Chapter Ninety-One: The Whirlwind Team

“Crazy Dave really was the bastard who threw these nuts,” Caslo muttered under his breath. He saw at least a hundred of them, arranged in perfect rows on the open ground beside Dave. The burly man with the frying pan was laboriously moving one nut into position in front of him, clearly intending to keep rolling them.

Noticing so many people approaching, Dave scratched at the stubble on the side of his cheek with a finger. His bulging eyes rolled about for a moment, and he stopped pushing the nuts. His gaze finally settled on the crowd.

“Hello, my neighbors! Crazy Dave is very happy to see you... Well, I’ve been defending this place for a long time, crushing zombie after zombie with these nuts, guarding your houses for you. At last, you’ve returned. See? Not a single living zombie made it into your homes. How about that? Aren’t I amazing? But you don’t need to thank me, because I am... Crazy Dave!”

The wildly erratic Dave rattled on and on. Everything about him, from his appearance and clothing to the way he spoke, was full of eccentricity. His body swayed, his expression was feverish, and he kept making sweeping gestures to lend weight to his words. His protruding eyes looked like the glassy stare of a dead fish, while his tiny pupils drifted aimlessly and irregularly, making him look exactly like a psychiatric patient in the throes of a severe breakdown.

What came out of that mouth full of rotten teeth was even more incomprehensible, like the croaking of birds. Without the Dream Badge’s translation, no one would have had any idea what he was babbling about. Fortunately, Wang Ling and the others could understand him well enough, so there was no barrier to communication.

“That bastard!”

As they made their way along the narrow path, having already dodged rolling nuts three times, the group stepped forward with dark expressions. The old Arab man walked up to one of the nuts, placed his hand on it, and inspected it through the badge. “These are indeed one-time-use items, but they’ve all been soul-bound to him. We can’t use them.”

The others also went up one by one to examine the nuts. Seeing their movements, Dave continued explaining. “The fighting plants in this town were almost all eaten by zombies... well, I call them the nasty little cuties. They devoured them like delicious pastries. Only the nuts remained, since they’re ten thousand times harder than pastries. But these warriors, who were originally rooted in the soil, had their roots dug out. They’re dead now, leaving only their corpses on the ground.”

As he spoke, Dave picked up a severed zombie leg from the ground, bit off a huge chunk of meat, and said amid the twitching faces of the others, “Don’t be surprised. I eat things off the ground. The meat of these little cuties is really fragrant... If you like, you can try it too... Hmm, where was I? Right, the nut corpses. I gathered them all together, you see, these are them! When I heard a sound from the path, I pushed over one of the nut corpses.”

Wang Ling looked at the dark gray zombie meat with green mold spots that Dave was chewing on and forced down the wave of nausea rising in his stomach. “If we’ve lost our fighting plants, what are we supposed to do when the zombies attack again?”

“Hahaha...” Dave shook his head a few times, the frying pan on top of his head swaying back and forth. He laughed loudly. “Neighbors, don’t worry! Crazy Dave never runs out of ideas! But before that, go into the house first. After I finish this delicious piece of hind leg meat, I’ll tell you what to do.”

With that, he bit off another large chunk from the severed zombie leg and began chewing on it with his uneven, rotten teeth.

Wang Ling and the others had no interest in staying to watch Dave eat zombie flesh and test the limits of their tolerance. They all went around the pile of nuts occupying most of the open space and headed toward the house assigned by the Dream Space.

In appearance, the house was basically faithful to the game: a red roof, white walls, a brick chimney, and a large yard full of grass, with a small stream running through it toward the distance. Low wooden fences stood on both sides of the yard. One side faced the front road, and the other faced the stream behind the house.

The difference from the game was mainly in scale. The house, the yard, and even the stream all covered a much larger area. Just one house occupied land equivalent to a villa, and with the yard included, it was well over a thousand square meters. If fighting plants were to be planted, their number would far exceed what the game allowed.

As for Dave, the one claiming to guard the house, the spot he was actually holding was the side of the yard, blocked by a fence... Zombies were driven by instinct and had little intelligence, but when moving forward they still sought out roads. Unless there was a massive zombie tide completely clogging the main road, no zombie would ever come in from the side.

After checking the layout of the house, all six of them had black lines over their foreheads, and they were itching to give the wasteful Dave a beating.

As the group entered the yard, the red front door of the house suddenly opened, and three dreamers walked out. One was middle-aged, the other two were young, all with Western faces and all male. The middle-aged man was powerfully built, while the two younger ones had average physiques. Their clothing was nearly identical: leather pants and leather jackets, differing only in color. The middle-aged man wore black, while the younger two wore red and brown. Long cleavers hung from the belts at their waists.

Upon seeing the six of them, the middle-aged man said impatiently, “How did you only get here now—”

He suddenly paused there, and only after a moment did the words “get here” finally leave his mouth. His expression unchanged, he looked them over and said coldly, “We are the Tornado Team. I’m Aaron, and these two are Cree and Good. We have to cooperate in this battle, or everyone dies. We’ll join forces; that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Caslo replied, “That’s right. The six of us already discussed it when we arrived on the hillside, and we formed a group. Tornado Team, do you want to join us?”

Aaron answered without showing his feelings. “Your group isn’t really a team. It’s too loose, and it wouldn’t be convenient to give orders when facing zombies. Why not temporarily join Tornado Team instead? We’re strong, and I, Aaron, have some reputation in the beginner zone. I also have experience managing a team, so I’m the best choice to lead.”

“Heh. Even if Tornado Team is strong, there are only three of you. Our group has six people, so we have the advantage in numbers. The minority should obey the majority; that seems like the more reasonable approach, doesn’t it?” Caslo replied with a smile that never reached his eyes. Once a person held the position of leader in a team, they gained enormous advantages, whether in assigning tasks or distributing loot.

Tornado Team was too domineering. The other five would certainly not want to be ruled by such a forceful group, or they would probably end up under Tornado Team’s control throughout this main mission. Caslo was confident he could secure the support of his own five people.

“Damn it, if anyone’s joining, you’re joining us!” Cree, wearing red leather, stepped forward at once and cursed. “Who do you think you are, trying to get the mighty Tornado Team to join you?”

“Heh. I, Caslo, may not have much of a reputation, but I think I’ve got some ability. Why don’t the two of us have a little contest?”

“Tornado Team has three people, and when we fight, we always fight together. A contest is fine, but are you planning to take on three of us by yourself?”

In truth, this was a struggle over team authority in this world, and both sides understood it perfectly well. Their words clashed fiercely, but the chances of them actually coming to blows were extremely slim. Caslo and Cree were not idiots, after all; sharp-tongued sparring was one thing, but once fists started flying, it would be hard to contain the situation.

The two sides were contending for control of the team in a loud argument, but Wang Ling, standing at the back, sensed that something was off.

First, there had been that pause when Aaron began speaking. Wang Ling felt that the middle-aged man had been slightly startled upon seeing him, causing that very brief lapse in speech. Second, when Cree and Good later turned their attention to Wang Ling’s face, Cree seemed to show a flash of wild joy, only to immediately start arguing with Caslo and hide the expression.

“The six of us here include Caslo, with his sturdy build and obvious air of leadership; Hassan, the Arab carrying an AK; Suna, the sexy Latina beauty; and even Cai Qing, wielding an orc club, and Yamada, with his cold, sinister air. Any of them should draw more attention than I do... Yet the three members of Tornado Team showed no reaction when they saw them, but when they looked at me, they were briefly surprised, and then immediately hid it?”

“Mini Hatsune is currently in the badge’s storage pouch, and the white-iron flintlock and the rest of the weapons have all been put away. I’m only wearing ordinary clothes from the real world. Given their reactions, there can only be one explanation: they know me!”

Wang Ling quickly ran through the possibilities in his mind. His expression did not change in the slightest, but his mind was completely tense.

After less than five minutes of argument, Caslo and Tornado Team had established a simple set of rules: the two groups would unite in this world while maintaining their own independence, and Aaron and Caslo would represent their respective teams’ leaders in democratic discussions over important decisions. Loot acquired individually would belong to the individual; loot acquired jointly would be divided according to contribution; and related tasks would be assigned according to who was best suited to carry them out.

If Tornado Team were to take full control of the group, then with their cohesion, the others would likely end up as mere hands and tools. Now that Caslo had secured a measure of speaking power, Yamada, Hassan, Suna, and the others could accept this outcome as well.

“All right, let’s each introduce our abilities so we can get to know one another,” suggested Good, who had not spoken until now. He wore brown leather and had a cold expression.

Caslo and the others briefly introduced their abilities just as they had on the hillside.

After the other five had finished, the three members of Tornado Team stood before Wang Ling. With a mocking tone, Cree said, “Kid, you’re up. Looking at how skinny you are, I doubt you’ve got much ability. Have you been getting through the previous main missions on luck? I hope you don’t end up causing us trouble during the mission.”

Wang Ling smiled slightly and was just about to speak when the three members of Tornado Team in front of him suddenly drew the long cleavers from their waists. Almost simultaneously, they hacked viciously at him together.