The First Order

Some people thought they had gotten lucky and that the face bugs would not come after them anymore. However, Ren Xiaosu knew the true danger in this disaster might not be the face bugs.

Be it the Experimentals or that terrifying monster in the volcano, they were all creatures Ren Xiaosu wanted to run away from.

Around 400 people, all of whom were refugees from town, continued escaping towards Stronghold 109. Ren Xiaosu led Xiaoyu and company to join the crowd but did not have any interactions with other people.

Many of the people could recognize Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others, but everyone was too busy fleeing to care about it.

Someone suddenly thought of something. “Say, shouldn’t there be a factory along the route to Stronghold 109?”

A buff young man said, “That’s right, there’s a sand factory over there. I’ve worked there before.”

“How many people work at that factory?”

“Around 200 people. It’s mostly the machines digging for sand in the sand fields, so there isn’t a need for too many people. But they do have a vegetable farm, so maybe we can look for something to eat over there?” Having escaped a short while ago, everyone was starting to feel a little hungry.

“Now that the stronghold is no longer standing, does it mean we can detour back to the pig farm and kill some pigs for pork?” A man said, “There won’t be anyone there to stop us anyway.”

“I wonder if the women in the stronghold are all pretty.” Someone remarked, “I’ve seen that Luo Xinyu before, and she’s particularly good-looking. Now that the people from the stronghold are in trouble…”

Ren Xiaosu sized them up. Perhaps these people thought they were no longer in danger, so they also became more relaxed.

These people weren’t really affected by those who died.

The majority of the town’s refugees were unfeeling and antisocial. On most days, it was enough if no one made things difficult for others. As such, none of them really felt sad about it when the others died.

In addition, they were even more unaffected if it were those important people in the stronghold who had died. In fact, they were probably cheering for this at heart.

Only a minority of those who had lost their families appeared to be in very low spirits at this time.

Of the 400 or so people here, slightly less than half were female. They were warily watching the men around them. Some of their husbands had just died, so they all knew what kind of danger they were in this time.

“Xiaosu, are we going to the sand plant to rest for a while?” Xiaoyu asked in worry.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “We must stay away from them when we rest at night. When danger approaches, it will surely get attracted to the largest group of people first. On top of that, these people could also become a new source of danger.”

Xiaoyu was relieved to hear that. “Mhm, we brought some food, so you don’t have to worry about the food. I know these people from town too well. They’re capable of anything.”

“OK. Of course, there’s no need to get too worried. They’re just a mob.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he looked to Yan Liuyuan and said, “Hide the gun.”

When Ren Xiaosu killed the people who were watching them, he had fired the gun. Even if it was very chaotic in town at that time, a lot of people would still have noticed.

He wasn’t worried that this mob would dare get any ideas about them. But it was still necessary to be careful in case they tried any tricks.

“The people at the sand plant might not know what happened in town. They probably felt the strong earthquake, but they won’t know that the stronghold has already fallen,” Ren Xiaosu said.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Jing Mountains, with the seismic waves spreading out several hundreds of kilometers. Ren Xiaosu was wondering if Stronghold 112 would also have collapsed since Stronghold 113 had been shaken so badly.

After all, Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 were about the same distance from the Jing Mountains.

The fleeing group of people arrived at the sand plant in the afternoon. In the end, they saw that the factory building and the workers’ dormitories had all collapsed. A large group of the sand plant workers were busy driving excavators around to clear the ruins of the factory building.

When the sand plant workers saw such a large group of people arriving, they were confused. In the end, when they heard that the stronghold was in ruins, they did not know how to react.

If the stronghold had fallen, what was the point of rebuilding the sand plant?

Most of the escapees sat on the ground. They really could not walk anymore and were planning to rest for the night here at the sand factory. At least there was food here.

Some of the people wanted to leave with Ren Xiaosu, but when they saw the majority staying behind, they stopped following him. After all, wouldn’t it be safer if everyone stayed together?

With the addition of these workers from the sand plant, the crowd had grown to around 600 people.

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t bothered by this. Instead, he had a look at the sky and continued leading Yan Liuyuan and the others forward. There was probably only two or three hours before it turned dark, but it was enough time for them to get further.

Wang Dalong was grumbling along the way, “Can’t we rest for even a bit?”

But before Ren Xiaosu could even say anything, Wang Fugui had already slapped his son upside the head. “Keep going if you’re told to! Stop complaining!”

Wang Fugui gave Ren Xiaosu a smile and said, “He’s just a kid, don’t mind him.”

“It’s fine.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. He definitely needed to remember Wang Fugui’s friendship with Yan Liuyuan and him. As such, he didn’t take Wang Dalong’s grumblings to heart.

Even if Wang Dalong kept speaking rudely, Ren Xiaosu would still get Wang Dalong to Stronghold 109.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a bit more before adding, “Let’s keep going for a little more before we find a place to rest. But each of you will have to properly rub down your muscles before fully resting. Otherwise, none of you are gonna be able to go on tomorrow. You won’t be able to get away if there’s any danger.”

This was based on Ren Xiaosu’s many years of wilderness survival experience.

At this moment, the people who were making their escape together with Ren Xiaosu sat on the ground and watched them continue off into the distance. Someone laughed and said, “Isn’t that Ren Xiaosu afraid that he’ll tire the people with him to death?”

“Wang Fugui looks pretty smart himself and has always enjoyed his status in town. But why has he decided to follow a few brats?” Someone scorned, “When I saw him leaving so anxiously at the beginning, I caught up thinking that there was still danger lurking behind us. But there isn’t even anything catching up to us!”

“Wang Fugui must’ve brought quite a bit of money with him.” A shady man whispered, “He’s been running a grocery store for so many years, so he must have taken all of his family belongings with him when he escaped.”

“And that Li Xiaoyu…”

“Don’t even think about it.” Someone said with a sneer, “Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan both have guns with them. Surely, you know that?”

“What are you afraid of? We have so many people.” Someone said unconvinced, “Why would so many of us be afraid of a gun? How many bullets can he have?”

“Oh, then are you going to attack first?”

With that, no one else made another sound. Although Ren Xiaosu had a limited amount of bullets, they only had a life each. Whoever attacked first would die.

Ren Xiaosu’s assessment of them was not wrong at all: They were just a mob.

Someone waved it off. “Don’t talk about these useless things. Let’s rest here for the night and set off again tomorrow.”

But as night fell, they suddenly heard the howling of wolves in the distance. Everyone who was resting immediately stood up and looked in the direction of the howling in fear.

They knew how scary the wolf pack was, but they never expected them to be here as well!

Based on the howls, the wolf pack was at most three to five kilometers away!

“Hurry and run! I didn’t really think that there would be danger!”

“We should have followed Ren Xiaosu and left together, fuck!”

This group of people now regretted it. But when they stood up and got ready to make their escape again, they discovered their legs had become as heavy as lead! They were aching all over their bodies!