Edge of the Apocalypse

Chapter 77: Chapter 72: Apocalyptic Dark Forest Law

The squad’s top tactical asset—the drone—was destroyed.

And the one who did it even left a threat.

"Why?"

Liu Ye’ye looked on in disbelief.

This drone was her favorite and the easiest for her to operate. It was her main tool for helping the squad, and just like that... it had been inexplicably shot down.

Shen Xinyi empathized. "How could someone just smash another person’s things? Couldn’t they have talked it out?"

Yan Yikai was even more indignant.

"Whoever’s in Building 2... Who is such a scumbag! Don’t let me catch you, you bastard!"

"Who the hell do you think you are! You want to kill us? How many of you are there, anyway!"

Those five words made Zhao Youcai feel personally attacked.

"Dongzi, those bastards in Building 2 didn’t say a damn thing. They just attacked us right off the bat and now they dare to threaten us? These aren’t ordinary survivors. We have to hit them hard!"

Zhou, however, had some reservations.

"Has it really come to that? ...Maybe they’re just paranoid, afraid we’d invade their privacy and threaten their safety. It’s probably just a stress reaction. Shouldn’t we try to communicate first?"

Huang was also on the conservative side. "I agree. We should try to communicate first, not just rush into a fight blindly..."

Zhao Youcai jabbed a finger at Huang’s chest. "Huang, you’re a big guy for nothing! They’re already walking all over us, and you still want to talk?!"

"I’ll listen to Dongzi."

Huang didn’t argue with Zhao Youcai, quickly turning his gaze to Yu Dong. The others did the same.

In the days they had spent together, Yu Dong’s foresight, fairness, and calm demeanor had established him as the group’s undisputed core.

Yu Dong glanced at the drone parts on the ground and the five words on the fourth-floor window, a plan already beginning to form in his mind.

"Their group is small. It might even be a lone wolf."

They had just been debating whether or not to attack. His sudden statement left them all a bit stunned.

Yan Yikai asked, "Brother Dong, how do you know that?"

"That kind of extreme, exclusionary declaration isn’t something a group of three or more people would send."

"What if their group is made up entirely of people like that?"

"Then they wouldn’t have formed a group in the first place."

Yu Dong said calmly.

The others all drew in a sharp breath.

"That makes sense..."

Of course, Yu Dong had other evidence to support his judgment. For one, in his past life, he’d never discovered any survivors in Building 2. In this life, the few times he’d checked with his binoculars, he hadn’t seen any trace of people either.

Most likely, there were very few people living there, and like him, they were intentionally using their curtains to avoid outside detection.

After hearing Yu Dong’s explanation, Zhao Youcai slammed a hand on the window.

"Then what the hell do they have to be arrogant about! Let’s just raid Building 2 tomorrow! Take them alive! Once I get my hands on them, I hope their kneecaps are as tough as the paper on that wall!"

Yan Yikai chimed in, "Exactly! There are so many of us, and we have weapons and gear. There’s no way we’re scared of them! They think they can keep me from going home? I *have* to get back into Building 2!"

His home was in Building 2, but his family had all turned into zombies. Yan Yikai wanted to go put them out of their misery and set up a small grave for them in the complex so they could finally rest in peace.

Yu Dong shook his head.

"No. They may be few in number, but they’re competent. A small group cleared out the entire stairwell and even found the time to seal off the first floor. With that level of stealth, they aren’t idiots. We should take their threat seriously."

"They might actually kill anyone who gets near Building 2."

"And if I’m not mistaken... they’ll be extremely tense, cautious, and aggressive right now. This is not the right time to enter Building 2."

Hearing this, Zhou nodded repeatedly.

"Exactly. They’re handling things this well without any foreknowledge, so they must have some skill. We’re doing fine right now; there’s no need to provoke them. Besides, we have more than one drone. The loss is acceptable. We can just stay away from Building 2 from now on."

Liu Ye’ye said sadly, "I still have three drones... but only one more is this good. The other two have weaker signals and a smaller offline operational range. They’re basically meant to be disposable."

Drones come in all sorts of models, with prices ranging from under a hundred dollars to several thousand.

The drone Liu Ye’ye normally used cost more than a thousand dollars and was extremely powerful. Even with the internet down, it could move freely throughout the complex via the controller’s built-in signal receiver.

Shen Xinyi snorted.

"Just let it go like that? Let them get away with shooting down our drone? Our dual-flight plan with Ye Ye is ruined before we even started."

By now, Yu Dong had gradually thought everything through.

"Let it go? Impossible. We’re going to drag them out of Building 2 and deal with them. But not now."

"But... Dongzi, aren’t we just assuming they’re bad guys? They didn’t attack *us*, after all. They just shot down our drone and told us not to get close. We can’t just condemn them entirely for that, can we?"

Huang Zhiqiang added, his line of thinking similar to Zhou’s.

Yu Dong assessed the group’s current mood.

Zhao Youcai, Yan Yikai, and Shen Xinyi were the firm pro-confrontation faction.

Huang Zhiqiang and Zhou were the pro-peace faction.

Liu Ye’ye didn’t speak, only looking at him with her big, pitiful eyes...

Though she was clearly heartbroken, she would do whatever he decided.

Yu Dong had long anticipated this kind of ideological split within the team when faced with a potential enemy, and this time, he would side with the pro-confrontation faction.

"Let’s go. We’re done for the day. Let’s head up, and I’ll tell you a story..."

"The main characters of the story are called the Lin Gang."

In Apartment 501, after they finished dinner, Yu Dong told them a short story about ruthlessness, stealth, control, and spies.

Seeing that they were all lost in thought, Yu Dong didn’t wait for them to start discussing.

"I believe that good people make up the majority of the world. But the transformation from a good person to a bad one... can be just one uncontrolled desire away."

"And an apocalypse, freed from the constraints of rules, will amplify all of a person’s desires."

"The two people in the Lin Gang weren’t bad people in the traditional sense, but one of them drove a good person to suicide, and the other abetted a tyrant, killing two innocent people who had saved her."

"Was it because saving her was the wrong thing to do? No, I don’t think so."

"I believe the key mistake was... from the very beginning, they failed to assume the worst about that gang! They never imagined they would use such extreme methods to attack others."

"The truth is, the apocalypse is a dark time. Once humanity stops producing, resources are finite. Every group and individual will fight to seize those resources to survive. This is inevitable until production can be restored."

"Before the apocalypse, many people subscribed to the logic of ’my neighbor hoards food, I’ll hoard guns.’ This reflects the phenomenon perfectly. Production is too slow, killing zombies is too dangerous, but robbing from your own kind only requires a knife."

"Therefore, the apocalypse is also a giant dark forest. We must assume that every new group or individual we encounter is an enemy threatening our squad’s survival, until both sides can communicate and eliminate suspicion... or until we completely neutralize them."

"And right now, we must classify the small group or lone wolf in Building 2 as a hypothetical enemy threatening our survival. They’ve proven through their actions that they refuse to communicate, so we must be the ones to neutralize them."

After Yu Dong finished his story and conclusion, everyone was convinced. There were no dissenting opinions.

Yan Yikai asked, "So what’s our plan?"

Yu Dong smiled faintly.

"Ye Ye, this afternoon, post a note that says, ’Let’s keep to ourselves.’ Let them lower their guard."

"Then we’ll go about our business and ignore Building 2. We’ll wait until they’re no longer on edge, when they think the whole thing has blown over..."

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