Chapter 265 - Taking Control
After being carelessly lifted into the sky as if he were a piece of garbage, Kang Rong wanted to explode in a fit of rage. However, that fit of rage never came as when he realized that he was ten meters above the ground the fear in his heart grew to levels never seen before.
The formerly all-powerful Kang Rong, who held in his hands the power to decide who lived or who died, who controlled over two hundred armed men, and with several dozen soul evolvers listening to him, now used his two fat hands to cling for his life onto the blood chains.
For the current Kang Rong, these blood chains that were supposed to imprison him were his life insurance. After all, if he fell from a height of ten meters it would definitely be no different than saying goodbye to his little life.
Kang Rong's armed troops who were not yet present also arrived at the scene to witness such an act. Those who were confused to see the large gathering of people dressed as police officers asked what was going on and when they finally learned of the situation all of them were speechless.
Since the first shot and the warning that someone was attacking the "premium" area of the base had gone out it had only been a couple of minutes at most. These gunmen could not believe that the defense could not even hold out for 20 minutes before collapsing.
However, seeing that most of the gunmen did not dare to charge, and even the usually proud and arrogant soul evolvers now looked like obedient little lambs, no one dared to cause a stir.. All they could do was look at the 20-year-old young man standing on the blood-red stage looking down as if he was the king of heaven.
Bai Zemin looked at the hundreds of people outside the villa yard and spoke coldly, "My name is Bai Zemin. As you can see, the person next to me is your former leader, Kang Rong. I am currently the leader of a survivor base with over 2000 members south of this camp. Several days ago, a family came to my camp for protection after being chased with malicious intentions by a good-for-nothing dog named Kang Hong. It was then when I learned of the atrocities that were going on in this place."
He paused for a moment as several people could not help but begin to murmur. The surprise in the voice of these armed men and soul evolvers could be imagined when they learned that he, a young man who had not yet finished his studies, was currently the leader of such a big camp.
You should know that the North Camp currently had around 3000 survivors, but these 3000 survivors were not ruled by a single power since at the base there was not only Kang Rong; there was also a Li Yuan with by no means inferior power. This was completely different from Bai Zemin, who had just declared that he ruled over 2000 lives!
Of course, although many had their doubts whether what he said was true or not, no one dared to voice it out loud, and temporarily they could only remain with doubt in their hearts.
"From this moment onwards I will be taking over the forces previously controlled by Kang Rong-"
"Nonsense! What thing are you?!"
Just as Bai Zemin continued his explanation of the situation, a young man who was about the same age as him seemed to have been holding back for a while when he finally couldn't take it anymore and finally burst out with a furious roar.
Bai Zemin looked at him, causing that young man to flinch. However, with a Type 79 assault rifle in his hands, this young man seemed to gain confidence and continued, "Boss Kang gave us these weapons, gave us safety, and gave us hope! You're just a kid who gained some strength and wants to take charge? Do you think things will be done just because you want them to be done?! Brothers, join me in rescuing Boss Kang!"
The young man raised his rifle high, expecting his companions to follow him. Unfortunately, this young man overestimated too much what a firearm could do to a powerful soul evolver. Those more experienced in these matters simply gave him a look of sympathy while those who hesitated finally decided not to move as they saw the veterans standing without making a sound.
Even the desperate Kang Rong had no expectation in his eyes as he looked at everything with a stunned look.
The hot-blooded youth was dumbfounded. He believed that they would definitely follow him. After all, saving one of the most powerful bosses in the entire base would result in immediate great promotion, honor, glory, resources, beautiful women, and they might even receive some skill scroll or some treasure.
But what this young man didn't know was that he first needed his life to be able to enjoy these benefits.
Swoosh!
Bai Zemin pointed and a kind of extremely long spear-shaped tentacle shot out from the middle of the blood stage.
Before this young man could say anything else, the blood tentacle pierced his brain, pierced through his head, and pierced past the paved street causing a small bang before retracting once more and returning to the blood stage as if nothing had happened.
Thud!
The lifeless body fell to the ground making a thud and raising some dust in the process. Blood and skull fragments stained the ground as the young man's eyes remained wide open, staring up at the night sky, but lifeless to appreciate its beauty.
All those who were closest moved away from the corpse in haste and those who were more fearful even fainted on the spot.
At that moment, Bai Zemin's indifferent and cold voice sounded again, "If any of you do not want to follow me, then leave your firearm on the ground and retreat. Of course, those of you who decide to leave will lose all your privileges and will have to live the way I want you to live or do other kinds of menial jobs to make a living."
This time no one said anything. Nor did anyone express an opinion about leaving after some hesitation. Even the men who previously worked alongside Kang Rong before the apocalypse were not willing to lose their privileges and the good life they currently had.
For these people, as long as there were benefits it did not matter to them whether they had to obey a young man or an old man.
Bai Zemin nodded in satisfaction and continued speaking calmly, "Those of you, officers with firearms, who are leaders of your respective teams or squads, step forward."
A few seconds later, fifteen people stepped forward and stood before Bai Zemin. These fifteen had about ten armed men under their command.
"Very well. I want ten teams to return to the walls and take charge of securing the perimeter to prevent a zombie or wild beast from sneaking in. On the other hand, the other five teams should patrol the streets of the base and make sure there are no troublemakers. If you find any, simply execute them on the spot.
After the five teams in charge of maintaining order finish this task they can rest for four hours, then they must go to the walls and switch with five different teams. As for the other team of five, you can take over four hours later with one of the teams on standby."
Bai Zemin didn't know if there was chaos in the base at the moment. After all, there had been several gunshots and even an explosion during tonight's raid. While the privileged area was quite far away from the rest of the base, he couldn't be sure that sounds wouldn't reach far away due to how quiet the night was.
"All those soul evolvers who previously protected this village should also support the armed troops to secure the perimeter. You need not worry about my safety nor do you need to worry about Li Yuan as I will personally take care of this matter tomorrow itself. However, before you leave I want you to remove these corpses from here." Bai Zemin finished indifferently.
The reason he specifically chose soul evolvers was because these people, in order to evolve, had to have killed at least one zombie in melee unless they had real proficiency with firearms control. Therefore, they were less likely to be frightened by the corpse of the dead.
The two hundred or so men saluted and after giving Kang Rong one last look they departed. Some of them got into different types of transport vehicles, mainly trucks capable of carrying a dozen men at a time, and left in different directions.
Seeing everyone leaving, Bai Zemin sighed and waved his hand. The blood-stage began to slowly shrink until it finally reached the ground and became a red carpet. He stepped out of the blood carpet and soon after the latter turned back into pure, liquid blood that began to be absorbed into the surrounding grass and ground.
"Good job."
Nangong Lingxin and Shangguan Bing Xue approached in his direction.
Bai Zemin watched as a group of people moved the bodies into large bags or used mats to wrap them up and shook his head as he said quietly, "There is still a lot of work to be done. Because it's so late I can only do so much for today."
"Indeed." Shangguan Bing Xue nodded.
Things were not as simple as saying: now I am the boss then go and work as I order you.
It was necessary to go around the base, talk to the different team leaders to better understand the situation, check the current armament and amount of ammunition, check the number of supplies to make calculations, and know approximately how long it would last based on the consumption needed, make a count of how many survivors were in the base and how many of them were workers, know what things needed to be improved, and so on.
The amount of work was too much to list in full. However, Bai Zemin had no trusted people here except the team he arrived with. Besides, it was already late at night so it was not convenient to move around either. Therefore, he and his team could only wait for a team from Beginning Village to arrive before starting to work in a big way.
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The interior of Kang Rong's villa was truly luxurious, just as Bai Zemin expected when he saw its exterior.
It had several well-appointed rooms with comfortable twin beds, crystal chandeliers above the ceiling with various lights set to match the natural environment, soft forest wood patterned tiles, soft and fluffy to the touch carpets in the hallways, paintings whose value before the apocalypse ranged from tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of thousands, etc.
As two beautiful maidens showed off the villa, they occasionally looked back cautiously. However, there was no fear in their eyes and mostly it was pure curiosity for their new boss after Kang Rong was dethroned.
Still wearing his deep black armor and with his greatsword on his back, the barely 20-year-old Bai Zemin looked truly brave and powerful. Despite the battle he had fought earlier, his body did not even have a drop of blood on it and from the vigorous light in his eyes, one could deduce that he was not even exhausted in the slightest, which suggested that he had also not exerted himself to bring down one of the base's tightest defenses.
These two beautiful maidens worked for Kang Rong in the past, and like the rest of their companions, they were curious about this indifferent-looking young man. After all, they were aware that their fates were practically tied to this person since he would be the one to decide their paths from now on.
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