Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the Tundra One war room, the atmosphere was abnormally heavy.
When the six people led by Zhang Long finished speaking, Lu Yongyi—who sat in the center—did not speak. The abandonment party had temporarily gained the upper hand.
This was an unprecedented scene in the past two days.
This minor delay made the remaining people, who were waiting for Lu Yongyi to speak, start to tremble.
In the wasteland at the moment, based on the comments left on the Disaster Resistance Channel and World Channel, nearly every survivor had a large ship at best or small boats at worst.
However, in reality, this was actually a case of a “fake public impression of poverty”, which was influenced by the concept of “Versailles Literature”1!
Just like certain platforms ending with “-hu”, “-bo”, and “-yin” f1rom Huaxia’s civilized era , just by scrolling a short while, people who did not have strong minds would suddenly find that…
An annual income of 300,000 was basically impossible to survive on, an annual income of 500,000 was just enough for food and clothing, and an annual income of one million was just the starting point.
This world did not have poor people. No, only I and the people around me were the poor ones. Others were rich people, landlords, elite executives.
On the wasteland, with the game’s chat filter mechanism, this form of public impression had been created.
When one avoided seeing messages of poverty, misery, and the current wasteland situation for the bottom-feeders, the game would start to automatically block such messages from appearing on one’s screen.
Within just one or two days, when they went back to browse the World Channel, these messages never again appeared in their sight, almost as if they had never existed in the first place.
What replaced it was…
“Versailles Literature” expressed by the lucky or the strong.
However, if someone could really see the situation in its entirety, they would clearly realize that, on the current wasteland. . .
The raft was the mainstream vessel!
People who sailed the seas on rafts made up almost 40% of all human survivors.
40% might not look terrifying at first but, put into perspective, if the total human population of four billion was used to calculate this percentage, it would yield an appalling…
1.6 billion people!
At the moment, the Tundra fleet had a total of 12 large ships. On average, one such ship could accommodate 600 people, bringing it to a total of 7,200 people.
On the other hand, there were 37 small ships. One small ship could accommodate around 180 people, which was a total of 6660 people!
These two combined would add up to a total of around 14 thousand people!
However, if the total numbers of the current raft team that everyone said could be abandoned was totaled up, it far surpassed 14 thousand people, reaching a full 26 thousand people!
Thanks to the game’s mechanism on how families were let in initially, each raft was basically carrying along a home. The ones with fewer people had two to three people on the raft, but some had seven or eight!
If the tsunami disaster had not struck in advance, these people might have been able to use their rafts to get to the New World with a little luck and, from there, join some of the large-scale shelters.
However, at this crucial point, they could only helplessly group together based on information they received from the Regional Channel.
As the fleet continuously moved forward, when Tundra One entered the next Regional Channel area, they would gather the scattered people in that region, causing more and more people to gather and follow behind them.
Along with these people came each region’s foreign marine races!
“Shelter Leader Lu, if you delay for even a moment longer, it’ll be too late. The tsunami disaster cycles have changed from half an hour to an hour now. We only need to raise the sails of our ships after the next round of tsunami waves and we will be able to instantly get rid of these people, or we could simply leave them some supplies to survive on their own.”
“If we keep letting them follow us, I’m worried that if a large battle occurs, we’d have to take care of these people’s safety while killing the enemies and that, by the end of the battle, neither objective would be accomplished.”
“What exactly are you waiting for?”
Hearing Zhang Long ask this question once again, everyone sitting in the ship’s war room froze, and this question rose within their hearts as well.
Reasonably speaking, the reason they respected Lu Yongyi as the leader of the fleet was not because the Tundra One was mighty, nor because he had official endorsement.
The actual two reasons were…
Firstly, the Tundra One was armed with modern weapons from the civilized era. Although the amount of ammunition they possessed was unknown, this could still become the fleet’s trump card to deal with crucial situations.
Moreover, none of them were fools. They naturally knew that whoever had larger fists on the wasteland had authority to speak and make decisions.
Even if Lu Yongyi himself was not in a position of leadership, anyone else who took up the role of leading the fleet would still have to consider Lu Yongyi’s opinions before making a decision. It was equivalent to being a puppet and was completely meaningless.
Secondly, Lu Yongyi’s actions were heavy-handed and decisive, explosive even. He did not display the typical trait of Huaxian humility, nor the gentleness of “Tai Chi”. His principle was the principle, and his law was the law.
When the fleet gathered on the first day, there was a foreign ship that deliberately tried to squeeze into the center of the formation, relying on the fact that their ship was a little larger. Lu Yongyi had stood up then and laid down the law.
Those who followed his orders could stay, and those who did not could f*ck off!
This seemed dictatorial, but it was actually an act that protected everyone’s interests. Though this large ship was chased away, it left a deep impression on everyone.
With someone like this as the leader of the fleet, everyone felt very much at ease!
Moreover, previously, regarding the comings and goings of the raft team behind them, Lu Yongyi had defied all opinions and made the decision that these people had to be protected.
At the time, although the captains under him were quite critical of Lu Yongyi’s actions, considering that they were all compatriots and the situation at the time was still tenable, nobody dared to question him.
However, currently, thanks to the raft teams’ word-of-mouth, more and more raft warriors had assembled. After the number of rafts increased by 4000 within the span of a single day, these people had to pluck up the courage to stand up for the sake of their own lives.
Of course, this was a subjective decision that was neither right nor wrong.
Whether it was to let these people stay or abandon them, given the wasteland’s current situation, it could not be considered “a sin”.
Even with their encouragement, if Lu Yongyi decided to abandon the raft team; the responsibility could not be completely pinned on him. He could simply dump it directly onto Zhang Long and the others.
However…
Sitting in the center of the room, Lu Yongyi, who was the focus of everyone’s attention, pursed his mouth from beginning to end as he stared at the data report on the table.
No urgency could be seen on his square face, nor were there any signs of distress.
It was as if he had not heard those opinions at all.
However, under the table, his fists were tightly clenched, letting everyone know he was not as calm inwardly.
If the situation really did not take a turn for the worst—if it did not get to the point where they would inevitably die if they chose not to abandon them—then nobody would be willing to abandon their own compatriots and have their own consciences condemn them every night.
To have become the captains of large ships, these people would not be simpletons. They had to have their own charm, their own means and strengths.
It was just a pity that these foreign marine races would not go any easier on them just because they looked somewhat like humans.
With the raft team present, victory and defeat would not be reversed either, and the victory of the foreign marine races was an inevitable result.
However, no matter what, seeing Lu Yongyi like this, nobody dared to urge him again, and everyone experienced mixed feelings about the whole situation.
Even Zhang Long, who had spoken out before, sighed deeply within his heart.
It was a pity.
If today was the last day of the tsunami disaster, there would be no doubt—even if it was a battle to the death, nobody would choose to abandon these “poor people”.
However, it was only the third day of the tsunami disaster.
Not including today, there were still a full three days for everyone to suffer through in order to survive. Based on the rate at which these rafts were gathering, within these three days, the number of rafts would exceed 10 thousand, or perhaps even 15 thousand.
The number of people in the entire fleet would surpass an unthinkable 100 thousand people at that time.
In such a situation, unless all the big ships and little ships had sufficient firepower and ammunition, there would not be a possibility of a different outcome when the foreign races’ attacked.
Unless. . .
A miracle happened!
“Shelter Leader Lu, we understand your difficulties and your worries. We are also people. We have hearts too. We’re not beasts!”
“Your brothers respect you, and I respect you too!”
“Make up your mind. Once you do, we’ll take action!”
“Yes, Shelter Leader Su, give us your verdict directly. If you tell us to wait, then we’ll wait. If you tell us to abandon them, I’ll step forward and be the bad guy. Even if there’s a fight, we can fight!”
“Once you make up your mind, we definitely won’t make things hard for you!”
The heavy atmosphere in the war room had been maintained for over 10 minutes.
Seeing Lu Yongyi’s clenched fists start to shake, the remaining captains who had not spoken up yet finally could not resist standing up.
This time, the people that Zhang Long led also nodded. They stood up, choosing to join this line.
However, sitting in the center, after being “pushed” by more than ten people, Lu Yongyi still maintained his unmoved attitude.
Except that his mouth spat out five words that made everyone’s hearts shake.
“Wait! Wait a little longer!”
…
“OS, maintain cruising speed and initiate the Defense Master’s high-power scanning function as well as the sonar’s full frequency scan. Scan the surroundings…”
“And analyze any biological and energy responses!”
Unaware of the conflict brewing in the Tundra fleet’s war room across the ocean, on Hope One, having slept for just over four hours from 7.00 am to 11.30 am, Su Mo was once again “fully energized”!
The moment he woke up, the first thing Su Mo did was instruct the OS to initiate the Defense Master and the sonar’s specified direction scanning functions.
After that, Su Mo got out of bed immediately. He did not wash up and eat, nor did he check the daily report the system issued at 8 o’clock. Instead, he picked up the notebook on the table and started writing once more.
Before he slept, Su Mo had analyzed up to 70% of the wasteland situation and foreign races’ plans.
After a restful sleep, thanks to some inspiration that came out of nowhere, the progress of deciphering the entire plan increased again, reaching a full 75%.
At this juncture, although it was still impossible to accurately reveal the real plan of the foreign terrestrial and marine races, it helped Su Mo figure out a crucial piece of information!
Their original goals!
