Chapter 21 Recruiting
These people were more than capable of bullying ordinary people, but when faced with Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu, two battle-hardened warriors, they were cut down like vegetables.
"What a pity. If my cultivation was still here, there wouldn't be so much trouble. With a wave of my hand, all these people would be dead without a burial place."
Wan Lei shook his head as he broke the leg of each looter.
Unfortunately, three people died on the spot during the fight with Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu.
The remaining four were dragged together by Wan Lei, sitting back to back.
As for Karen and Fang Xiaoyu, they had already begun to search the dead for supplies.
Unfortunately, only a little bit of dry food and water were found.
Wan Lei walked to the four men, placing the Thunder God's Hammer on the broken leg of the man in front. The man immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream.
*Pa!*
Lei, the big bully, slapped him in the face without asking anything and took all four of their bags, throwing them to Fang Xiaoyu.
"Who are you? Why are you robbing us?"
"We… we are bandits, outlaws. We used to be wandering criminals, specializing in robbing villages of their food and supplies, robbing wherever we go."
The screaming man immediately stopped, answering quickly with a pleading look in his eyes, as if wanting him to take the heavy hammer away.
"You only robbed food and supplies? Was there anything else?"
"There were… there were also some women and slaves, all in our stronghold."
"Where is your stronghold?"
"Hey, Wan Lei, you're not planning to go save those people, are you? We don't have time for that."
Karen couldn't help but speak up after hearing Wan Lei's words.
Wan Lei ignored him, continuing to question the robber,
"Where is your stronghold? How many horses do you have? How many bandits are there? How many men and women have you captured?"
"The stronghold is twenty *li* to the west, on a small hilltop that you can see at a glance. It's a temporary stronghold, not very strong. We move to a different place to rob every once in a while.
There are twelve bandits in total, seven here, and five in the stronghold, plus a dozen good horses. Among the people we captured, there are eight women and seven men, all lower-ranked sinners."
"They outnumber you, why don't they resist?"
"We are all middle-ranked sinners, they can't beat us.
Yesterday… I don't know what happened, all our sins disappeared, but fortunately, we are ruthless enough that those lower-ranked sinners don't dare to resist for the time being."
"What is their physical condition?"
Seeing Wan Lei still asking, Karen rushed to his side, grabbed him, and pulled him up,
"What do you think? Lower-ranked sinner slaves live worse than dogs. It's good enough if they have something to eat and don't starve to death. Just now, those guys said they wanted to capture us and make us slaves, not give us food and let us starve to death and then throw us away.
Those slaves probably have a lot of infectious diseases and terminal illnesses, and might even be disabled."
"No, no, no, we just captured those people less than two weeks ago. We just arrived at this place. Those people are all healthy sinners, just a little hungry, but it won't affect them much.
Three heroes, please go save them and spare us."
Wan Lei nodded, picked up the hammer, and looked thoughtful.
Seeing that Wan Lei clearly wanted to go save those sinners, Karen couldn't even bother to drink water or eat, frowning and earnestly trying to persuade him.
"I said, brother, I know you're kind and a saint, but what time is it now? Now is a disaster, the end of the world! Your kindness will kill you!
Look, look up at the sky."
Karen pointed to the sky, where a meteor-like fireball streaked across the sky and fell into the distance. They had seen such celestial bodies falling several times in the past few days.
"We've been lucky these past two days and haven't been smashed to death, but sooner or later our luck will run out and we'll be smashed to death. The most urgent thing now is to go to a shelter. Only underground shelters can withstand the surface damage from these celestial bodies falling.
Why do you want to waste time saving those sinners? Can you save all the billions of people on the planet? Why bring them to waste our food!"
Wan Lei smiled, pulled Karen to the side,
"I remember you said that you not only want to live, but also want to live better. You also said that you want to build your own power so that you can survive in this doomsday. Aren't I recruiting people now?"
"Big brother, we haven't even made a mark yet. The most important thing now is to find a shelter, get through these six months of celestial body falls, and then, when the disaster era is over and the wasteland era arrives, we can start recruiting people."
"By that time, people will have already formed small groups. Why would they listen to us? Why wouldn't they kill us and take our shelter?"
"Even if what you said makes sense, shouldn't we choose stronger, kinder people? These lower-ranked sinners have been lacking food and clothing since they were young, what use are they?"
"Kind people are used to a life of comfort, and they haven't recovered from their previous luxurious lives. They haven't experienced too many days of hunger.
Kind people won't be loyal to you, but will resent you, because they used to eat well and sleep well, but when they get to the shelter, they have to live in dark, sunless caves and eat coarse grains and chaff. They will resent you.
But sinners are often hungry. If you rescue them, prevent them from being exploited and bullied by bandits, save them from dying under the falling celestial bodies, give them clothes to wear, and give them food to eat, they will be very grateful to you and loyal to you.
When dealing with subordinates, you need to show kindness. The feeling of providing charcoal in the snow is far more reliable than gilding the lily.
After half a year, the kind people will also be living a life worse than dogs, and after suffering from hunger, they will adapt to that kind of life.
At that time, there will be no distinction between kind people and sinners. It won't be too late to recruit them then."
After thinking carefully about Wan Lei's words, Karen nodded, feeling that it made sense.
"Okay, do as you see fit, but if there are any problems, you will be responsible for killing or driving people away."
"Don't worry, I won't let anyone kill you."
Wan Lei looked at the four people sitting together, sighed,
"If I had known, I should have interrogated them separately. Now I don't know if what that guy said is true or false."
"Let's go, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get to the shelter."
Fang Xiaoyu was still chewing on dry food, holding a water bag in her hand, and her words were mumbled.
"You two are already eating, without waiting for me."
Wan Lei looked at the dry food in Fang Xiaoyu's hand, grabbed the one in Karen's hand, and chewed it greedily.
"…" Karen.
Three horses died during the battle, and there were three good horses left for them to use.
(Congratulations to Yuxin Mei'er for becoming the first leader of this book. Thank you for your sincere efforts. The author will continue to work hard and dedicate the best works to the lovely readers. Thank you again.)