Chapter 145: The Hunt

During the past few days, Wang Ruijin thought a lot and wanted to make changes. He found it was so helpless; his authority over the language in the entire Settlement was not as high as he had imagined. People could not possibly do things exactly as he wished because he had not shown them any tangible benefits or shown them what they would gain in the future.

What annoyed Wang Ruijin was that, aside from this gorge, he did not know where else he could settle down.

To bring about change, improving the living environment here was the primary task. Many people were fed up with the current situation. They hoped to live in familiar buildings. They did not expect cities or towns, but at least they wanted villages that had been abandoned by others. Few people were willing to live in caves.

Moreover, regarding material goods, everyone was now eating plain white rice porridge twice a day along with some pickled vegetables that had been scavenged. Their mouths were so bland it was unbearable. But Wang Ruijin had no choice. The current grain reserves were severely insufficient, and the problem of food had to be solved. If it was not handled well, the lack of food would become the fuse that triggered an explosion in the Settlement.

Wang Ruijin realized for the first time that being a good village head was not easy. A steady stream of problems could make you use up half of your brain cells.

In the Settlement, the eating, drinking, and daily routines of hundreds of people were indeed a very headache-inducing problem. When facing Fierce Beasts, Wang Ruijin usually only organized five to ten people for any expedition to search for supplies. They usually only ventured out of the Settlement to take risks when necessities were required, traveling to the city more than ten kilometers away.

This kind of behavior was generally called hunting.

Yes, it was similar to hunting, but with more risks. In front of Fierce Beasts, human fragility could not be compensated for by weapons.

One day, Wang Lei ran over excitedly and shouted at Zhou Liming, who was standing by the lake boredly throwing stones: “Brother Li, we are going hunting. Haha, we can finally go out to get some fresh air.” Zhou Liming did not know what “hunting” meant at all. He asked, “Hunting for what?”

“Oh…” Wang Lei seemed to just remember that Zhou Liming did not know the meaning of this term. He explained it and said with a foolish smile, “You don’t know how depressing the atmosphere here is. It is very dangerous to go outside, but I would rather go outside.”

Zhou Liming sighed. If Wang Lei was like this, he could not imagine what the minds of others were like. The situation in the Settlement was worsening day by day.

Do not forget that Zhou Liming had excellent hearing. Every move in the entire Settlement escaped his ears, including the problem of reform being discussed by Wang Ruijin, who had invited Tang Rui and Li An. In fact, even Zhou Liming did not know what he was thinking when he knew about these things. While Wang Ruijin was considering some issues, Zhou Liming was also pondering some things.

“Will your uncle let you go hunting?” Seeing Wang Lei’s high spirits, Zhou Liming could not help but ask.

Wang Lei’s excitement vanished immediately. He became gloomy and said, “He definitely will not let me go out again. My mistake last time almost dragged everyone down.” He glanced at Zhou Liming, shook his head, and then laughed again, “But you are the same. You are still staying here with me.”

Zhou Liming blinked and said, “That is not necessarily true.” He threw away the stone in his hand, then returned to the Cave. He did not say anything to Wang Ruijin but instead picked up a stone weighing over two hundred pounds beside him. He raised it over his head and, after putting the stone down, said, “I will go hunting too.”

Picking up over two hundred pounds was something few people could even lift. Raising it over one’s head was impossible even for weightlifters. This was not a barbell but a stone, which was completely different in concept from a barbell. Zhou Liming, who seemed insignificant, managed to perform this shocking feat, which even made Li An admit defeat.

“Alright!”

Wang Ruijin hesitated for a moment but then agreed. He was not worried about Zhou Liming’s wounds. In front of this monster, such injuries had not even left a scar, which showed his incredibly powerful recovery ability. Sometimes Wang Ruijin even thought about whether he should dissect him to see what was different about his structure.

Zhou Liming thought that with him there, there could be no danger. He thought of Wang Lei and said, “Let Leizi go too. Young people need to see the world. You cannot protect him under your wings forever. Besides, more people make it easier to carry things. Even one more box of sausages, you know what that means for us right now.”

Facing Zhou Liming’s old-fashioned demeanor, everyone was speechless. He seemed to be two years younger than Wang Lei, so who was the young person?

Wang Ruijin had previously taken Wang Lei out to stop protecting him under his wings. So, Zhou Liming’s words made up his mind. He said, “Alright. You two get ready. We will be setting off soon. Hopefully, we can return before tonight.”

Actually, there was not much to prepare. Wang Ruijin and the others brought four submachine guns, while Zhou Liming went empty-handed.

This hunting trip had quite a few people, reaching a total of nine. Five people, including Zhou Liming, only carried sharpened steel rods. Zhou Liming had only integrated into the group for a little over a week, and his trust level was still low. Weapons like submachine guns would not be handed to him.

Only two rifles were left in the Settlement, assigned to two warning posts respectively.

When leaving, Xiao Yanse led six strong and youthful men. They sat coldly under the shade of trees, watching the group leave.

Xiao Yanse was in his thirties, possessed strong physical power, and was a very ambitious person. In his eyes, Wang Ruijin was someone with no ambition for progress. He was timid in his actions, lacked decisiveness, and only sought stability. In Xiao Yanse’s view, relying on the government to come for rescue? It was better to think about how to make one’s own life better rather than staying in this Cave.

The reason Xiao Yanse feared Wang Ruijin was that Wang Ruijin controlled all the weapons in the entire Settlement. Otherwise, he would have removed Wang Ruijin from his position.

“Han Chaoqun and the others have been out for two days. Have there been any messages?” After watching Wang Ruijin and the others disappear at the end of the woods, Xiao Yanse turned to a person beside him and asked. The other person shook his head and said, “Boss, Cangshan Town is quite far from here. If everything goes smoothly, it will take at least two more days to return.”

Xiao Yanse frowned and said, “Are you sure there won’t be any mistakes?”

The young man nodded vigorously and said, “Of course. My family is in Cangshan Town.”

“That is good.” Xiao Yanse smiled, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. No one knew what he was thinking.

Zhou Liming, with his astonishing hearing, heard the conversation between Xiao Yanse and the others even from a distance. He did not investigate further but simply followed behind the team. In his view, if it were not for the fact that Wang Ruijin had once saved his life, Xiao Yanse might have been more suitable to survive in this world and lead the Settlement. He was ambitious and ruthless enough.

Actually, in Zhou Liming’s opinion, for such dangerous hunting trips, Wang Ruijin should have stayed in the Settlement to command rather than going personally. While this certainly increased his prestige, it would definitely be a troublesome matter if something went wrong. If it were him, he would have had enough time to cause trouble in the Settlement while Wang Ruijin was hunting.

The target for this hunting trip was a second-tier city located about seven kilometers to the east of here.

Often, high risk meant high reward.

Everyone in the team knew that leaving the forest would be very dangerous, and entering the city would be extremely perilous. But thinking of the endless wealth in the city and all the tempting items, no one could resist the temptation. In the entire team, both excitement and tension made everyone’s faces tense as they walked silently.

“Are you not nervous?”

Wang Lei and Zhou Liming walked side by side. He found that Zhou Liming looked very relaxed, as if this were not a mission to face Fierce Beasts but like a winter outing to enjoy the scenery. Even Wang Lei, who had experience, now had his heart beating fast and his palms sweating. He was so nervous that he looked around suspiciously.

Zhou Liming shook his head and said calmly, “When you deal with Fierce Beasts every day, when you have to be on guard against them whether you are eating, traveling, or sleeping, and when you face them all the time, you will not feel afraid after having such experiences. Actually, Fierce Beasts are not as scary as imagined. They have their own personalities and temperaments. Once you master this, you will understand that they are not terrifying.”

Fierce Beasts were not terrifying? This was the first time Wang Lei had heard such a theory.

Some Fierce Beasts, once they discovered humans, would attack regardless of everything. With their abilities, no one could escape their attacks.

Wang Lei shook his head in disbelief. Zhou Liming did not explain anything further, even though he was telling the truth.

Wang Ruijin and the others had crossed these mountain ranges many times, so they were very familiar with it. Living in these places for long years made every movement flexible. They moved like monkeys through the mountains and woods. Leaving the Grand Canyon behind, there were no opened roads anymore, so they had to squeeze through thorns.

After crossing several peaks and arriving at the place where Zhou Liming had been injured that day, they soon left the woods and finally saw a dirt road.

“Leizi, are there only us around here?”

Walking on the dirt road, with no human activity for half a year, weeds grew everywhere. Some vines grew from the roadside and lay firmly on the road. If there were no accidents, in another one or two years, this dirt road would become the domain of these weeds and vines, and the entire road would disappear, becoming impassable again.

Wang Lei thought for a moment and said, “My uncle mentioned that there seemed to be people not far to the west. I heard their leader was very powerful. He was a Beastman.”

“A Beastman?”

Zhou Liming immediately became interested. This was definitely unexpected news.