As Xiao Fan was having breakfast, he chatted with Zhao Dashan.
Zhao Dashan said to Xiao Fan, "Brother Xiao, I don't know if you understand the power distribution in Yan Yun City, but I still have to remind you to be wary of a few people."
"Who are they?"
"Chen Fudong from the prison base, Lu Wang from the wholesale market, and the landlord this time, Li Dahai from the farm supply market. These three have quite notorious reputations in the circle. You need to be careful when you meet them later."
Xiao Fan nodded slightly. "What you said makes sense. We do need to be more careful, but we don't need to underestimate ourselves either. If everyone trades normally, things will be fine. But if someone wants to make trouble and take advantage of this opportunity, my brothers won't agree to it either."
At this moment, Meng Qiang, the captain of the newly organized 3rd Company, happened to be back from drill with his men.
The three platoons marched in formation.
Sturdy military boots stomped the ground in unison, producing orderly and uniform footsteps.
Guns swung, bayonets shimmered coldly under the sunlight.
Even the military dogs sat there exceptionally mighty.
Seeing this scene, Zhao Dashan's heart tightened.
He didn't know Xiao Fan had so many men here.
With such strength, they must rank high in Yan Yun City.
Although he had never seen Chen Fudong or Lu Wang's men, he believed their men couldn't be as elite as Xiao Fan's.
This further strengthened Zhao Dashan's determination to follow Xiao Fan.
After breakfast, the two sides converged and headed towards the farm supply market together.
*******
The farm supply market was located in the north-central part of Yan Yun City, considered a suburb.
Li Dahai was the leader there. Adding all the survivors and armed forces, he had no more than four hundred people under him.
This strength wasn't considered strong, probably on par with Han Dongyang from the repair garage, belonging to the second echelon in Yan Yun City.
With such strength, he wouldn't normally qualify to host a major trade conference. However, he had a good location, and two bosses backing him up. That was why this trade conference was held at the farm supply market.
Li Dahai clearly understood his own limits. He definitely couldn't monopolize the profits from the trade conference. He must offer a share to his two bosses to continue standing in Yan Yun City.
These two bosses had arrived a bit earlier than the others and were meeting at the farm supply market now.
"Hahaha! Leader Chen, Leader Lu, welcome, my humble self has wanted to see you two for days!"
Chen Fudong and Lu Wang each brought their men to the farm supply market, running into each other unexpectedly.
Both Chen Fudong and Lu Wang were in their forties. Chen Fudong was a bit fat with sagging cheeks. Lu Wang was thinner, with shifty triangular eyes, clearly no good man.
Chen Fudong brought fifty men, driving seven to eight vehicles, including an armored riot-control police vehicle. Its sturdy body and thick armor proved the power of this steel chariot.
There were also several SUVs and large trucks. It was quite a fleet.
Lu Wang had even more vehicles, with six large trucks alone. He was from the wholesale market with abundant resources, also aiming to make a fortune at the trade conference. His official vehicle was also impressive, an armored cash transport truck with bulletproof capabilities, although not as outstanding as Chen Fudong's riot vehicle.
These bosses valued their lives and put their own safety first.
Li Dahai warmly welcomed them upstairs. The three tacitly formed an alliance.
Upstairs, Li Dahai served them tea and they started talking.
Chen Fudong asked first, "Has no one else arrived yet?"
"Not yet, but they'll be here soon. I guess everyone will have arrived by noon since we start trading then."
"How many leaders will come in total?"
"Around a dozen. Almost all from Yan Yun City."
Hearing this, Chen Fudong turned to Lu Wang, "Leader Lu, what happened with the men you sent out? They couldn't even handle a kid like Xiao Fan?"
Lu Wang also made a pained expression at this. "Leader Chen, I'm not fooling you. I tried my best. Do you know who I sent? It was Li Nanfeng! He took nearly twenty men but has gone missing ever since. What more could I do?"
Li Dahai interjected, "Could they have been wiped out by the zombie horde?"
"Impossible! They rode motorcycles, extremely mobile. Dealing with less than a hundred zombies would be easy for them. Even running into a huge zombie horde, some should have escaped to report back. It's impossible for them to just vanish. So they must have been killed by Xiao Fan's men."
Chen Fudong agreed with Lu Wang's inference and pondered, "Do we have any way to keep Xiao Fan's group here for good?"
Lu Wang thought for a moment, "That won't be easy. There are many leaders coming. Zhao Dashan from Zhao Village, Guo Mingjie from Hot Spring Villa, An Lan from the airport, their strengths aren't much weaker than ours. If we rashly act, it may do more harm than good by provoking them."
Chen Fudong sneered, "What you said makes sense, but you forgot the most crucial point."
"What is it?"
"Interests!"
Chen Fudong asserted, "Don't be fooled by their usual disagreements with us. That's because the stakes haven't been high enough. But if a huge temptation is dangled in front of them, I believe they'll be moved."
"What do you mean?"
"You should know Xiao Fan is trading gold and silver. As I remember, he even said he would trade mutant beast meat. You know what that represents right? Strategic resources! Something that can enhance human physique. Other than Xiao Fan, no one is willing to trade that away."
"Heh heh, you understand me now right? Xiao Fan dares to say that, meaning he has a lot of mutant beast meat. Such a temptation would make many envious. We can contact like-minded allies and simply rob him outright. As long as we win over half the leaders, even if some oppose, they can't stop us."
Lu Wang and Li Dahai exchanged glances, feeling Chen Fudong's idea could work.
In the apocalypse, you had to follow your desires without inhibitions. Moreover, Xiao Fan had offended both Chen Fudong and Lu Wang, who wished him dead.
"Good, then it's decided. When the other leaders arrive, we'll lobby them separately. As long as half support us, Xiao Fan will have nowhere to go but hell!"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
