chapter 17 : A Den of Bandits

The convoy after a few tens of minutes finally arrived ABV (Always Bright Village). Drake, still smoking a cigar, stopped his truck when the others stopped, he got off with them and looked at the village, it was a medium sized town seen from the outside with wooden walls for protection.

 As he walked behind them, a few soldiers came to greet Tiger Wang and looking at the girls in Yue's group and their beauty they started making perverted remarks out loud with lustful looks that terrified some of the girls in the group.

 Yue listened to them and slightly looked at Tiger Wang with a frown and the latter asked his men to be quiet, explaining to them that these women belonged to his "little brother Yue Zhong" and that under no circumstances should they even think to touch them.

 The soldiers looked at Yue groaning, Tiger wanted Yue's strength on his side and wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble.

 Tiger ordered his men to go and have a feast to welcome Yue and they dispersed. The group then went to the courtyard of a villa that Tiger had seized in the village and sat split in two, Yue was with Chi Yang and Wang Shuang who were making introductions with Tiger and his Three "Brothers", Zhang Xiang, Lei Chen and Chen Yan.

 All three had strong bodies and were Tiger's pocket friends, they had a lot of influence in the village.

 Lei Chen looked at the group of girls aside with interest then his gaze landed on Drake who was sitting on a leather chair that wasn't there before smoking a cigar with a pack of beer next to him.

 " Shit ! Who is this black guy?! He even has beer?!!" he looked at Drake and especially his stuff lustfully and gestured to Tiger.

 "Hey foreign friend, who are you ? You seem to be comfortable and well-resourced, which is a luxury these days!" Lei Chen said to Drake who didn't even look at him but just said

 "My name is Drake and yes I have a lot of resources, the container truck outside is mine! »

 Lei Chen made a face as Drake didn't even look at him while addressing him, he was a vicious man and was already aiming to snatch Drake's belongings.

 Knowing what Lei Chen was thinking, Drake just started laughing loudly while drinking his beer as Lei Chen started to get angry but Tiger calmed him down, Drake was a stranger and they were going to kill him sooner or later but not in front of Yue whom he wanted to persuade to stay in his village.

 Drake had no desire to intervene in the events of this village, he was lazy and knew that Yue would manage them and that this would mark the true beginning of the his conquests.

 Zhang Xiang who was the strongest after Tiger had heard of Yue's fighting prowess and challenged him to a friendly fight.

 Yue frowned slightly when suddenly Chi Yang told Zhang Xiang that he would be no match for Yue and that he was the one he was going to face.

Zhang Xiang looked at Chi Yang with an arrogant smile asking him if he was sure because in this fight he could kill him by accident but Chi Yang just nodded calmly.

 Tiger looked at Yue asking if Chi Yang could handle it and Yue also nodded, smiling .

 "Good, since both sides have agreed to this sparring match then you can go!" Let the fight be…" (Drake interrupted Tiger)

 Drake: Wait, wait a second (pulling out a large bag of snacks from his backpack)! That's okay, you guys can start ahahah!

 The girls looked at Drake and started giggling, in Tiger's camp, the men were angry, especially Lei Chen who coveted Drake's goods. Tiger frowned at Drake but didn't say anything!

 "Big brother Tiger, after Zhang's match I would like to fight this foreigner too" Lei Chen said pointing at Drake while the latter continued to smile while snacking.

These people had not yet understood that there were no more foreigners, no more blacks, whites or Asians but just survivors in a cruel system that didn't care about their differences and that amused Drake.

 "START!!" Tiger shouted towards Chi Yang and Zhang Xiang. Zhang Xiang charged at Chi Yang at high speed with a punch that Chi Yang caught effortlessly.

 Chi Yang had taken up the profession of [soldier] so he had inherently developed a skill in military martial arts and handling firearms.

 After blocking Zhang's punch, he sent him a middle kick on the liver and Zhang fell to the ground writhing in pain marking the end of a fight of barely four seconds, the difference in strength between the two was just too much.

 Drake continued to laugh under the venomous looks of Tiger's men and Tiger himself.

 The girls in Yue's group felt their laughter rising and it was Lu Wen who also started giggling.

 "Little brother Yue, you should teach your wives discipline!" Tiger said with an annoyed look, Yue looked at the girls in her group with a stern look and they stopped laughing.

 They were in unfamiliar territory and their hosts were armed. Who knows how many men Tiger still had in the village?!

 Tiger clapped his hands and a beautiful woman around 25 years old came, as she arrived, she stopped for a few seconds looking at Drake, this guy was so handsome.

 Drake always rubbed perfume on him after every bath and never sweated hence he always looked impeccable.

 Tiger noticed this scene and in an annoyed tone shouted "Wang Yin, help your 3rd master to rest" 

Just when she wanted to help Shang Xiang to get up, he slapped her with a backhand.

"Don't touch me, you dirty whore!!" he shouted in frustration!

 Drake frowned "Hey asshole, just because you lost like shit doesn't mean you have to take it out on that woman. Aren't you ashamed ?! ".

 Zhang got angry directly

 "You black guy are going to repeat that to my face!" 

 he shouted at a Drake who continued to smile defiantly.

 " Enough !!" Tiger shouted to calm his friend down, Zhang left frustrated and Tiger looked with hatred at Drake still sitting munching on his snacks.

 Tiger in an angry tone told him "Stranger if you don't want to die here I advise you to calm down now!" his men held their weapons directly while looking at Drake, Drake didn't even bother to answer him and just continued eating while smiling.

 He coldly sent away the woman Wang Yin who left headlong, despite her humiliation, she did not even dare to get angry.

 Lei Chen looked at Tiger "Big brother and my fight against the foreigner ?!" , he looked again at Drake who without waiting responded calmly

 "I'm only interested in deathmatches, let's leave the games to children, otherwise we can also put high stakes" Drake said with a devilish smile.

 Lei Chen wanted to agree but Tiger said it was good for today, he was not an idiot and felt that Drake was much stronger than Chi Yang, maybe as strong as Yue Zhong. Lei Chen was upset but just looked at Drake still smiling. 

 "I'm going to kill this black man with my own hands" he said to himself deep down.

 Yue and Tiger continued chatting when Tiger said it was time to eat, the women came with trays of food and set up tables and cutlery at the main table, there was Drake, Yue, Chi Yang, Tiger , Lei Chen and Chen Yan, on the other table were Wang Shuang and the girls.

 At the main table there was carved chicken, stir-fried shellfish, stir-fried vegetables, steamed buns and white rice. At the second table there was corn grits, cooked rice and vegetables.

 Drake looked at the menu at his table and stood up.

Drake : Please gentlemen forgive my rudeness but this menu unfortunately does not suit me, I thank you for your cover and your générosité.

The others at the table just looked at him with wide eyes, he called Lu Wen to take his place to eat under the jealous gazes of the other girls and went to his previous seat.

 The rest of the girls tried to taste the oatmeal but spat it out immediately because the taste was sour and bad.

Zhang Xin a girl in the group stood up and started complaining

"How can you eat that in this village ? Is this even something humans have to eat ?"

Since the start of the apocalypse, this girl was saved by Yue and therefore has not yet experienced true famine, Drake looked at her with disgust and ignored them.

 The surrounding children looked at the gruel spat out on the ground and came to stuff it into their mouths. A little boy came to ask for porridge from Zhang, She gave him her plate in addition to the cookies she had on her. 

 Drake looked at the scene shaking his head, he conjured up a table and some cooking equipment.

 Drake had learned the skill [Divine Gourmet] of the cooking profession which allowed him to perfectly prepare any dish by improving its taste and smell to a divine level, he had evolved the skill [Chef ] to type 10 [ Divine Gourmet ].

 Once all his material was out, people started looking at him completely stunned.

 "Is this magic?! Where does all this stuff come from?!" was what people were wondering.

 Drake then brought out a whole leg of beef, vegetables, eggs, lobster, rice and seasonings. With insane speed of movements he started to cook, the others did not see clearly what he was doing because of his speed and continued to eat.

 The children had finished their porridge and went home to give the girls' snacks to their parents but they were quickly robbed by Tiger's men.

 Suru Xu the policewoman started shouting at one of them but he told her to go and sleep with him so that he would leave the children alone and she backed away.

The other girls started to panic but Wang Shuang reassured them.

 "Don't worry, nothing will happen to you and even if it did, We're going to protect you. I'm sure Drake will help us too "

 Qing Wu listened to him about Drake and corrected him

 "Drake won't lift a finger for any of us unless Lu Wen is threatened." following this statement, the other girls gritted their teeth with jealousy, they were no longer worried because of Yue but jealous for Wen who had more value than them in Drake's eyes.

 On Yue's table, the meal was finished, women came to clear the table, leaving only the steamed buns.

 Tiger told Yue he had a gift for him as a host and asked some girls to come.

 Immediately, six beautiful girls came and knelt in front of him and Lei Chen and began to massage their feet.

Tiger looked at Yue smiling and asked him to choose one.

 Yue looked at the faces of these women and their eyes no longer had any life in them, they were like dead, they looked like zombies.

 Yue politely refused and said that it was wrong to lust after a friend's wife.

Tiger insisted and sent Wang Lan, one of the girls to serve Yue but the moment she wanted to kiss Yue's feet, his retracted his legs with a frown.

 Wang Lan seeing Yue's refusal had a panicked face, she knew that if she failed, she would end up in the henhouse which was a place of forced prostitution for women, they had forced sex with the soldiers while being fed with the bare minimum , death was desirable in comparison.

Serving Tiger was better because at least she could eat breads and vegetables. She started to beg Yue while crying.

 Tiger in anger asked some of his men to take her away and they smiled at the idea that they would have this beautiful woman in the henhouse and started grabbing her.

 "I'm taking her with me" Drake's voice was heard, everyone turned to him. Tiger frowned

 "Why should I give her to you stranger?!" he asked Drake who continued to tend to his cooking.

 Drake pulled out a Makarov pistol and two magazines, "In exchange for this." he showed it to Tiger who now had a smile on his face.

 "I'll add another pistol if you also give me the girl your friend slapped earlier" he pulled out another identical pistol.

 Tiger was in heaven, he lacked weapons unlike the women. He shouted Wang Yin's name and she came.

 "Friend , if I knew how kind you were I would have treated you better , forgive us for our previous ways. (to girls) Wang Yin, Wang Lan here is your new master, go and serve him." He pointed at Drake and both girls noticed that he was extremely handsome, their hearts started to pound as they wondered if she was dreaming.

 A soldier took them to Drake and took the guns from the payment to give them to Tiger.

 The two girls in front of Drake got down on their knees "We salute the master."

 Drake frowned and asked them to get up,

 "I already know your names, don't introduce yourself." the girls listened to his voice and started to blush.

 Drake showed a calm smile ,

Drake : Ladies, I don't need maids right now but you are free. Do you know anyone who could take care of you here ? I will provide you with a minimum of food so that you no longer have to sacrifice your bodies.

 the girls listening to him became sad because Drake wanted to let them go and not keep them close to him and he knew what they were doing before he bought their freedom.