North Anheford area, within a city ruin that few relic hunters visit anymore.

Yas stood on the top floor of the tallest building, gazing at the surrounding scenery through the relatively intact and clean floor-to-ceiling windows.

The old-world city was so vast that most of the scene that met his eyes was still various buildings, streets of varying widths, and rusted cars that could no longer be repaired.

They spread out, painting a picture of loss and desolation on the land.

But unlike the old world, the city was now wrapped and entangled in green, with various plants growing and a large number of mosquitoes flying, like a real jungle.

Yas was the leader of the "Vulture" bandit gang. In the northern wasteland, their reputation was only slightly worse than a few of their peers, like "North."

Frankly, Yas looked down on bandit gangs like "North," believing they were brainless, never considering the consequences, and only doing things that would damage their future interests, such as participating in the slave trade.

In Yas's view, people were the most valuable resource, and everyone in the wasteland could create wealth for themselves. Selling them to those slave traders was simply idiotic.

He believed that the settlements of those wilderness wanderers should not only be preserved but also provided with a certain degree of protection to prevent the "First City's" slave-catching teams from finding and destroying them.

This was because wilderness wanderers always followed the instincts ingrained in their blood, establishing settlements in places suitable for cultivation. Whenever they were about to harvest grain, Yas would lead the "Vulture" bandit gang to plunder them.

With this strategy, and with the help of settlements large and small, the "Vulture" bandit gang never worried about food and lived with great confidence every day.

To this end, when they robbed those settlements, they would not take all the grain. They would definitely leave some behind, so that, in combination with wild hunting, a large portion of those wilderness wanderers could survive the winter, live until the second year, and continue to cultivate, forming a cycle.

Of course, the "Vulture" bandit gang would not directly say that this was their purpose. Yas would use a condescending tone to make the people in those settlements offer up the selected women to satisfy his and his subordinates' desires in exchange for corresponding amounts of grain.

If the other party refused, Yas would not hesitate to use bullets, blades, and blood to make them understand who was in charge, and then achieve his goals directly with violence in front of them.

Yas, who liked to read old-world history books, even considered whether or not to implement the "right of the first night" in the areas covered by his bandit gang's strength.

He eventually gave up this idea because it was simply impossible to achieve.

They couldn't truly take those settlements as their own. The "First City's" slave-catching teams, the regular army chasing down bandit gangs, other bandit gangs, and the relic hunter teams that occasionally worked as bandits and reached a certain scale would all pose a threat to those settlements.

The reason why people on the gray earth still called the residents of the settlements wilderness wanderers was because they couldn't settle in one place for long. Every seven or eight years, or even sooner, they would be forced by reality to migrate to other places.

Fortunately, other bandit gangs only traded with slave traders and didn't dare to cooperate directly with the "First City's" slave-catching teams, fearing that they themselves would become the other party's spoils of war. Otherwise, there wouldn't be many settlements left to provide food for the "Vulture" bandit gang.

As for the bandit gangs that themselves controlled mineral resources and broke through settlements to accumulate slaves for their own industries, Yas felt that their behavior was justifiable, but it was simply envy-inducing.

With a basic guarantee of food, the "Vulture's" style of behavior was just like their name. They liked to "circle" around their prey, waiting for the other party to show a weak side, and then swoop down to snatch the fattest part.

This was also why Yas always liked to find the top floors of high-rise buildings to look around whenever he entered a city ruin.

This gave him a sense of satisfaction that he was looking down on the world and controlling everything.

In his eyes, everyone and every team in the northern wasteland, as long as they showed a weak state, was prey about to die. He and his bandit gang were waiting to turn them into corpses and transform them into carrion.

As night fell, the city ruins were gradually swallowed by darkness. Yas reluctantly withdrew his gaze and walked down the stairs.

For him, climbing stairs was also a form of exercise.

Compared to coming up, the journey down was much easier, but Yas, who liked to read old-world books, still wore knee pads outside his trousers to protect his joints.

"Knowledge is power..." Whenever he encountered a similar scene, Yas would think of this old-world proverb.

This was what his teacher had told him when he was a child.

At that time, he still lived in a wilderness wanderer settlement, and adults would take turns being teachers every week, teaching the children to read.

When he came of age, he could go out hunting. The feeling of not being able to fill his stomach for a long time and his own strong desire for various things led Yas to embark on the path of banditry with a group of companions.

To this day, he still remembered the old-world proverb that prompted him to make up his mind:

Plunder is better than hard work!

As for the original wilderness wanderer settlement, after the older generation who looked down on bandits withered away, the remaining people either followed Yas or migrated to other places.

In his memories, Yas returned to the bottom floor of the building. His subordinates were gathered together in groups of three or five, either playing cards, drinking a batch of wine they had robbed yesterday, or hiding in other rooms deep in the corridor, comforting each other.

On the gray earth, female bandits were not a rare phenomenon. Guns made them equally dangerous.

Raising his hand and touching his shaved sideburns, Yas shouted to the subordinates patrolling outside the building:

"It's going to rain soon, don't relax!"

This was considered one of the "Vulture" bandit gang's strongholds.

Yas liked this kind of city ruin. In such a large place, it was like finding a needle in a haystack for the enemy to find the building they were living in.

"Yes, boss!" The bandits outside the building, holding submachine guns, responded.

Yas nodded in satisfaction and patrolled around the bottom floor.

Two armored vehicles, several artillery pieces, and multiple machine guns passed before his eyes one by one.

At this time, the rain that had been brewing for a long time finally fell. It wasn't too heavy, but it made the night seem misty.

The entire city, except for this building, was silent.

Suddenly, a huge voice came from somewhere outside:

"You are surrounded!

"Lay down your weapons and choose to surrender!"

This came from a man.

Yas's eyes suddenly widened, and he waved his hand, signaling all his subordinates to defend against the enemy.

The voice outside didn't stop, but it seemed like it had changed to another person, becoming slightly magnetic, and accompanied by a zzz sound:

"So, we must remember that when facing things we don't understand, we must humbly ask for guidance, put aside the prejudices brought about by experience, and not be filled with resistance from the beginning. We must embrace the attitude of accepting everything, to learn, to understand, to master, to accept..."

In the quiet rainy night, this voice echoed, as if accompanied by an electronic accompaniment.

This... A thought of doubt emerged in the minds of the bandits.

They didn't understand why the enemy was talking about such a pile of grand principles, and it had nothing to do with the current situation.

Yas vaguely had a bad premonition. Although he didn't know what was going on, years of experience told him that when things became abnormal, it meant trouble.

When the voice subsided, two figures, each holding a black umbrella, walked towards the building where the "Vulture" bandit gang was located.

"Stop!" Yas shouted loudly.

The abnormal situation made him not directly order the shooting.

One of the two figures replied:

"We are here to make friends!"

Yas opened his mouth, feeling that the other party was not lying.

Soon, the two figures entered the bright world built by flashlights and torches from the extremely dark city ruins.

They were a man and a woman. The man was tall, masculine, and handsome, and the woman was beautiful and heroic.

They both had friendly smiles on their faces.

…………

My name is Yas, and I am the leader of the "Vulture" bandit gang.

I like to overlook the city ruins from a high place, which makes me feel like I am the master of this world.

I am different from other bandits. I understand the preciousness of cultivating the population and the importance of a stable food source. In my eyes, the "North" gang is indeed very powerful, but they don't have much brains. They actually cooperate with slave traders to sell the wilderness wanderers in the wasteland in order to earn some supplies.

Maybe they never consider the future.

My bandit gang plunders everything that can be plundered. Like vultures in the sky, we regard every weak target as carrion.

I thought my life would continue like this forever. I thought my bandit gang would grow stronger day by day and eventually become the master of the northern wasteland, until that day, those two people came to visit.

…………

That night, the leader of the "Vulture" bandit gang, Yas, and his subordinates were deeply convinced of the weakness of the First Spring Town Garrison.