Edge of the Apocalypse

Chapter 55: Chapter 51: If We Don’t Unite, Someone Will Do It for Us

When Zhao Youcai mentioned buying some pig feed to give to any other survivors they might encounter, Yu Dong was reminded of another type of person he had overlooked in his past life, a role that existed besides just enemies and friends:

Passersby.

The mother who was tackled by her zombified daughter. The college couple who were both killed by an elderly zombie. The high school boy who was forced to jump from a building by his zombified family members. The stubborn old woman who returned to the community only to find herself locked out...

In the Xiangti Bay Community, Yu Dong had also seen five people who hadn’t turned into zombies.

It was just that they died too quickly, wiped out within minutes of the apocalypse’s outbreak.

Yu Dong had personally witnessed the deaths of these five people from the fourth floor. But after his rebirth, he had been so focused on his own team that he had completely overlooked these "passersby"—until Zhao Youcai brought up the pig feed.

Now, after hearing Yu Dong’s story about these five people, the rest of the team was completely surprised.

"I know the pregnant woman you’re talking about... I often saw her with her daughter on the swings downstairs. I heard from Zhao Yun that she’s some kind of public official."

Liu Ye’ye recognized one of the people he described.

Zhao Youcai said, "But we’ve never even met these people. Forget about the potential conflicts of suddenly pulling them into Building One. Even if we could... would it be worth it? The apocalypse is just beginning, and we’re supposed to support five freeloaders? A college couple, a high school kid, a pregnant woman, an old lady... Are any of them useful? I was planning to use those ’bricks’ to support some valuable people after the apocalypse starts."

Huang Zhiqiang retorted, "How can you decide who’s useful and who’s not? Not everyone is a highly skilled expert like Zhou. Most people are just ordinary folks their whole lives. We’re just four college students. Knowing they could survive, are we really just going to stand by and watch them die?"

"If you want to be a saint, go right ahead. But I refuse to let others freeload off everything we’ve worked so hard to prepare. Even for a single pack of ramen or one can of food, if you want to eat, you have to prove your worth."

Zhao Youcai’s stance was firmer than ever before.

After being so deeply involved these past few days—he hadn’t even been playing his video games—he had come to see the team’s resources as his own and was dedicated to protecting them.

Huang Zhiqiang wanted to argue back, but he glanced at Yu Dong...

"Dongzi, you make the call. Save them or not? I’ll follow your lead."

Liu Ye’ye remained silent, but the expectation in her eyes was clear.

Yu Dong spoke as if he had anticipated this all along.

"There will be many more situations like this in the future where we disagree. For the sake of quick decision-making, I’ll call for a vote. We’ll go with the majority opinion."

"If there’s a tie, I’ll be the tie-breaker."

None of the other three objected to this.

Zhao Youcai added, "Dongzi, you’ve died in the apocalypse once before. You of all people should understand where I’m coming from."

"Okay... let’s vote. Raise your hand if you’re against the rescue."

Only Zhao Youcai raised his hand.

"Raise your hand if you’re for the rescue."

Yu Dong led by raising his hand, and Huang Zhiqiang and Liu Ye’ye immediately followed suit.

"That’s three votes to one. We’ll proceed with the rescue operation for the five of them."

"Dongzi, why?" Zhao Youcai’s gaze was filled with confusion as he looked at Yu Dong.

"Because... of all things in this world, people are the most precious. In a global catastrophe like this, our only chance of surviving until the end is to unite everyone we possibly can."

After a pause, Yu Dong added, "And if we don’t unite people, someone else will do it in our place."

’For the past few days, Yu Dong had been thinking about one thing... If he had recruited Liang Mian to his team at the very beginning of his past life, would the outcome have been different?’

’There was no answer to that question, but the time to make a choice... was drawing nearer.’

This was the team’s first vote. The final decision was to save the five people.

"Even though we’re rescuing these five, we’ve never met any of them. They’re complete strangers. Getting them into Building One is going to require some maneuvering. Let’s divide and conquer..."

"I’ll take the couple, Liu Ye’ye will handle the pregnant woman, Huang will get the high schooler, and Youcai will take care of the old lady."

"Get them all into Building One an hour before the apocalypse hits tomorrow. And be careful with the pregnant woman."

They all accepted their assignments. After a detailed discussion of the makeshift rescue plan for the next day, it was settled.

’Truth be told... Yu Dong already had a contingency plan for this. He knew the vote would turn out in favor of the rescue.’

Once everything was arranged, Yu Dong glanced out the window...

A tall, skinny, plain-looking man was sitting on a lounge chair in the community courtyard. He was looking at his phone, but his eyes periodically darted toward the entrance of Building One...

’Who is that guy? I don’t remember ever seeing him in my past life.’

Yu Dong’s memory of his past life was photographic. If this man had appeared in his line of sight even once, he would have remembered him.

But this tall, skinny man on the lounge chair had shown up in the Xiangti Bay Community a few days ago and was often seen wandering around. Yu Dong had spotted him frequently.

But in his previous life, this man had definitely never been here.

’Why do I get the feeling he’s watching me... Has the timeline changed again? Or have my actions triggered a butterfly effect?’

’Yu Dong couldn’t help but think about what he’d done in this life. The most flagrant thing was... the compound crossbow.’

’Have the authorities got their eyes on me?’

This wasn’t good news, but Yu Dong decided not to deal with it for now. He didn’t tell his teammates either.

’The apocalypse starts tomorrow. Everything will be over then.’

For now, Yu Dong would pretend he hadn’t noticed anything, so as not to introduce new variables. As long as he could find a way to shake this guy tomorrow while making his key moves and hold out until 7:00 p.m., the pre-apocalyptic order would completely collapse.

When that time came, if the man hadn’t turned into a zombie, Yu Dong would capture and interrogate him. If he turned into a zombie or died in the chaos... so be it.

Yu Dong had no intention of saving a potential threat.

This didn’t conflict with his decision to rescue the other five people.

「That night.」

Yu Dong’s group of four met up with Zhou Jian Country to have barbecue downstairs.

Zhou Jian Country was extremely curious about Yu Dong.

"The day after tomorrow is your deadline. How’s that ’project’ of yours coming along? I hope you’ll keep your promise to delete our video and not keep any copies."

The 250,000 yuan wasn’t what mattered most to Zhou; his reputation was.

The fact that Yu Dong hadn’t contacted him or released the video over the past few days had put him greatly at ease. At least Yu Dong was a man of his word.

"Zhou, tomorrow... come find us on the third floor at 6:30 p.m. I’ll show you our project. After that, you can decide for yourself whether the video should be deleted."

"I’ll be there tomorrow, but the video absolutely has to be deleted. I can make that decision right now."

Zhou’s curiosity about Yu Dong had reached its zenith, so he agreed without hesitation.

After Zhou left, Liu Ye’ye asked curiously, "What about Shen Xinyi? Aren’t you going to give her a heads-up?"

"I just messaged her on WeChat. She’ll be here."

Huang Zhiqiang asked nosily, "What did you say? That your cat can do a backflip? That you made her favorite ice cream for tonight? That you want to watch the sunrise with her?"

Zhao Youcai rolled his eyes.

Liu Ye’ye’s eyes went wide, and she grabbed Yu Dong’s arm.

"Yu Dong, is that true?"

Yu Dong looked exasperated. "You’d have better luck believing I’m Qin Shi Huang than believing Huang... In any case, she’ll be here tomorrow."

Over the past few days, Yu Dong and Shen Xinyi had started chatting frequently on WeChat whenever they were free. They’d also exchange a few words when they ran into each other in the community, so they had grown quite familiar.

Yu Dong had invited her over for dinner at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, and Shen Xinyi had happily accepted.

Assembling the six-person team was going relatively smoothly. The key for tomorrow was getting the other ten people situated.

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