45: Forced food shortage

"I just saw a dark shadow flash by outside!"

"Me too! And it sounded like footsteps!"

"There aren't ghosts, are there? Don't scare me!"

Li Qingshan frowned, listening to the Professionals' voices with some displeasure.

It was the evening of the second day since he had heightened his guard, but Gu Qinghan had yet to show up.

On the contrary, they seemed to be overly cautious, seeing dangers everywhere.

Most importantly, for the past half an hour, people had been saying they saw dark shadows outside the window.

He didn't believe in ghosts or monsters; even if they existed, his current power would make them fear him.

"Stop arguing! You are all Professionals, if anyone should be scared, it's the ghosts who should be scared of you!"

In his helplessness, Li Qingshan could only shout at the crowd.

The discussions among the crowd immediately quieted down significantly, but soon someone asked:

"When are we eating today? Wasn't it said that we could eat our fill today?"

Li Qingshan was momentarily stunned when he heard this.

That's right, the team that went out to find food today hadn't returned yet. Could something have happened?

Did Gu Qinghan kill them?

Such a thought flashed through his mind, then he suppressed it.

"Impossible, Gu Qinghan shouldn't be the kind of person who randomly kills innocents. I can't scare myself."

He appeased the emotions of the crowd, but didn't notice that his own heartbeat had quickened a few beats.

Fortunately, within ten minutes, the team that went out to find food returned.

"Where's the food?"

Li Qingshan had originally smiled at the group, but then realized they had nothing in their hands.

His face instantly turned ashen. Although there was still some food in the Library, it was definitely not enough for so many people.

A slightly hunched Male Student sighed and plopped down on a chair, saying:

"Don't even mention it. We searched three supermarkets nearby, and couldn't even find a single pack of instant noodles."

"How is that possible? Wasn't there a small supermarket yesterday that hadn't been looted?"

"But it was gone when we went there. If you don't believe me, you can go and see for yourself tomorrow."

The Male Student was also visibly annoyed, and his tone was a bit sharp.

Having been out since noon and not finding any food for four or five hours, his mood was understandable.

Li Qingshan narrowed his eyes, his voice seeming to turn several degrees colder:

"Have I been too kind, making you forget who the boss is here?"

The Male Student immediately stiffened, but someone next to him smoothed things over:

"Boss Li, don't be angry, don't be angry. We were chased by a group of Mutated Sparrows for half an hour today and still didn't find any food, that's why we spoke a bit sharply."

Li Qingshan snorted coldly and said to Liang Chao, who was sitting nearby:

"Take out what was in the previous package and let everyone eat it. We'll look for food again tomorrow."

Liang Chao nodded and took a few people to prepare the food.

However, half an hour later, the food served made many people dissatisfied.

"Didn't you say we'd eat our fill today? How is this little bit enough for anyone?"

"Exactly. Last night, at least we had a bowl of instant noodles and two sausages. Why is it just a bowl of gruel today?"

Negative emotions quickly spread through the crowd, causing Li Qingshan's brows to furrow tightly.

Fortunately, his method of managing these people was quite simple and crude.

He made a fist with his right hand, and immediately a large hand wreathed in black qi grabbed the first person to express dissatisfaction.

The person was unprepared and was immediately lifted up.

Li Qingshan said to the crowd:

"Today's situation is special. I don't want to hear such voices that are detrimental to unity. You can eat your fill tomorrow, I promise everyone."

Then, he looked at the person he had grabbed and offered a faint smile:

"It seems you're not very hungry. Leave your food for others today."

Before the person could speak, Li Qingshan threw him aside.

The crowd immediately fell silent. This was the deterrent effect of Li Qingshan's powerful strength.

However, the peace bought by suppression always had its limits.

The next evening, when the two teams who went out to find food returned without any food, everyone in the Library became restless.

"Did these people who went out to find food secretly eat it themselves and not bring it back? How could they not find anything at all?"

"Yeah, even though our B district is called a slum, there are still many small supermarkets. I don't believe there's absolutely nothing."

They had endured the day on an empty stomach, only to find themselves without food again at night.

"Go to hell, go look for it yourself, I've been running all day and I'm practically starving."

This time, Li Qingshan couldn't even suppress the dissatisfaction of these people.

In the end, he could only beat up the two loudest guys, and only then did he quell the quarrel.

But without food, everyone was listlessly staring blankly or sighing.

Li Qingshan frowned deeply. He was very annoyed now, but he had to stabilize the emotions of these people.

"Tomorrow, I will personally lead a team out to find food. Even if it means killing Mutated Creatures, I will make sure everyone eats their fill!"

Few people echoed him, merely looking at him with half-dead eyes.

In fact, Li Qingshan's initial management style was wrong. Very few of these people truly respected him.

If he had been like Wang Yan and established a relatively complete order, the current situation would definitely not be so difficult to handle.

However, even if he realized it now, it was already too late.

On the third evening, Li Qingshan returned to the Library with a group of people, carrying a Mutated Rabbit over a meter long and several Mutated Sparrows.

He hadn't found any ready-made food, so he spent a day finding substitutes.

However, just as they were about to process the bodies, the lights in the Library suddenly went out.

During this time, although there was no signal, water and electricity were still supplied normally.

Some time ago, there was zombie toxin in the water, which they could solve with Water Elementalist.

But with no electricity, they were completely helpless.

"Don't worry, we can light a fire. We can have a bonfire barbecue."

Li Qingshan's back molars were almost ground to dust, yet he still had to force a smile to stabilize the emotions of those around him... Gu Qinghan was currently near the Library's distribution box, looking awkwardly at the Library plunged into darkness.

He had originally intended to manually destroy this distribution box to cause some panic among the people here.

However, as soon as he walked over, he found that all the surrounding buildings had gone dark.

The unmaintained power system finally collapsed about a week after this global game began.

However, Gu Qinghan was not worried.

He looked at the Library, where faint firelight seemed to be flickering, and couldn't help but smile.

It was time to add more fuel to their fire.