51: Chapter 51 Helping Fatty Pay Off His Debts

"Leave? Just like that? That's not Chen Ze's style."

Fatty tugged at Chen Ze, only to find that the latter hadn't moved at all, and had uttered this line in a low, lingering tone.

Fatty saw this and hurriedly explained in a low voice.

"Brother Ze, Old Lu is a good guy in every way, but he's henpecked. Let's not stoop to her level; it's not worth getting angry over!"

No matter how low he kept his voice, since they were all standing face-to-face, every word fell clearly into the middle-aged woman's ears.

The woman immediately raised her eyebrows, stepped forward, her face full of defiance.

"Let me tell you, Wang Dun, am I wrong in the slightest?"

She abruptly raised her hand and pointed to the dilapidated, mud-plastered mobile toilet Fortress not far away, her hands firmly on her hips, her voice rising a few notches, causing the surrounding air to tense up.

"Don't think I don't know that over the past two days, our Old Lu has been secretly giving you dry rations and mineral water behind my back!"

As she spoke, she cast a sidelong glance at Fatty, looking as if she were settling accounts.

"Old Lu said just now that you're leaving? Fine, I won't stop you from leaving, but you can't just freeload off our family like that, can you? Supplies are so precious right now; they don't just blow in on the wind!"

Old Lu's face turned bright red instantly, both anxious and embarrassed, and he hurriedly stepped forward to pull his woman back.

"Shut the hell up! We've been neighbors for years; what's a little food worth?!"

"What's it worth? What time is it now? It's the apocalypse! A single mouthful of bread can be traded for steel!"

The woman shook off his hand, refusing to give an inch.

"He can barely protect himself guarding a crappy toilet, mooching off our stuff every day. If we don't talk this out today, don't think you can just pat your butt and walk away!"

Fatty was rendered speechless, his ears burning hot.

His toilet only allowed him to kill zombies one by one through the door crack; the efficiency was ridiculously slow.

Plus, the Fortress's defense value was 0. Every time a zombie scratched it, the durability dropped rapidly. All the survival coin he earned every day went into buying emergency repair kits, so where would he have extra money to buy food?

If it weren't for Yellow Hair and Old Lu over the past two days, he would have truly been starving enough to eat poop.

"Uh..."

Fatty spoke up, his voice somewhat dry.

Chen Ze understood Fatty's feelings at this moment better than anyone. Before the apocalypse, when had he ever been cornered by someone demanding debt? That sense of powerlessness was truly suffocating.

"Fatty is my man. As his boss, I will repay the debt he owes."

Chen Ze said.

As soon as these words were spoken, the arguing scene instantly went silent.

Fatty didn't speak; he pursed his lips and stared straight at Chen Ze, his gratitude evident.

And Old Lu, at this moment, could finally no longer hold back.

"Li Juan, get the hell back! If you cause any more trouble, you can guard the Fortress by yourself! I'm moving out right now!"

Seeing that her man was truly angry, the woman curled her lips and muttered in a volume that everyone could hear.

"Hmph! You talk so tough, why don't you pay up then!"

Hearing this, Old Lu's eyes turned bloodshot, and he raised his hand, making a move to slap the woman's face.

But before the slap could land, tears were already streaming down her face, and she began to wail at the top of her lungs.

"Hit me! Go ahead! I've worked hard to stay with you for over a dozen years, and now that it's the apocalypse, you despise me..."

Chen Ze really had no patience to listen to this woman howl, so he directly interrupted.

"Stop, stop, stop! Just tell me how many materials you want!"

Upon hearing this, the woman instantly stopped crying. She secretly glanced at Old Lu and, finding that he wasn't even looking at her, simply started calculating the account.

"Two days, at least five meals, one meal..."

"How much! Just say it!"

"50 units of materials!"

The woman held up five fingers to gesture.

"How much? 50 units? Sister-in-law, are you crazy? 50 units of materials are worth six or seven hundred survival coin; that would last half a month if you ate sparingly!"

Yellow Hair spoke up.

"That's none of your business, that's how much it is!"

The woman said, stiffening her neck.

Chen Ze really didn't want to look at her for even one more second. He patted Wang Dun on the shoulder and asked.

"Fatty, do you acknowledge the 50 units!"

Wang Dun hesitated for a moment, then nodded heavily.

"Brother Ze, it's a favor I owe them. Fifty units it is, I acknowledge it."

"Good! As long as there's a debt, it's easy to settle!"

Chen Ze said, his mind reaching directly into his f-grade backpack, instantly taking out 50 units of upgrade materials—these were what dropped after killing Guo Changzheng.

"Boom!"

A large pile of wood appeared out of thin air, just like that, stacked in front of everyone. It was substantial, providing a full visual impact!

In fact, Chen Ze could have directly transferred it to them via remote trade, quiet, clean, and soundless, but he chose not to.

He wanted to slam this pile of supplies right in front of everyone's faces.

Since this woman liked to settle accounts in public, liked to make excessive insults, and liked to use this little favor to pressure people.

Then he would use the most straightforward, most hardcore method to firmly shut her mouth.

Dust rose slightly, and the huge pile of supplies lay before their eyes.

The woman who had just been throwing a tantrum and acting arrogantly suddenly had her ferocity freeze; her mouth hung open, and she was completely stunned.

Yellow Hair's pupils constricted, staring fixedly at the pile of supplies, unable to say a word for a long time.

Old Lu was even more ashamed, his head hung low, wishing he could crawl into a crack in the ground.

Only Fatty let out a long sigh of relief; the pent-up frustration in his heart was swept away, and he straightened his back quietly.

Chen Ze's expression was indifferent, his gaze calmly sweeping over the pale-faced woman.

"Fifty units of materials, not a single bit less. Do you want to count them?"

"No need, no need, it's definitely enough. I trust you, Big Shot!"

The woman no longer had the shrewishness from before and put on a fawning smile.

"Actually, it's not that I absolutely had to have these; I just wanted an attitude."

"Hmph!"

Chen Ze snorted coldly, not even sparing her a second glance, and turned to pat Fatty on the back.

"You don't owe her anything anymore. Now we can leave with our heads held high!"

Fatty nodded, took a deep breath, and his gaze swept over Old Lu and Yellow Hair, finally resting on his own toilet shelter.

"Alright, Boss!"

The two left side by side, becoming smaller and smaller in everyone's eyes until they disappeared.

Old Lu sighed deeply, filled with both helplessness and self-reproach.

He knew that the friendship between him and Fatty over the years had likely been ruined by his shortsighted wife.

...

Fatty's luggage was very sparse. Apart from the F-grade spear that Chen Ze had traded to him before, the rest could be packed into a single plastic bag.

Seeing that it was cumbersome for him to carry, Chen Ze directly tossed an f-grade backpack over to him.

"Here, put it in this. It's convenient and saves effort."

"Oh!"

Fatty responded, then said in a muffled voice.

"Thanks for just now, Brother Ze!"

"What are you thanking me for? Like you said, we're brothers; no need for that."

Chen Ze's words immediately made Fatty laugh, and the previous unpleasantness vanished instantly.

"Haha, Brother Ze, my good big brother, do you want this heart of the fortress of mine?"

Chen Ze took it and found that the talent was A-grade, which wasn't bad, but if he absorbed it directly, the level was still a bit lacking.

"Just list it on the Trading House and sell it!"

After saying that, he pointed in a direction and spoke.

"In this area of yours, are there fewer Fortresses further in that direction?"

"Hmm? Yeah! What's up, Brother Ze?"

Chen Ze smiled, gazing into the distance, as if looking beyond the endless space, seeing that mysterious and dangerous area.

"I'm taking you to a fun place!"