Refugee Camp

"I'm Hong Xia," the red-haired rifleman introduced himself as we followed him. "We are part of a refugee camp that banded together to survive the wasteland. We've been trying to return to the fortress city, but with so many zombies and mutants running around, we don't have much success so far."

"Also, I don't think our leader has much interest in returning to the fortress city," another gunman from the group said with a shrug. "Most of us are content staying out here in the wasteland. We have more freedom and less restrictions. Less rules to bind us."

I wasn't sure what kind of freedom or restrictions would be so overwhelming for the group to give up security and safety in return for them. Hong Xia looked as if he disagreed, but most of his group didn't seem bothered.

Fortunately, after I eliminated most of the zombies, we were able to return to an underground hideout, locking the doors to ensure that the zombies and mutants didn't sneak in. Unlike Bai Zeng research facility, there was power. The lights were in full working order and the clean corridors indicated that people had been living in here for a while.

In fact, there were a few people mopping the floor and brushing the walls. I was surprised at that. This being the apocalypse and they were still minding these little chores. Then again, hygiene was important – if the pace wasn't clean, then the residents in here would fall sick easily.

"This is an emergency underground bunker from before the apocalypse," Hong Xia explained when he caught sight of me and Lisa looking around curiously. He shouldered his rifle after ensuring the doors were tightly closed and locked, then returned to speaking to us. "We were able to find this place and seek shelter here. There's still power and a lot of supplies. It's well stocked and very defensible. That's how we had been surviving so far. Usually, we go out on expeditions to find food and ammunition, but we were unlucky this time. You really saved us."

"Oh, that's nothing." I waved his gratitude away. We passed by a junction, and I caught sight of someone mopping the floor. Another person in semi military fatigues and holding a rifle swaggered over and kicked the pail over, spilling the stuff.

The person who was mopping looked stricken, but didn't say anything. Instead, it was the other party who acted outraged.

"Hey! Watch it! If you want to clean, clean properly! Don't just leave this lying around!"

The person who was mopping gritted his teeth, but he lowered his head instead of arguing. "Sorry."

"Wait a second," I said, stepping in. "You're the one who…"

"Don't." Hong Xia placed a hand on my shoulder and stopped me before I could intervene. The other guy glared at me, but Hong Xia met his gaze and he backed off. The red-haired dude shook his head. "This isn't your place to interfere."

"What? But…"

"The politics here is a lot more complex than you imagine," Hong Xia explained, a disgusted expression on his face. "Trust me…you'll just make it worse."

Lisa and I exchanged a glance, but we decided to go along for now. The gunman spat at a clean spot, causing the distraught guy to be more alarmed at the additional work he had to do, but we had to follow the lead of our hosts for now.

"We'll take you to the boss," Hong Xia said, changing the topic. "I'm sure he would wish to meet you."

"Your boss?" Lisa repeated. Hong Xia nodded.

"His name is Wang Yang, and he's in charge. He…well, it's almost like he owns the bunker. He's like the governor – he implemented the system and everything."

Hong Xia led us to a massive room in the center of the bunker. Unlike the sterile junctions and corridors, this room was luxuriously decorated and filled with velvet lining and carpeted with red, soft fabric. In the middle was a ridiculously large leather couch, which was probably super expensive before the apocalypse. A tall, burly man with spiky red hair and a scar on his face was seated comfortably in the couch, reclining in it like it was some sort of a throne, and biting a cigar.

This must be Wang Yang.

Hong Xia briefed him on what happened, and Wang Yang then turned to regard me and Lisa with those predatory red eyes of his. He grinned, though it was one filled with malicious humor than any sort of friendly greeting.

"So you and your woman saved my subordinates from a gruesome death at the hands of zombies. We need to thank you."

"No need for that. As fellow humans, we should always extend a helping hand." I frowned. "And don't call Lisa my woman."

"Oh? So she's not your woman?" Wang Yang raised an eyebrow. Lisa, feeling a little afraid, clung to my arm.

"Um, I am," she said timidly. "His girlfriend, I mean."

"I'm just asking you to treat her with more respect," I replied coldly. "Lisa is nobody's possession."

"Ah, so you're one of those woke types," Wang Yang scoffed.

"And you're one of those misogynistic types," I retorted, which made him laugh.

"Well, in today's world, strength is everything," he replied. "The strong rule over the weak. The weak can only be trampled upon…they have to rely on the strong to survive, after all."

Not this bullshit "strong eat the weak" logic again. I swear, we always had such bullies popping up from no fucking where, spouting this nonsensical logic to justify their bullying of others. Now I understood why the gunman from earlier was bullying the poor guy who was mopping the floor. They were using their military might to intimidate other people and suppress them.

"You guys also have to rely on others to survive too," I pointed out with a frown. "Without engineers, you will never be able to keep this base running. But you can't expect all engineers to be fighters. Without doctors or medics, who's going to tend to your injuries?"

"Hah!" Wang Yang laughed. "Well said! But that's why we have a point system."

"Point system?" Lisa repeated incredulously.

"That's right. We rank people here based on their…shall we say, contributions. The important jobs such as hunting and looking for supplies net you the most points, but as you correctly pointed out, the vital tasks of running the systems in the bunker, medical aid and repair and maintenance also net the contributors tons of points. However, we're not a charity. People can't just eat and sleep here for free, so we have them do other tasks…such as cleaning, cooking and entertainment. Taking care of children, maybe. All of these non-vital tasks will obtain less points than the others. Since you don't need specialized knowledge or to risk your life to perform them, they are worth less points than the other more important tasks."

"And the more points you have, the higher your rank, and the more power you have over other people," I surmised. Wang Yang's grin broadened.

"Correct. I'm glad you caught on quickly."

I frowned in disapproval. No wonder people were abusing their power and bullying others. They had let their ranks or number of points get into their heads.

"But you don't have to worry," Wang Yang said, casting a glance at Hong Xia, who nodded. "Given what I've heard, you and your woman should be ranked pretty highly, considering your abilities and the contributions you can make. So you don't have to worry about being looked down upon by others. In fact, you'll probably be doing most of the looking down yourselves."

Lisa and I exchanged another glance, and I sighed.

"I'm afraid you misunderstood something. We only accompanied Hong Xia back to the bunker to ensure his group returns safely. We have no intention of joining your group. We will be returning to the fortress city."

"I believe you are the ones misunderstanding something," Wang Yang said with a laugh. At a wave of his hand, the entire group of gunmen in the room leveled their weapons at us. The only exception was Hong Xia, who looked like he was going to protest, but a glare from his boss silenced him. "I'm not giving you an option. The moment you stepped inside here, you've become one of us."

"Are you threatening us?" I asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"Oh, I know you're both evolvers. All the more we can't simply let you go. You'll be valuable additions to our group." Wang Yang drummed his fingers on the soft leather surface of the couch, grinning. "And you can pretend all you want, but I know you evolvers very well. You might have superhuman abilities, but you're still only humans. Against this many guns, even you wouldn't survive being shot."

"I wonder about that." I was on the verge of drawing my pistols and shooting everybody in the room. Already the targeting reticules on my lenses were settling on the gunmen and even Wang Yang himself, turning red as they locked on. Unfortunately, I recalled the stupid penalty from the system. Killing a single human would be a ten point penalty from my Kill Count. However, it was probably worth those 10 points to take out Wang Yang. I was sure that if I killed him, his former subordinates would immediately stop, having no reason to attack us. More likely, they would be intimidated – they hadn't survived the apocalypse thus far to get shot in a meaningless battle. "Do you want to try?"

Wang Yang met my gaze evenly, knowing that it wasn't worth getting into a fight. He eyed my hands in particular, realizing that I would take him down with me at the very least if we fought. Like all dictators, he valued his own life over others – how could he rule if he was dead? So he laughed and waved for his subordinates to lower their weapons.

"Fine, you got me. That was just a little test, to see if you're worthy of joining us. We have no use for cowards, after all."

He then turned to Hong Xia.

"Xia, do the usual, entertain our guests. Show them the merits of sticking with us. I'm sure that they will be convinced to join us once they enjoy the benefits of this place…and of high rank. Since they saved you and your group, they automatically get a hundred points each. Maybe take them to Kelsey's place and let them watch tonight's show."

"Understood, boss." Hong Xia saluted.

Kelsey? The name sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure where I had heard of it before. One of the other districts, maybe? Then again, there should be many people named Kelsey, so perhaps it was just a coincidence. Nonetheless, I wasn't eager to stick around. Wang Yang had a dangerous air about him. The sooner Lisa and I left the place, the better.

"I don't think…" I began, but Wang Yang shook his head and cut me off.

"You should stay for the night at least. It's too dangerous for you and your woman to be running around outside, even if you're evolvers. The zombies are most active right now. Just enjoy our hospitality tonight, and you can decide whether you want to join us or not tomorrow morning. If you're still not convinced by the benefits of this place, then I won't complain when you leave tomorrow. But at least give us a chance to prove the merits of my system."

He then nodded toward Lisa.

"At least do it for the sake of your woman, if not yourself. She's not a combat type, right? Her healing abilities might be extremely valuable, but even you can't protect her on your own if you venture outside at night." He leaned back in his couch. "Also, at least give us the opportunity to thank you for saving my subordinates. Otherwise it'll seem like we're ungrateful."

The moment you pulled your weapons on us and threatened us, you were already ungrateful. And I didn't buy his bullshit about that being a test of our courage. He clearly wanted to force us to join him, no matter what means he had to use.

However, the penalty meant that I couldn't just simply kill somebody for no reason. There was far less benefits to provoking a fight here and killing Wang Yang – there was the possibility that his subordinates would retaliate and we would be forced to fight our way out, thus causing me to lose more Kill Count points.

Additionally, Wang Yang had a point. It was simply too dangerous for me and Lisa to venture outside right now. We could find a shelter and hole up in there until morning, but this bunker was a lot safer than whatever shelter we could find outside right now.

I glanced at Lisa, who nodded, as if allowing me to make the final decision. Taking a deep breath, I finally nodded.

"All right…we'll go with your way for now." Then I narrowed my eyes. "But if you try anything funny, I don't care how dangerous it is outside, Lisa and I will leave this place immediately."