Early the next morning, while Yang Bin and the others were still catching up on sleep, the villa where Wang Ruikai had been staying erupted into absolute chaos.
The Wang family's eldest young master-dead in his own villa. This was the kind of news that would send shockwaves through the entire Wang clan.
Wang Ruikai was the Wang family's heir. An ability user, no less.
The family had placed enormous expectations on him. They hadn't even sent him to the Survival Base, instead keeping him at Jinghe Garden to continue living his cushy life.
They'd even built cages and captured zombies for him, letting him level up without breaking a sweat.
And yet, no one in the Wang family could have imagined that Wang Ruikai would be killed inside his own villa.
Wang Xuan, the family steward leading this rotation, stared at the corpses littering the floor. His vision swam. This... this was a catastrophe.
"Who the hell did this? Who would dare kill the Wang family's eldest young master!"
"Steward Wang, could it have been zombies?" a nobody beside him whispered.
"Are you blind? If zombies killed them, would the bodies still be this intact? Every single one of them took a single blow to the skull-clearly human work. Club-type weapons, smashed their heads like melons." Wang Xuan snarled.
"Club-type weapons!?"
Wang Xuan froze. His gaze drifted toward the villa not far away.
No matter how you looked at it, the people in that villa were the prime suspects.
The young master had just gone over to loot their supplies yesterday, and today he was dead. That entire group used blunt weapons. And the mutant cat they'd originally captured was gone too. Saying it wasn't them would be laughable.
Wang Xuan scrambled up to the top floor and peered toward the other villa, checking whether its occupants had returned.
One glance was all it took. The iron cage sat right there in their backyard. No further doubt needed.
"So it really was you. You dared kill the Wang family's eldest young master-you're all dead men walking." Wang Xuan's voice was ice.
"Move. We're going back to notify the Family Head. Now."
With that, Wang Xuan led his people out of the villa at a near-sprint.
Survival Base...
The Survival Base had transformed beyond recognition.
While the military conducted its frenzied sweeps of the surrounding zombie population, the base itself kept expanding.
The perimeter walls now stretched several kilometers. The enclosed area had grown more than tenfold. Population: over one hundred thousand.
The daily consumption of a hundred thousand mouths was a staggering number.
This wasn't the old world anymore. Every industry had ground to a halt. Apart from the people doing infrastructure work, everyone else just sat around waiting to be fed.
Under these conditions, class stratification emerged fast.
At the top sat the officials and those with powerful backing. They lived in premium zones, never worrying about their next meal.
Below them were the high-level evolvers. They went out regularly to hunt zombies, always managing to scavenge something edible. Hunger wasn't a concern.
Next came people with useful skills-construction workers, electricians, plumbers.
The base needed rebuilding from scratch, and these workers were in demand. The authorities compensated them with food rations, and top performers could even earn crystals.
At the bottom were ordinary people. No combat ability, no marketable skills. They survived on government handouts.
These people had it rough.
Food was scarce. Rations had already been cut from two steamed buns per meal to two steamed buns per day-just enough to keep people from dying.
They'd been ecstatic when they were first rescued. None of them expected this.
But what choice did they have? At least inside the Survival Base, they wouldn't starve to death. Outside, they wouldn't last a day.
They'd already missed their window to kill zombies.
Most of the undead out there were Tier 3 now. Even Second Orders were rare. These were ordinary people-what were they supposed to fight with?
Stay in the Survival Base. That was the only option.
Liu Yong had tried to secure more food for them. Every clearing operation brought back substantial supplies-there was no reason to keep people this hungry.
But resource allocation fell under Ma Zhongguo's authority. Liu Yong had raised the issue multiple times. Shot down every time.
Ma Zhongguo's reasoning was blunt: "You can't just look at today. You have to plan for tomorrow. These supplies might last a month-but will they last a year? Leaders think long-term."
Liu Yong had no rebuttal. He let it drop.
Two buns a day wouldn't kill anyone, but it sure as hell wouldn't fill them up either. For the bigger eaters especially, the gnawing hunger was unbearable.
People started volunteering for any work they could find. Labor became dirt cheap-a single meal bought a full day's effort.
Some women sold their bodies for food.
Their clients were the evolvers. They were the ones with surplus.
And if one of them took a liking to you-if you could stay by his side-that meant never going hungry again.
So powerful evolvers lived comfortably in the Survival Base. Very comfortably.
But they'd earned it.
When most people were too terrified to step outside and face the zombies, these people took that step.
Nine out of ten who tried died. But the ones who survived? They'd paid for their comfort in blood.
Plenty of people complained about how unfair it all was. They never stopped to consider that everything came down to their own choices.
If they'd been braver back then, maybe things would be different.
Or maybe... they'd have died long ago.
...........
Center of the Survival Base. The living room of a standalone house.
Wang Zhenhong sat with Ma Zhongguo, deep in discussion.
A man burst through the door.
Wang Zhenhong's brow creased.
"I thought I made myself clear. No one approaches this building without my permission."
"Family Head, something terrible has happened!" Wang Xuan's face was tight with urgency.
"What could possibly not wait until we're finished?"
"The young master is dead!!"
"What!"
Wang Zhenhong shot to his feet and seized Wang Xuan by the collar.
"Say that again."
"The young master is dead. Killed in the villa at Jinghe Garden. Wang Da, Wang Er, all of them-over ten people in that villa, all dead." Wang Xuan's voice cracked with grief.
"How!?"
Wang Zhenhong staggered back two steps.
"Ah Kai was Tier 5. Everyone in that villa was Tier 4 at minimum. How could they possibly be killed!?"
"Could a zombie horde have broken into Jinghe Garden?" Ma Zhongguo offered from the side.
"No. It was humans." Wang Xuan said with certainty.
"What!?" Wang Zhenhong grabbed his collar again, eyes boring into him. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure. And I already know who did it."
"Who!!?"
"The group living at Jinghe Garden!"
"Impossible! There are only seven of them. How could seven people take out Ah Kai and the rest?"
"The young master and his men all had their skulls caved in by blunt weapons. That group's weapons are all Barbell Rods."
"The young master raided their supplies the night before last, and the very next day this happens. And I saw the young master's iron cage sitting in their yard!"
"!!!"
"Seven people. Barbell Rods for weapons." Ma Zhongguo's eyes narrowed to slits. "You wouldn't be talking about the group I put a bounty on, would you?"
"This..." Wang Xuan glanced at Wang Zhenhong, unsure whether to confirm.
"Yes. It's them."
Wang Zhenhong was done hiding it. Right now, he wanted those people dead.
"So it really is them." Ma Zhongguo leaned back slightly. "I have to ask, Family Head Wang-why didn't you tell me sooner? If you'd come to me earlier, perhaps your young master would still be alive."
"......"
Looking for more free chapters? Visit www.skynovelvault.com to read over 5,000 free chapters and continue exploring more stories from SkyNovelVault.