Chapter 233.2: Where Did So Many People Come From?

It was Yu, one of his old subordinates.

Although it was a pity that during the Winter Willow Camp battle, he lost to his opponent, his strength was not weak, and he was also an ability user.

After withdrawing from Clearspring City, Yu was transferred by Black Snake and trained as a Company Leader by his side.

He didn't expect that they would meet again, and it would be like that.

Steel Teeth put away the gun and looked at him. "Aren't you with Black Snake? What's going on over there?"

Although he knew that it was mostly bad news, he still asked a question with a trace of hope.

A bitter expression appeared on Yu's face. "It's all over. Except for a few who ran away, the rest are completely doomed."

Before Steel Teeth spoke, Beaver beside him said anxiously. "It's all over?! How is it possible... There were more than 600 people, even if they were defeated, it would still take a while for them to be all caught."

When he said this, there was an expression of disbelief on his face.

Steel Teeth's expression was the same. He also found it hard to believe.

No matter how bad the situation was, even if all the supplies were lost, it should be no problem for 200 or so people to escape, right?

At Remote Creek Town, they could regroup and reunite under the banner of Black Snake.

However, after hearing Beaver's words, the bitterness on Yu's face became even stronger.

After a moment of silence, Yu recalled what happened a few hours ago, and said slowly. "The fire was burning, at least 10 shells ... No, maybe 20, fell on our position. Then they started charging. There were sounds of whistles in all directions. We could only retreat north, but the situation quickly got worse.”

"Their vehicles were moving extremely fast on the snow, like sleds, and our armored pickups got completely stuck in the snow and were destroyed one by one.”

"Automatic rifles, machine guns... There was also a kind of gun with a long barrel that can penetrate steel plates. Their firepower is very strong, and we suffered heavy casualties as soon as we engaged in the fight with them.”

"It wasn't even just firepower, they fought us hand to hand with axes and bayonets, but we were still no match for them."

There was a trace of fear on the faces of everyone around.

Usually, it was them who took the initiative to launch hand-to-hand combat, using incendiary bombs and projectiles to force the defenders out of cover, and then charged with bayonets.

They would usually use those tactics when they wanted to conserve their ammunition.

But it was the first time for them to meet a group of survivors that were more brutal than them...

Still unable to believe these words, Beaver hurriedly asked, "What about that? Don't we have that... That thing called a tank?"

They could blow up armored pickup trucks, but there was no way they would be able to blow up a tank.

Yu shook his head. "It was blown up."

In just four words, the surrounding air froze. Everyone listening on the side held their breath involuntarily.

It was blown up?

The vehicle that weighed dozens of tons got blown up?

Steel Teeth's expression slightly twitched. He couldn't help calling what happened when he was looting a survivor colony in the central region.

At that time, they fell into a difficult situation and were unable to capture the colony for a long time.

The locals got a cannon out of nowhere which caused them to suffer heavy casualties in the process of attacking the fortress.

The situation didn't improve until their brigade commander, Black Snake, got a tank from the leader.

When the shells struck that tank, it barely tickled.

The originally despairing fortification was also like paper in front of that steel crawler, and it effortlessly pierced through it and slaughtered the defenders.

And now, someone actually told him that the mighty steel monster was blown up?

What the hell could blow it up?!

"... We were besieged by at least 2 brigades, and these survivors were likely supported by Boulder Town.”

"We are not their opponents, neither is Lion Fang.”

"It was a bad decision to target them from the start, and a more serious mistake is that we thought we could end this war in the winter."

2 brigades?!

The people around were whispering, and their faces were no longer just fear, but the terror that could be seen with the naked eye.

Steel Teeth looked equally solemn.

In addition to fear, he also did not understand that if these people were so strong, why did those people struggle to fight them off a month ago?

Steel Teeth remembered very well that he had brought only one hundred people to support the besieged the Vanguard.

Although they didn't get anything after fighting for a day, they also destroyed a team of elites.

At that time, his evaluation of the strength of the survivors in this area was not high, and he estimated that they had 200 people at most.

He even believed that if he was given more people, he would be able to capture this place without help from his superior, Black Snake. But now, the people who escaped from the front line told him that there were 2 brigades attacking them.

Only a single winter had passed, but the combat power of the local survivors increased by 10 times. How did these people do it?!

How the fuck do they have so many people in such a short amount of time?

Their expansion rate is too ridiculous!

Steel Teeth pondered for a while. "...We must go to Remote Creek Town as soon as possible and pass the information to our friendly forces."

He and Lion Fang were considered to be from the same clan, both from the Fang Clan, so Lion Fang probably wouldn't give him a hard time.

Beaver, Iron Knee, and other squad leaders glanced at each other but did not dare to speak.

To be honest, after hearing Yu's description, they didn't want to go to Remote Creek Town.

They just wanted to get out of here and escape from the southern part of the River Valley Province, as far away as possible...

...

Entrance to the Interprovincial Highway.

The convoy loaded with supplies had been moved to a relatively high road.

Although a battle broke out on the way, the reinforcements led by Liu Ding arrived at the front line before dark.

The battle was long over.

Players even picked up rocks and firewood to start a fire, cleared an open space on the road, and boiled potatoes.

Many players were both Combat Profession players and Lifestyle Profession players.

For example, Tomato Eggs.

As one of the veteran players who joined the game in the early version, he was not only a cook, but also a constitution type ability user.

He leaned the gun aside, picked up the snow, washed his hands, and started cooking with the pot and spatula.

The air in the temporary camp was filled with the aroma of the food, and the players couldn't stay idle, so for a while, it was as lively as a festival.

The captives chained to the side were swallowing hard, but they didn't dare to ask for food.

Soon, two players walked over holding their noses, and dropped a bucket full of nutritional cream on the ground.

"Eat."

Although the nutritional cream was frozen like ice cubes, the captives didn't dislike it at all; some people almost got into a fight because they didn't get some.

Several players stood aside and watched while chatting.

"Speaking of which, where did we send all the captives?"

"Longevity Town seems to have a prison, and I remember the outpost also has one as well."

"Can such a small prison hold so many people?"

"Not everyone will live in a house. I heard that there seems to be a labor camp north of Linghu Lake. Probably they will be sent there to open up the wasteland."

"Are they going to be sent to dig potatoes? It sounds very exciting."

On the other side, the rescued slaves were also given some rations and firewood.

Liu Ding selected a few of them who could cook and set up a large pot in the open space to cook porridge.

After the hot porridge entered their stomachs, those people’s faces gradually showed relieved expressions.

Their new owner didn't seem bad.

Not only did they not eat them, but they even gave them something warm to eat.

Many people began to have hope for their future.

After trotting to Liu Ding's side, Lu Bei stood at attention and gave a military salute. "Sir! The statistics report has been completed. A total of 488 slaves are liberated! And a total of 257 prisoners of war are captured!"

Nearly seven hundred people in total.

Liu Ding nodded. He then reached out and pressed on the earphone, reporting the situation on the front line to the headquarters.

Then, the headquarters instructed them to rest on the spot for half an hour before bringing all supplies and prisoners of war to Longevity Town, and the liberated survivors to the temporary shelter.

"You go and inform our soldiers that we will leave in half an hour."

"Yes sir!" Lu Bei said succinctly.

After speaking, this young man trotted in the direction of the players.

After conveying the administrator's instructions, Liu Ding looked at the rescued slaves beside him.

Amongst 488 people, most of them were young adults, 70% male, and 30% female. There were almost no elderly people and not a single child.

It was clearly not a normal age structure. Obviously, there was only one possibility.

"... Those animals..."

Glancing at the captives not far away fighting over nutritional creams, Liu Ding cursed in his heart, turned, and walked towards the truck.

He needed to issue a mission, and recruit players who could drive to drive back the seized trucks.

The rest could only walk, including himself.

...

"It's all right, the bad guys have been driven away by us." With her cat ears twitching gently, Sesame Paste comforted the crying girl while squatting in the snow.

Not far away, Night Ten and Gale, who were carrying sniper rifles, finally walked back from the north.

"God damn it, why do I feel like a passerby in this battle again?"

Looking at the swearing Night Ten, Ample Time, who was peeling potatoes, said casually. "No, your intelligence is very useful, and what you do is also in line with the positioning of a scout."

Night Ten couldn’t help but grumble, "Sigh, although that’s true, I didn’t even fire a single shot after waiting for two days! How is this reasonable?"

Even those little rookies also joined the battle...

Ample Time smiled and said, "Isn’t that a good thing? The bullets saved are all yours now."

In the current version, in the war between factions, bullets would be issued before the mission started, and players could keep them if they didn’t finish using them.

That was also the reason why many players liked to fight with bayonets.

They could miss once, and if they missed a second time, it would be a huge loss. So many players felt that it was much better to go to hand-to-hand combat. After all, ordinary marauders were no match for players at all.

But recently, such a trend started to show signs of declining.

Mission income was increased again and again, but the price of bullets was still the same. Moreover, the soldier occupation would also get a 10% discount when buying bullets, and the supplies were no longer that scarce.

Sometimes players saving bullets was purely a habit, and not many people were that miserly anymore.

Night Ten rolled his eyes. He squatted beside Ample Time, picked up a potato, and also started peeling.

The dry rations he brought with him had already been finished. He was very hungry at the moment, and he just wanted to eat a hot meal quickly.

"Where's Old White?" Ample Time asked casually.

"Something came up in real life, so he logged out after war points came out. His character is currently lying on the truck. You two will need to help me to carry him back to the save point later."

Night Ten smiled. "Ah, this... Would Old White really trust me so much?"

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Gale glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to do?"

Night Ten grinned and said, "Haha, nothing, I was just thinking about painting him a beard or something."

Ample Time rolled his eyes. "Can you take a break?"

Gale coughed lightly and said, "Are you sure you want to break the trust between us? We all have times when we need to do something in back in real life..."

Night Ten fell into a moment of a daze when he heard this, and then he mumbled with an awkward smile, "Uh, I was just kidding."