066 Big Pot! Don’t Move Randomly! -2

As the simple-minded man spoke, Wang Chen and the others truly realized how little they understood about the chaotic apocalypse. After all, from the moment the Science Expedition ship landed to their arrival at the Shanghai military camp, the Zero Eight Squad had always relied on their weapons and superior military training to navigate dangers unscathed. Once they left the camp, they roamed freely, armed with special forces support and a large cache of military supplies “gifted” by the camp—especially that armored vehicle. Whether speeding on highways or moving through zombie-infested towns, as long as they didn’t act recklessly, they could come and go at will. Wherever the heavy machine gun was aimed, no formidable obstacle appeared. Naturally, they had not witnessed the deeper tragedies, darkness, filth, bloodshed, or the most corrupt depths of the human heart.

So, no matter how hard the Zero Eight Squad racked their brains, they could never have guessed that the people they were about to face stood in direct opposition to legal order, even against normal society itself—individuals inherently antagonistic to government representatives like the Zero Eight Squad.

They were criminals.

And not just criminals, but hardened felons.

“My real name is Tian Maocai. I was sentenced to seventeen years for fraud that led to someone's death. The amount involved was huge, and the circumstances were severe. The ‘Qing Brother’ who just spoke with me isn’t the leader of our group. The real leader is Old Tian, a fellow villager whom I met in prison. I’m not as notorious as he is; the less attention scammers draw, the better. But Old Tian is different—back in the day, he and his three brothers were bullies in our village. He ran a nightclub in town and kept hostesses there. Later, he got involved in real estate and construction, with his three brothers as his aides. Two years ago, a demolition went wrong, sparking a violent clash with villagers that left seven or eight dead, including an elderly woman who was burned alive. At that time, the authorities were cracking down hard, and their powerful backers fell. Old Tian’s third brother was sentenced to death, Old Tian himself had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, and the other two brothers got twenty-year terms…”

Tian Maocai didn’t dare fabricate further and laid out everything he knew in detail.

When the pandemic suddenly broke out, prison guards and inmates in the maximum-security prison rapidly died in large numbers. Many guards sought to see their families one last time before succumbing, which led to the entire prison system collapsing. The maximum-security prisoners unaffected by the disease easily escaped. Ironically, over the past decade, prisons had improved labor reform, personnel management, and living conditions significantly. These felons lived regular lives, ate well, and worked moderately. Unless they actively sought death, most were in better physical condition than civilians of the same age. Coupled with strict anti-epidemic measures in maximum-security prisons, these criminals actually survived at a rate several percentage points higher than ordinary civilians outside.

Old Tian and his two brothers were all violent offenders with blood on their hands. They were incredibly tough and none succumbed to the disease. After escaping with other maximum-security prisoners, they naturally became the leaders of this band of criminals. Of course, not everyone accepted this; for instance, the man who communicated with Tian Maocai, nicknamed the Green Tiger, was a violent robber and murderer. Though he was strong, he was outnumbered and reluctantly accepted Old Tian’s leadership, remaining subordinate.

Old Tian was indeed bold. On the fourth day after the outbreak, less than twenty-four hours after leaving prison, he led a counterattack to retake the prison. Perhaps “counterattack” was not the exact term—he gathered forty or fifty maximum-security prisoners and returned to the prison, using their familiarity with the environment to avoid corpse-filled areas and managed to seize dozens of riot gear sets belonging to the guards.

With that equipment, Old Tian quickly established dominance. Within days, he had intimidated and kidnapped two or three hundred civilians to serve as slaves for his pleasure. Every day, groups of felons were forced to escort civilians to various town locations to gather supplies. Any resistance was met with beatings or worse—those displeasing were killed outright or bound and thrown to the relatively few zombies for a gruesome end.

Of course, Old Tian knew that excessive exploitation would be self-defeating, so he instituted certain rules. For example, more supplies collected meant a half-day’s rest or the choice of a woman for sex, effectively “motivating” the civilians. Relying on these civilians, Old Tian acquired a satellite communication device. Among the felons were many capable individuals, and they successfully connected the device. Soon after, Old Tian learned the exact location of the Zero Eight Squad’s base. He immediately assigned fraudsters like Tian Maocai to guard the squad’s only access route, using their deceptive talents to infiltrate Granny Hao’s group and act as insiders within the base.

That was the situation.

“If you ask me, bandits don’t fight the government! Yes, within a hundred kilometers, you’re the only government outpost. If it falls, Old Tian will run rampant. But…” Tian Maocai trailed off when he noticed Wang Chen ominously raising an axe. He quickly swallowed his next words, realizing these people were no fools and that his subtle flattery could backfire. He decided to speak plainly.

“Now, with no phone signals, Old Tian’s people think the government is completely gone. To survive, they cling to strongmen like him. So he fears… fears that when his men go collect supplies, they might encounter your patrol or other civilians carrying your news. If word leaks out, a few dozen felons won’t be able to control hundreds of civilians. Even if civilians dare not resist, once you get wind of it, you’ll likely come after Old Tian. And Old Tian’s ambitions go far beyond ruling a few hundred people. So… he definitely wants to eliminate you, to prolong his reign until the pandemic ends and to buy himself time and resources to escape.”

“I see. Can you point out his current location on a map?”

“Yes, no problem. But that address is from three days ago. I don’t know if Old Tian has moved since.”

As Tian Maocai said, satellite imagery reviewed by Yang Xiaohua showed no signs of human activity at that site for at least three hours.

Having said all he could, Tian Maocai waited anxiously for his fate.

Wang Chen believed about seventy to eighty percent of what Tian Maocai said, doubting only the charges against him. Killing this man would be justified. If Granny Hao were here, she would say Tian Maocai was an enemy agent infiltrating the people and must be eliminated. Yet there was also reason to spare him—to use him to feed false information to Old Tian. Wang Chen glanced at Fang Qiang, who shrugged, implying it was up to him. Wang Chen then looked at Ma Tian, who showed no objection.

Since that was the case, Wang Chen decided to entrust Tian Maocai’s life or death to someone else.

Sheng Qingru.