places. After all, we’re not short on supplies.”
Chen Shaonan agreed, “And our belongings are all nearby. If we haven’t found a new base yet, it is too dangerous to move out with so much food. Even if we’re not moving, we still need to look for a new base during this time.”
Lu Ruisheng said, “Indeed, we should keep as low a profile as possible. They’ve just been through a war and they probably won’t pose much of a threat to us.”
Although Gu Pan knew that a base would soon be recruiting, there was no news from the outside at the moment. They were together all day, so she could not speak of things she knew from her previous life, as this would only make others more suspicious of her.
Of course, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng had a plan in mind, their Space allowed them to stay inside for 24 hours, so they weren’t really worried about any accidents. As long as the two of them stayed together, they could just enter the Space if anything happened.
But they still needed to consider the safety of their companions. So the primary goal was to ensure everyone could safely reach the base together. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
Through the walkie-talkies, Lu Ruisheng, Chen Shaonan, and Feng Zhekai continued to analyze the situation. In short, they were to observe and then head out at night to look for a new location. If things went south, they were ready to move immediately.
After a while, Chen Lang called everyone through the walkie-talkie, “The people from the Inner Circle have been driven out.”
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng quickly went up to the rooftop and looked through binoculars to see the people from the Inner Circle coming out with their belongings, old and young alike, looking very dismal.
Old Master Lin walked at the very front with a cane, with Lin Ran and his wife on either side of him, Lin Feifei and Lin Mengmeng following behind them.
Behind them were families, more than a dozen in total, with the elderly and children. There weren’t many injured, so it seemed like the Inner Circle had surrendered directly.
Gu Pan could guess this outcome. The folks of the Inner Circle could only intimidate the small-timers on the periphery. Without combat strength and no heavy weapons, their ability to respond to an attack was virtually nil.
However, seeing these people led Gu Pan to a conclusion: those who occupied the Inner Circle didn’t kill indiscriminately; they just drove everyone out. This gave Gu Pan and her group some idea of what to expect. They didn’t need to rush to move; of course, it was still necessary to look for a new place to live. In case something went wrong, they would have a fallback location. But they were still not keen on giving up the basement and the water source on the mountain. If it was just about paying a protection fee, it wasn’t a deal-breaker. After all, it was just about holding out for a month, waiting for news from the base. Once they had coordinates, they would leave immediately.
Because there were many vacant houses on the periphery, it was easy for these people to find a place to settle, and they each found unoccupied houses on the periphery to inhabit.
Originally, there were empty houses spaced out between each occupied one, but now they were all suddenly crammed together, with hardly any empties left.
At this time, no one in this villa area could sleep, all afraid of some sudden change.
Gu Pan and her group were just as vigilant, closely monitoring the situation outside.
Old Master Lin and his family settled next door to Yuan Jiang’s, which was also adjacent to the house where Cheng Yang and Chen Lang lived.
As Gu Pan and her group were on the outermost edge, they remained unaffected.
It was daylight, so many households were stealthily peeking out from their windows, and by this time, they likely understood the situation.
Seeing those who had lived well in the Inner Circle being driven out, those who lived modestly felt a bit of relief; now everyone was the same. Otherwise, seeing those on the inside clean and well-fed, not having to go out for supplies, there was envy.
Of course, some now felt a sense of crisis: If these armed people have occupied the Inner Circle now, would they come to rob their supplies next?
But for the moment, they dared not flee; if they didn’t dare to go out, how could they dare to run?
Soon, two men emerged from the Inner Circle, dressed in camouflage vests, wearing sunglasses and with camouflage scarves wrapped around their heads, and guns holstered at their waists.
The bearded man walking in front led the way, holding a megaphone and shouting to both sides, “This place is now occupied by the Wild Wolf Team. We won’t kill the innocent and will protect you, though we will collect a certain protection fee. But we’ll ensure your safety. Don’t panic, and don’t even think about running away. Running away is betrayal, and traitors have only one path: death. Besides, it’s the same everywhere else; every place has been occupied. If you don’t pay a protection fee, you could get stabbed in your sleep. Frankly speaking, it’s harder to survive out there. If you want to live, obey us, and we’ll let you survive.”
The message was clear: they had been occupied and would now have to pay a protection fee, and they couldn’t escape.
But what they said was also true; nowadays, it was tough to survive anywhere outside, and almost everywhere had been occupied. It would be difficult for these people to survive if they left, staying here wasn’t much different, and leaving their homes wasn’t a good option.
Moreover, those people had never experienced anything like this; a simple scare from these men and they barely dared to even think about running away.
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng exchanged looks before asking, “How much do you think the protection fee will be?”
Lu Ruisheng said, “These people were able to kill their way in, proving their combat power. At a time like this, they aren’t coming here with supplies out of goodness, so the protection fee won’t be low.”
“We’ll just follow what everyone else does. Muddle along for a month, then another month, and the temperature will drop and we should be moving to the base.”
“That’s good, but we still need to go out tonight and find a spot we can move to at any moment.”
“Indeed, it’s always good to be prepared.”
“I’ll let everyone know to take turns sleeping tonight before we go out.”
“Okay.”
Having agreed, they shared their plan with everyone over the walkie-talkie.
Everyone agreed, they would all rest in turns, definitely going out tonight.
Meanwhile, inside the Lin family’s new dwelling, Lin Feifei looked around the house, which was dilapidated due to the good furniture and items having mostly been taken by others, and it had long been unoccupied. She subconsciously covered her nose, her face showing disgust.
Old Master Lin saw her covering her nose and criticized her, “We’ve got nothing now, don’t you understand? In the future, you’ll have to go out and scavenge for food too, you might even have to fight rats for a steamed bun. If you don’t grow up, you’ll just be waiting to die; when will you get wise?”
