novelraw Chapter 323 First Opportunity
Chapter 323 First Opportunity
The convoy was ready, and the engines roared to life one after another.
The road ahead was no longer as difficult as the riverbed, but a flat and straight highway.
Nirvana no longer took on the responsibility of paving the way.
Fu Xiaojian's warriors returned to their original positions and once again took the lead.
When the convoy set off, the blood-red sun was already past its zenith.
The smooth road stretched out beneath the wheels, and the landscape on both sides gradually returned to its normal wilderness.
Compared to the suffocating mud of the tidal flats, this is a rare smooth road.
Moreover, the car speed can be increased quickly, and the roar of the engine has a touch of lightness.
"Commander, road conditions are good, but visibility is less than 400 meters. We recommend maintaining a safe distance and slowing down."
This familiar mist is something even the Blood Sun cannot overcome.
"No strange energy was detected within 50 kilometers, and the threat level is assessed as 'low'."
"Keep a close eye on things, and report back if any special circumstances arise!"
Xu Si responded and remained seated on the roof of the car, the Sword of Punishment resting across his lap. The fine crystalline patterns on the scabbard occasionally shimmered with a faint iridescent light in the sunlight.
The convoy drove for more than an hour before the rushing river finally disappeared from their sight.
And the horizon also began to show subtle changes.
More and more dead trees are appearing on both sides of the road, like artificially planted protective forests, dense but lifeless.
It's like the desolation of autumn, and also like the silence of winter.
Now the dry branches that the convoy hadn't used up were no longer of any use, but at least there was no shortage of firewood.
The highway stretches straight into the depths of the fog, with endless rows of dead trees on both sides, like a line of veterans welcoming and seeing off the old soldiers.
After the Warrior, it was Ronaldinho's Hummer SUV.
Since losing his speech, Xiao Luo seems much more composed and reliable, making people unconsciously separate him from the group of children.
Following them were two SUVs driven by Lin Zhennan and Hinata Aoi.
Through the rearview mirror, Hinata Aoi could clearly see Xu Si on Nirvana, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Next up are Jiao Jiao's chariot and Chen Pei's RV.
Through the rear window of Hinata Aoi's off-road vehicle, Jiao Jiao mumbled something only she could understand.
Shao Bing's ambulance, Wang Hu's troop carrier, and Ivan's truck drove in front of Tashan's bus and Pei Xiu's public bus.
For the past few days, Pei Xiu has been considering whether or not to abandon the bus.
Because this bus is an old, well-established gasoline-powered vehicle.
It's an old car salvaged from a warehouse, and it's quite remarkable that it's still running today.
Moreover, having been buried in the mudflats, this guy was practically dead.
Besides, he's almost at the point where he can no longer afford to keep this huge oil rat.
He can borrow fuel from the fleet once or twice, but borrowing more than that would be really unreasonable.
Having spent the past few days with him, he had come to understand Tashan's character; ordinary people under his protection had not suffered any mistreatment.
He was also considering whether to get rid of this "burden".
Xu Si's Nirvana made a grand finale, and although the vehicle was huge, its speed was in no way inferior to the other vehicles.
It's even quieter.
Inside a certain bus.
……
Like everyone else, the ordinary person who obtained the strange item for the first time still cherished and examined the various weapons in his hands.
Although we can't see the ranking of the rare items or their specific details, the joy we feel is no less.
The number of ordinary people on Peixiu Bus was exactly the same as that on Tashan Bus, a total of seven people, four women and three men.
"Mr. Pei, is it really alright for us to keep these?"
The driver was a middle-aged man named Qian Dafu, who used to drive a large truck, transporting fruit from south to north.
Before the apocalypse, he had a beer belly; now he's quite strong and muscular, but his personality is that of a truly honest and straightforward person.
His wife, Xu Huiying, was also on the bus; she had been driving with Qian Dafu since before the apocalypse.
"Why are you bothering so much? Everyone's taking advantage of you, aren't they?"
Xu Huiying said this because she was afraid that Qian Dafu's words would offend the other people in the carriage.
After all, what will others think if I say this?
Pei Xiu ignored Xu Huiying's shrewdness.
However, the gazes of the others were somewhat unreadable.
The ordinary people in the train crew still have firearms, but they really have nothing.
If Pei Xiu takes away these weapons because of Qian Dafu's words, will they give them to him or not?
If we give it to them, they will truly be defenseless.
Although they are ordinary people, they can still harm the supernatural by wielding strange objects, which is their last lifeline.
If they don't give it to them, they've seen Pei Xiu's one-headed staff before.
Their heads don't just explode with a single tap.
They knew all too well how precious these rare items were.
Of their entire convoy, only that Japanese girl had that one unusual item.
Now they each have one, and anyone who wants them to hand it over is their enemy.
"Brother Qian, what do you mean by that? Each member of the team has one, if you don't want it, give it to me!"
The one who spoke was the youngest of the three men, named Fang Bo, though he was already in his thirties. He was most interested in the strange object in his hand.
He was also the one who most desperately wanted to obtain extraordinary power; he wanted it even at the cost of his life.
"That's not what my husband meant!" Xu Huiying quickly tried to cover it up.
"Xiao Bo, that's not what Lao Qian meant! Don't get agitated!"
Li Jianqiu tried to smooth things over; he was the oldest member of the team.
It was also in this car that the ostensible butler helped Pei Xiu resolve internal conflicts within the car team.
So his words did have some effect.
The old people who have lived to this day must have some amazing abilities; their graves would be three feet high with dirt by now.
As for the other three women, they were named Qi Dai, Mu Qingqing, and Gu Momo.
These three were a small group and had been observing the situation.
Moreover, the three of them were colleagues before, all of them in sales, and each of them was of excellent appearance and physique. However, they were incredibly lucky and never had anyone take advantage of them.
This was also thanks to Jin Shuting's methods, who perished together with Zhou Jun.
Under their intimidating presence, no man dared to fawn over these three.
The three of them deliberately kept a low profile, which allowed them to smoothly transition to the present.
"He better not have meant that!"
Fang Bo did not deliberately suppress his voice.
Now that they are all members of the Salary Train team, he is not so afraid of Pei Xiu attacking him anymore.
Qian Dafu's face was very ugly. He was losing face after being scolded by a young boy.
Pei Xiu remained inactive, choosing to observe from the sidelines.
The team has now been merged into the Xinhuo team.
Especially after witnessing the food and benefits of the train crew, it's understandable that people's thoughts would waver.
Moreover, Lin Zhennan also had the idea of completely disbanding the racing team.
What does "thoroughly" mean?
Even if two people stick together, it's not a complete solution.
Not to mention the whole carload of people.
Although most of them are ordinary people.
As people age, they become wiser, and Pei Xiu and Li Jianqiu both understood this principle.
So Li Jianqiu was actually happy to see the conflict erupt in the car.
If they can truly integrate into the salary train team, his survival as an elderly ordinary person will be more secure.
Before the apocalypse, he was a junior executive at a state-owned enterprise, and he was confident that he could establish himself in the motorcade with that position.
After all, wherever there are people, there is politics, and there is a need for management.
He only needs to play to his strengths; he can survive without even needing a sequence.
Moreover, once these ordinary people are fully integrated into the salary train team...
He had a natural advantage in management, since the people on the bus were naturally his allies.
Ordinary people would only gravitate towards him, and given his abilities, it would be perfectly reasonable for him to rejoin the management of the car company.
Most importantly, based on his observations, Tashan was completely clueless about management, or rather, he simply didn't care.
He usually enjoys cooking, eating, and sleeping.
Oh, and she also has a habit of talking in her sleep.
However, none of these are of great importance.
At least in his view, these ordinary people were the easiest to manage.
Especially under the power of the apocalypse.
The brief tense standoff inside the car did not affect Pei Xiu in the slightest.
His aged yet exceptionally clear eyes slowly swept over every face in the carriage, each with its own unique expression.
Qian Dafu's predicament, Xu Huiying's vigilance, and Fang Bo's wariness as he looked at himself.
And the almost imperceptible hint of expectation at the corner of Li Jianqiu's mouth when he lowered his eyes.
He saw all of this.
In fact, he had wanted to fully integrate into the Xinhuo team for a long time, even faster than Lin Zhennan.
He made this decision when the entire Xinhuo team took to the stage.
The reason they didn't take immediate action was that they wanted to hold onto some leverage.
Now that he's familiar with the whole team, he no longer thinks that way.
This is a team that doesn't treat people as bargaining chips.
He lived for sixty-seven years, witnessing the ebb and flow of life and the turmoil of human nature.
This was true before the end times, and it will be true after the end times.
The only difference is that the waves are rougher and there are more reefs.
But he intends to hold onto the reef that is the salary train team.
"Alright, rest tonight and find your own way out!" Pei Xiu said, her words carrying an undeniable weight.
The carriage fell silent; even Qian Dafu's heavy breathing subsided.
Qi Dai, Mu Qing, and Gu Momo's eyes lit up immediately.
They had already figured out the composition of the salary train team.
To put it simply, there are too many wolves and not enough meat.
They couldn't tell from the few pieces of meat that the others had any designs on them.
This is their opportunity.
And that makes them more likely to target others.
For example, that big guy, or Wang Hu and Shao Bing with their child, or even Ivan.
If these few people can't win them over, there are two more young people in the team who are more suitable for them.
However, both Yang Fan and Li Miao are Sequence 1.
If possible, they would still prefer to choose someone stronger.
Unable to awaken the sequence, this is their current optimal solution.
……
"This...I..." Qian Dafu was speechless for a moment, his Adam's apple bobbing, but in the end he didn't say anything.
Xu Huiying opened her mouth, wanting to say a few words to smooth things over for her husband, but found that her throat felt blocked.
Her usual shrewdness and maneuvering suddenly failed her at this moment.
Fang Bo was stunned for a moment, his eyes also filled with joy.
Li Jianqiu breathed a sigh of relief; he still wanted to say something polite.
However, he found that Pei Xiu had closed his eyes to rest and was obviously not concerned about their thoughts, so he did not cause any further trouble.
No one cheered, but everyone felt a sense of relief.
Li Jianqiu closed his eyes, as if taking a nap, completely ignoring the fact that the others had already begun plotting to divide up the few remaining supplies on the vehicle.
……
The atmosphere inside the bus in Tashan was completely different from that in Peixiu's area.
The sausage was leaning against the window, drawing crooked little figures on the glass with its finger.
Doubao squeezed next to her, and the two of them faced the same window, their breaths blurring the newly drawn pattern.
Master Wei leaned back in the last row of seats, two amber beetles resting quietly on his shoulder, seemingly fast asleep.
He was still slowly digesting the various insights he had gained after being promoted to Sequence 2, as well as those new features.
Jiang Li sat diagonally opposite him, flipping through various books that the convoy had collected earlier.
Tashan sat in the most spacious seat behind the driver's seat, his legs stretched out long, leaning against the back wall of the driver's seat, snoring as regularly as an old-fashioned clock.
"Brother Shan is asleep again," said Sausage quietly.
"Brother Shan is the same whether he sleeps or not," Doubao commented seriously.
"Why isn't Brother Shan counting today?"
"Did I count too many last night?" Doubao pondered softly, peering through the carriage towards the front.
In the middle of the carriage, several ordinary people were cleaning their weapons.
At this point, firearms were no longer appealing; melee weapons were the true love.
What they are most looking forward to now is encountering other teams.
That way they might be able to exchange their strange artifact for a bizarre drop.
In this way, they could borrow a Sequence Awakening Potion from Xu Si.
That's a Sequence Awakening Potion!
So, to be precise, they were more excited than anyone else.
In particular, they know more than others who have just joined the Salary Train team, which is an advantage.
Those people in the Jingzhe caravan probably knew how precious the rare item was.
But they knew even more that the caravan had something even more valuable than the rare artifact.
The highway stretched endlessly through the fog.
The withered trees outside the window receded at a steady pace, like frames of faded old film.
Pei Xiu couldn't help but recall his time as a workshop director in the factory when he was young, and what he feared most was "separation of the family business".
Several groups of people, several sets of equipment, several blueprints—if any of these are not distributed evenly, they will cause a scene in the factory manager's office, banging on the table.
At that time, I felt that people's hearts were the most difficult thing in the world to appease.
Now it's simpler.
Give them back the choice; entrust yourselves to yourselves.
Before the end of the world, all his children went abroad, and his wife left him. He had been lonely for too long.
He awakened by chance after the apocalypse and once again became everyone's support, a feeling he liked.
It was as if he had returned to that workshop, back to his familiar post, where he was needed and respected by everyone.
He glanced at the back of the carriage.
Li Jianqiu closed his eyes, his breathing as steady as if he were truly asleep.
The three women, Qi Dai, Qi Dai, and Qi Dai, huddled in a corner, their voices hushed, occasionally letting out suppressed laughter, and sometimes teasing each other.
Fang Bo held the sword as if it were his reliance and his source of confidence.
Qian Dafu gripped the steering wheel, but his back slumped as if it had lost its support.
Pei Xiu withdrew her gaze and smiled for no apparent reason.
Some people really do become less mature as they get older.
So this is what it feels like to truly be relieved of a burden.
Just like this bus that has run out of fuel and can finally turn off the engine and stop on the side of the road, letting the passing wind visit it as it pleases.
He closed his eyes.