Rotting Land: Survive

"Hey, young man, we don’t want to make things difficult for you, but you need to tell us the truth, otherwise my companion here isn’t as patient as I am." Xu Renjie’s words were casual, but the way he played with the Tiger’s Fang in his hand revealed his cold intent.

The young man was clearly very afraid of Old Xu, especially seeing him draw the knife, he timidly took a step back. Unfortunately, behind him was a solid wall, so unsurprisingly, the young man ended up bumping into the wall and looked particularly embarrassed.

"I’m telling the truth, I really am alone. Please let me go."

The pleading words, the beseeching gaze, Tang Xiaoquan scrutinized the young man’s expression carefully.

If, at this moment, he was pretending, then it only showed the young man had a talent for acting.

Because his expression appeared genuinely real, it was nearly impossible to find any flaw.

"Alone!?" Xu Renjie sneered with a face that didn’t match his smile, then suddenly stabbed the knife into the table.

His abrupt action not only startled the young man but even Old Zhao, Wang Qiang, and the others were surprised by the "crack" sound of the knife embedding into the table.

"You snuck into this place alone in the middle of the night, don’t tell me you’re here to play!!" Xu Renjie ignored everyone’s reaction, his eyes slightly narrowed, his voice low and chilling.

"You, don’t misunderstand, I, I didn’t mean any harm, I, I just came to find some food."

"Is that so? You came all this way just for some food!? You dressed so tightly just for food!? You were wandering around the village with this thing just for food!?" As he spoke, Old Xu placed the Steel Blade he had confiscated from the young man onto the table, the shiny blade reflecting ominously in the candlelight.

Seeing the blade laid out, the young man immediately panicked and hurriedly explained, "I brought these for self-defense, for dealing with zombies, not against you."

"Heh, you know there are zombies here, so why choose the dead of night to act? Don’t you know that night is when zombies are most active?"

Old Xu wasn’t a naive child to be easily fooled by the young man’s excuses.

Under his aggressive pressing, the young man clearly struggled to hold up.

"Speak! What’s your real purpose in coming to the village!" Old Xu took advantage of the situation, seeing the young man’s panic, aiming to deal a fatal verbal blow.

"I, I really came to the village for supplies!"

Seeing the young man on the verge of tears, Tang Xiaoquan timely interjected, "What’s your name?"

"Me?" Startled, the young man turned his gaze to Tang Xiaoquan. Seeing the latter’s gentle appearance, unlike Old Xu’s fierceness, his fear noticeably subsided, "I, I’m called Derek."

"Dukurs?" Hearing this, Tang Xiaoquan frowned, thinking this name sounded familiar.

The young man helplessly corrected, "Not Dukurs, it’s Derek."

"Why such a name?" Old Zhao found it peculiar and casually asked.

The young man explained, "I’m an overseas Chinese, Derek is my Huaxia name, and my foreign name is Derrick."

With these words, Old Zhao and the others exchanged looks.

"You’re a foreigner?" Tang Xiaoquan asked uncertainly, "From which country?"

"From country M." The young man answered truthfully.

Upon hearing this, Tang Xiaoquan scrutinized the young man again, from his attire and appearance to his pronunciation, indeed he had an air of being someone from overseas.

Just as Tang Xiaoquan was preparing to delve deeper, the hand-held radio in Old Xu’s hand buzzed.

"Commander, commander! Do you read, please respond! Do you read, please respond! Over!"

Xu Renjie raised his hand, motioning for silence, then glanced at Derek in the corner, and pressed the talk button on the radio, answering in a deep voice, "This is Xu Renjie, Xiao Xin, what’s the situation outside? Over!"

"Well... Lei and I split up and searched the village, found nothing unusual, please advise on next steps! Over!"

Old Xu nodded slightly, Old Zhao stepped to his side, patted Old Xu on the shoulder, and the two headed to the back room.

"What’s the matter, Old Zhao?" Old Xu was the first to ask once inside the room.

Old Zhao frowned, glancing outside the room, and responded solemnly, "Old Xu, what do you think about what the young man said?"

Old Xu thought for a moment, "It can’t be completely trusted, but not entirely disbelieved either."

Nodding, it was clear Old Zhao agreed with Old Xu’s view, "So what’s your plan?"

"Well..." Old Xu looked at Old Zhao, then asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

Old Zhao indeed had an idea, otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of pulling Old Xu aside, "I think we might as well confront it openly, you see, if the other side wanted to ambush us in the middle of the night, they would certainly have scouted everything thoroughly. Even if we hide or huddle up, we may not be able to prevent their sneak attack. On the contrary, if we act in reverse, organizing a significant search outside might throw them off and make them abandon their original plan."

Upon hearing this, Old Xu paced a few steps in the room with his hands behind his back, then seemed to decide, picking up the radio to issue orders.

Just like that... Old Xu’s command was quickly issued.

Soon after, the silent village became lively.

First was the roar of car engines, Lei Tong parked the cars at the front and back entrances of the village, turning on the headlights.

Then, he parked two more cars at Old Zhao’s door, again, turning on the headlights.

With the blockade and lighting of the four cars, the village’s front, back, and a third direction were temporarily secure.

Secondly, Old Xu ordered everyone to gather at Old Zhao’s home.

He had thought it over carefully, instead of being passively beaten when dispersed, it was better to gather in one house and defend together.

Thus, the enemy hidden in the dark would not be able to execute a sneak attack; if they wanted to act, they would have to reveal themselves with clear confrontations.

Finally, Old Xu was not someone who liked being controlled; he was not going to wait for the enemy’s attack.

After setting up the main defenses at the front and back entrances, he rallied Lei Tong and Hua Biao, along with Wei Dazhuang and Hu Xiaodong, the more physically capable among them, and started combing the area armed with guns.

This way, Old Xu devised a three-step strategy.

On the perimeter, he personally led a team to actively patrol.

Inside, Old Lin secured the two primary routes.

Lastly, Old Zhao led the brothers at home, holding double-barreled shotguns, to guard.

Old Xu believed that the attackers would either choose not to attack or, if they attacked, would be met with severe resistance and perish.

With these three defense lines, the survivors kept communicating through the radio, and having previously endured a "trial by fire" at the villa, they weren’t too panicked about the current situation.

After all, they had encountered similar ambushes before, so mentally they were prepared.

Time ticked by, second by second, and tonight the night was exceptionally deep. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)