XG 108 - Not to follow their retarded behaviour
Beom Seok then asked suspiciously, "Then why is your group safe from the cult members if they have the ability and strength to crush your group? Why bother negotiating?"
Duljjae smirked. "I have a lot of strong men fighting for me. They only have weak people that seek his protection. Only Nanse and his few men are worthy to fight with us, but they cannot fight against all of us."
"Your group is living quite well? No worries about food?" Chanyeol stared at a guy who was munching on a piece of meat while watching the show. Being stared at suddenly, the guy was a little embarrassed, before regaining himself and giving them a haughty look.
"How could our group live well?" Chanjang said bitterly but did not elaborate further as this was their group's internal matter. It was all pretences and they were recklessly using up whatever they found, living as if they were going to die anytime soon.
A good number of them had the good mindset to plan for the future, but they were greatly overwhelmed by other reckless members that live for the present. Their opinions were pushed aside, being labelling as cowards and weaklings. In their base, only the strong could speak and the weak could only obey to survive on their tailcoats.
"How could we not live well? Chanjang, are you dissatisfied with the goods we found?" Someone retorted in dissatisfaction.
Chanjang's eyes lowered. "Our food won't last that way."
"Jeez, we can just grab food from other places. Why are you so bothered by it? As long as we are strong, no one will dare to go against us! We also help them not to waste food by giving them to those weaklings below our floor!"
"Wow, how trashy," Kang Xunsu sneered and his opinion of this group dropped even further. Fortunately for him, the other side did not understand what he just said.
"Guys, don't show our quibbles before our guests," Duljjae finally stepped in. He sat up and reached out a hand to Beom Seok. "Musihada, work with us to topple those cult fanatics. We will share part of the spoils."
In English, Kang Xunsu said, "Hey, little princess, do you want to reform these people?"
Wong Xue Guo's ears twitched. "How?"
Beom Seok was especially interested as well, with a sinister gleam in his bright eyes. "Allies should 'help' each other out, right?"
To sum it up, this wild group of survivors had to fulfil the conditions if they wanted to work with them.
The first condition was to let everyone here, Dulljae's group, decide what they want to do. To hunt zombies, join farming, or do odd jobs to ensure their survival, such as offering their bodies for pleasure. But everyone must consent to it and no one was allowed to rob things from each other.
The second condition was to let Musihada Laboratory move around and grab anything they wanted. After all, they also need food and supplies that would help with the research.
"Are you fucking playing around? Huh?" A man with tattoos on his arms kicked a chair away, which collided with the wall with a loud bang.
Not exactly playing around. They were just making things a little bit difficult for Duljjae's group.
Beom Seok did not remove his eyes from Duljjae, the leader of this base and the final decision-maker. "Even if the zombies are eliminated from the world, that will be many years later. And after that, civilization will slowly rebuild itself, but it will take many years too. Adding together, how old will we be at that time? Your group can commit to your law until then and enjoy what you can until that moment arrives."
Duljjae sneered. "My men also need to eat and live. Having our supplies taken away, do you think we will agree? Don't treat us as fools."
"You are right. Then we will not collect food from your base after Musihada succeeds in growing the first batch of vegetables. In relation to the first condition, those that choose to grow vegetables or fruits can join the bartering system. That way, your ration will not run out. But before this bartering system is implemented and running smoothly, Musihada is free to take what they want from your base and everywhere else."
"... You are only asking for these two conditions?" Chanjang asked.
Beom Seok shrugged. "That's all that matters."
"These conditions are beneficial to Musihada, but not us," Duljjae pointed out.
"How is that not beneficial to you? We all have the same goal at the end of the day, which is for the zombies to disappear and to have enough food. Food can be made or grow, and zombies will slowly disappear if we continue killing them. The scientists in Musihada are working hard to find the antidote for the infection. Until that day arrives, we need to be patient and stay strong."
Beom Seok did not say anything about the gene awakening, because he was clear of the danger of letting this information known to these people. It was already enough for them to know that gaining an ability was the alternative effect after getting bitten by zombies.
Though Beom Seok did wonder what stopped these men from purposely getting themselves bitten just to gain power.
"Cure? How sure is Musihada able to create a cure?"
"Quite positive. We also know more about the zombies, and we can share the information with you... if the alliance happens."
Crossing his arms, Chanjang tapped his finger on his forearm. "Not quite beneficial. We prefer more tangible benefits. Weapons."
"Non-negotiable. I'm sure you have heard that Musihada has sent several teams out to kill zombies. Manse street being saved is one of the little contributions our base made."
"Food."
"Food is quite scarce to us, especially when we need to feed our researchers and guards to refuel their energy to contribute to their speciality."
"Tsk!" The tattoo guy marched forward and grabbed Beom Seok's shirt. "Are you making fun of us?!"
"Let him go!" Kim Sung-Ho pointed his gun at the tattoo guy's head.
"Does a kid like you even know how to use a gun?" the tattoo guy mocked, only for his wrist to be grabbed by Beom Seok. Beom Seok gradually increase his strength but the tattoo guy treat it as a competition and resisted letting go of his shirt.
"You offer this alliance rather insincerely," Chanjang reasoned.
Wong Xue Guo frowned. "Rather than us being insincere, I think you are asking too much. Our first condition is already offering you a job to grow fresh food instead of searching for expired food. Ideas, hope and cure, these three are heavy benefits not equivalent to the total amount of goods in this entire building. If you still think it's not worth it, fine, we will take back our offer and give it to someone that knows how to appreciate them."
Duljjae chuckled, and stood up from his bean bag. With a wide stride, he patted the tattoo guy's hand, telling him to release Beom Seok. "Okay, we will accept this alliance. But there is one thing to be corrected."
Patting Beom Seok's chest rather heavily as he straightened the crease on his shirt, Duljjae said, "Our territory base will expand after taking down the church base."
Beom Seok smiled. "Good thing you can think that because so do we."
Did they think their medium-sized shopping mall would be worth this alliance? They were aiming for the expansion of Duljjae's territory! As long as it was before the bartering system starts, they just need to grab whatever supplies they need first.
With that, the alliance was formed.
Not to waste time, Duljjae wanted to immediately set out to hunt down the cult members, but Kang Xunsu stopped him.
"You had not even informed your group members about the alliance and the conditions. It would be dangerous if a member of yours tried to harm us, or if we are a little rougher than necessary if we are to stop a member of yours from harming other people."
"We listen to our leader!" The tattoo guy yelled, but Chanjang and Duljjae's silence was rather meaningful.
"I will hold a quick meeting with my men." Dulljae tossed his towel into this tent and grabbed a clean shirt. "You will think of a plan on how to attack their base. Today is Saturday and we could accurately know where they are now. The public hall for public sacrifice will not be as tightly guarded as their base."
Kang Xunsu's group was 'politely' escorted out so that the group meeting could start.
Huddling in the back seat of the car, the grudgeful Wong Xue Guo sneakily took out her phone and sent a message to her parents, asking if they have free helpers to lend a hand in dealing with the cult group. And to have more hands to grab onto goods.
"Chanyeol, can you lead us to a safe place where we can overlook the public hall without getting caught? Also far away from the church," Kang Xunsu asked, which Beom Seok translated.
They drove their single car with everyone cramped in towards the open park, which surprisingly had plenty of cars parked around. Chanyeol said they belonged to the residents which did not have enough parking space. Their car successfully blend in with others once they turned off the engine and L.L. used binoculars to spy at the public hall.
Chanyeol stared at the public hall with dark, gloomy eyes. "The public hall has two floors with a wide area. Usually, weddings, parties and such are held there if their house isn't big enough to hold the event. It was a place everyone had been to before at least once. Everyone was willing to fork out money to maintain the hall and treat the place well."
As soon as the apocalypse happened, no one bothered about it and it quickly became run down. And it was not done by the power of nature.
The previously white walls and brown wooden doors were also sprayed with paint, with messy messages of 'God is cleaning the world', etc. Signs of fire could also be seen, which reminded Wong Xue Guo that Jihyo said the cult guy liked to burn people to death to 'cleanse' their sin before reuniting with their creator in Heaven.
"Do they think that just by drawing crosses all over the place will make this a holy territory or something?" Wong Xue Guo gave her own thoughts on it.
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