Chapter 14: Too Brutal

November 22nd. Sunny, windless, and muggy.

The continuous darkness that had lasted for several days came to an abrupt end.

It seemed to have returned to a normal cycle of day and night, but the anomaly was the intense sun and a temperature reaching 36 degrees Celsius.

The sun was finally out; Li Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

With no sun for so many days and the high-voltage electric fence running 24 hours a day, the electricity stored a few days ago had been consumed significantly.

Looking at the late-season rice, its stalks bent low under the weight of the grain, Li Yu wondered if he should harvest it within the next two days.

Before Li Yu could speak, his grandfather approached him to bring up the subject.

Since the sun was out and heavy rain was expected in a few days, he suggested harvesting immediately. They could use the next three days to dry the rice, ensuring it wouldn't mold during storage.

They got to work right away.

Aside from those on duty, everyone headed to the fields to harvest.

Cutting the rice, threshing the grain, and bundling the stalks—through the efforts of over twenty people, four acres of land were harvested in less than three hours.

In the afternoon, the harvested grain was spread out on the newly constructed concrete road.

The sun would be out for the next three days, and the temperatures would remain high.

Judging by the situation, the rice should be sufficiently dried before the heavy rains arrived on the 25th.

Initially, everyone had been terrified of the apocalypse, but after emerging from that fear—and since they hadn't encountered any danger recently and had plenty to eat and drink—it felt as though life wasn't much different from before. The end of the world didn't seem so terrifying after all.

But what they didn't know was!

If not for this wall,

If not for this abundant food,

And if not for this safe base,

Could they still live such an easy life?

Starting from early November, day and night had been reversed, temperature fluctuations had occurred, the government had advocated for staying indoors, and a few days ago, transportation had been completely shut down.

Within twenty days, supermarkets, food delivery, and convenience stores had gradually closed. Those in the countryside were doing okay since they had more food at home, but in the cities, people had already begun to starve to death!

Before his rebirth, Li Yu had happened to stockpile some supplies; otherwise, he too would have struggled to survive the early stages of the apocalypse.

On November 24th, Li Yu took Li Hang, his Second Uncle, and Uncle Lai out of the base, intending to check on the situation in the village.

Looking along the way, there were few pedestrians on the road.

Occasionally, one could see a couple of zombies wandering aimlessly.

Seeing this, everyone's mood soured.

To avoid any accidents, Li Yu scanned the surroundings before driving the group back to the base.

However, on the way back, they failed to notice several figures following them.

The car pulled up to the main gate. His uncle-in-law was on duty today.

Seeing that it was Xiao Yu in the car, he hurried down to unlock and push open the gate.

Since one person can only push one side of the gate at a time, Li Yu prepared to step forward and help.

Just as he was about to walk toward the gate, an inexplicable sense of crisis surged through him.

This sense of crisis had saved him many times during the apocalypse.

In an instant, Li Yu turned his head.

His eyes stared fixedly at a patch of woods behind the car.

There was no movement in the woods, but Li Yu continued to stare intently.

Seeing Li Yu's reaction, Second Uncle jumped out of the car and looked toward the woods. After watching for a moment without seeing anything, he asked, "Xiao Yu, what's wrong? Is there something behind us? Zombies?"

Hearing this, Uncle Lai and Li Hang also got out of the car, each holding a crossbow.

"If it were just zombies, that would be fine. Heh!" Li Yu sneered.

At the same time, he raised his compound crossbow and shouted, "Come out now, or I start shooting!"

A gust of wind blew past.

Pine needles fell from the trees, making a soft rustling sound.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Finally, the sound of footsteps approached, and several figures emerged from behind the bushes.

A middle-aged, balding man appeared, wielding a butcher knife.

Upon closer inspection!

It was Li Yu's next-door neighbor, Wang Maoniu!

That damn man who used to do pyramid schemes!

How the hell was he still alive? The last time they saw him, wasn't he surrounded by zombies in a toilet?

He was accompanied by several others—local thugs from the village, including the bastard son of the village Party Secretary.

The group of five each wore several gold rings on their fingers.

Upon seeing Li Yu, the thugs called out "Brother Yu" and stepped forward to greet him.

"Xiao Yu, we mean no harm. We're all neighbors, after all." The neighbor, Old Wang, looked greedily at the base behind them.

He continued, "There are so many monsters appearing in the village now, it's terrifying. That place of yours... could you let us into your tourism park?"

"No!" Before Old Wang could even finish his sentence, Li Yu rejected him decisively.

Second Uncle and the others exchanged glances but remained silent.

The thugs nearby immediately grew displeased upon hearing this.

"We call you Brother Yu to show you respect, and you're actually acting high and mighty?"

"Exactly. Hurry up, move aside and let us in!"

"Don't block the way, or you'll regret it."

"Oh! Look at this guy, acting like he's got nothing to lose. Believe it or not, we'll kill you! Yesterday, Er Gouzi dared to block us—do you know what happened to him?" one of the blond-haired thugs said arrogantly.

"I hacked him to pieces! Hehe, his wife was quite... moist!"

Hearing this, the Party Secretary's son stared blankly at the blond thug. "You weren't bragging? You actually did that?"

The blond thug gave him a contemptuous look, raised his right hand, and pointed to a wristwatch. "Look, this watch belongs to Er Gouzi. And it wasn't just me; the others are even more ruthless. They play much harder than I do, hahahaha. I used to let you join in because you're the Secretary's son. Now, you're nothing!"

The Party Secretary's son said in disbelief, "How dare you! How dare you!"

On the other side.

Second Uncle and the others looked grim.

In contrast, Li Yu didn't seem particularly surprised; it was within his expectations.

Now that the apocalypse had arrived, measuring human nature by old moral standards was nothing short of naive.

Some people are inherently kind but slowly drift toward the wrong path after being crushed by social reality.

But some people are evil to the core; no matter how they are educated, they remain evil.

Li Yu had his own set of rules for dealing with truly evil people.

Watching the thugs approach while they spoke, Second Uncle couldn't hold back and prepared to warn Xiao Yu.

Seeing that Li Yu and his group were holding crossbows, the thugs were somewhat wary, but they weren't actually afraid. They seemed to be relying on something!

They believed Li Yu and his group wouldn't dare shoot them because they were "good people"!

*Pshhh!*

A direct hit to the forehead!

The thug's head was pierced by the bolt, his eyes still filled with shock even in death!

Li Yu had always believed: if it can be solved with force, never waste words.

"Holy crap, that's brutal!" Li Hang blurted out from behind.

"Too brutal, but that was also incredibly cool!" Li Hang added.

Second Uncle gave him a speechless look.

Look at him—is that even human speech?

And here I thought you were going to say something bad about Yu-zai...

The remaining thugs were stunned. The rhythm was all wrong!

According to the usual script, shouldn't there be an argument, followed by them launching a sudden attack when they got close?

Furthermore,

While they were bad and had indirectly killed people, they weren't *this* brutal!

Moreover, Li Yu was being brutal to *them*!

How do you stop being afraid of bad people?

By being worse than the bad people! Only a person that wicked will make them fear you.

The remaining thugs stopped instantly, retreating backward in a trembling heap. The Party Secretary's son's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground in terror.

The thugs thought to themselves: *You're a monster! Your whole family is a bunch of monsters!*

(End of Chapter)