62: Chapter 62 Traitors and the Punishment of National Fate

A ruined building.

"Step, step, step."

The sound of footsteps stopped outside the door.

Liu Tingting covered her mouth, her whole body trembling like a sieve.

Zhao Mengmeng broke out in a cold sweat, gripped her dagger tightly, and shrank into the corner.

"Creak—!"

The wooden door frame let out an overwhelmed groan.

"Bang!"

The weathered, fragile door, along with the cabinet behind it, was pushed open by brute force.

The iron cabinet crashed onto the concrete floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

A burly black man nearly two meters tall stepped into the room.

USA Challenger, Sean Johnson.

His muscles were knotted, and he held a metal baseball bat stained with black blood upside down in his right hand.

Sean glanced at the fire on the ground, curled his thick lips, and revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Daxia people? Starting a fire to keep warm in a place like this?"

"Idiots, you're just signaling me."

His gaze greedily swept over their backpacks.

"Hand over all your supplies! Or die!"

Liu Tingting, who had been full of herself half a minute ago, didn't have a single thought of resistance in her mind after seeing that dripping baseball bat.

"Thump!"

The woman's knees went weak, and she actually slid to her knees on the spot!

She scrambled on her hands and knees, crawling toward Sean's feet.

"Don't kill me! I'll give you all my supplies!"

She hugged Sean's leg, her face covered in tears and snot.

"I have always longed for the free America! I'll do anything! Please don't kill me!"

While crying, she tremblingly summoned the light screen.

The interface flickered; she directly locked onto Sean and pressed the "Vassal" application.

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes widened as she watched her teammate begging like a dog on the floor, shaking with anger.

"Liu Tingting, you bitch! Do you know what price Daxia will pay? You've lost all of Daxia's face!"

Liu Tingting turned back, her face twisted as she screamed:

"Can face put food on the table? Is there something wrong with me pursuing freedom?"

"If you want to be a martyr and act high and mighty, then go die!"

Sean was stunned for a moment.

He had only intended to rob some supplies and vent a little, never expecting to run into such a good thing delivered to his doorstep.

He agreed without hesitation and reached out to pat Liu Tingting's cheek.

"Good doggy, well done."

The next second, the broadcast of the National Destiny Challenge rang out across Blue Star.

[Daxia Challenger Liu Tingting has initiated a "Vassal" application to USA Challenger Sean Johnson.]

[Vassal relationship established!]

[Because a Daxia Challenger has become a vassal to another country, a National Destiny Punishment has been triggered!]

[The total freshwater resources within Daxia have been reduced by 3%!]

In the real world.

In an instant, the sky and earth over Daxia changed color!

The flow rate of countless rivers slowed down visibly to the naked eye.

The water levels of lakes and reservoirs, large and small, dropped rapidly!

Water sources, already precarious due to resource depletion, suffered a direct, devastating blow!

Water supply station alarms wailed, and water pressure plummeted rapidly.

An unprecedented freshwater crisis gripped Daxia's throat like a plague.

In the live broadcast room, fury erupted like a volcano.

[WTF! Liu Tingting, you are a beast! You are a sinner for the ages!]

[Traitor! Liu Tingting, I f*ck your ancestors for eighteen generations!]

[The Northwest is already short of water; how many people will die from this?!]

[Becoming a dog for the foreigners just to survive? You've destroyed the foundation of Daxia!]

[The river water here dropped by more than half! I'm so pissed, I'm so pissed!]

Disaster Prevention Administration, Command Center.

"Bang!"

Director Wei Tiejun slammed his fist onto the command console.

Blood dripped down the surface, but he seemed not to feel any pain.

His eyes were fixed on the live broadcast screen and the water source report data, his teeth gnashing loudly.

In the hall, everyone's eyes were bloodshot, humiliation and anger churning in everyone's chests.

"Immediately take control of Liu Tingting's parents and investigate everything from top to bottom."

Director Wei Tiejun's voice was hoarse, filled with suppressed anger,

"Remember this humiliation!"

"As long as we are still here, Daxia will settle this debt sooner or later!"

...

Inside the ruins' compartment.

Zhao Mengmeng gritted her teeth, raised her dagger with both hands, and lunged at Liu Tingting.

"I'll kill you!"

Sean snorted coldly and casually swung the baseball bat.

"Clang."

The dagger was knocked to the ground.

Then he backhanded a heavy slap across Zhao Mengmeng's face.

"Bang!"

Zhao Mengmeng was slapped flying, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.

Sean stepped forward, tore down the nearby tattered curtain into strips, and bound Zhao Mengmeng in a few quick movements.

"Keep her as bait; maybe I can catch a couple of big fish."

Afterward, he grabbed Zhao Mengmeng by the hair and dragged her into a foul-smelling storage room next door.

...

The next morning, waterfall cave.

Lin Ye woke up on time from his sleeping bag.

The broadcast of yesterday's battle report rang in his ears on time.

[Yesterday's global death toll: 642.]

[Daxia death toll: 3.]

Lin Ye rubbed his sore neck and sighed.

On the first day of the Scarlet Hunt, everyone was forced out of their comfort zones for the sake of those guaranteed points.

At this rate, by the time tomorrow passes, it's uncertain if there will even be three-digit numbers of survivors left in the entire Void Sea.

He flipped up and walked to the fire pit that had gone out last night.

He started the fire and added wood.

He filled the small iron pot with some water, cut off a few pieces of mutton, and threw them in.

While waiting, Lin Ye stretched his limbs and tucked the fire axe back into his lower back.

He picked up the crossbow and loaded a metal arrow.

Last night, while he was lurking and stealing kills, he had used up all the dozen or so handmade wooden arrows.

He walked to the edge of the water curtain and looked down.

By the Water Pool, severed limbs and arms were piled up like a mountain, and blood had dyed most of the Water Pool dark red.

He scanned it with the Eye of Destiny, and there were no signs of any living creatures moving.

Lin Ye used the Wind-Chasing Claw to swing out of the waterfall and landed below.

The pungent smell of blood rushed to his head.

His expression remained unchanged as he rummaged through the pile of corpses.

He pushed aside a gnawed wolf head and pulled out a wooden arrow.

"Still usable, not a loss."

He tore open a pile of rotten intestines and found another one.

Upholding the fine tradition of being frugal, he successfully recovered 6 wooden arrows.

He put the wooden arrows away and scanned the rotten meat covering the ground.

Most of the corpses had lost their value.

But when Lin Ye walked up to the water rhino corpse, his eyes lit up.

The water rhino's head had been half-gnawed off, but that dark red spiral horn was still intact, attached to the frontal bone.

Even though it was covered in brain matter and mud, it couldn't hide its hard texture.

Eye of Destiny, activate.

On this horn, there were only extremely faint gray spots, glowing with a lush green light.

"Good stuff, taking it."

Lin Ye drew his dagger, aiming at the thick fascia connecting the horn.

"Ssh! Ssh!"

After a few cuts, he severed the tendons and twisted hard with both hands.

With a "snap," he pulled it out by the root.

Looking around at the sea of corpses and blood, Lin Ye frowned.

"With so much rotten meat piled at my doorstep, it'll stink for miles in less than half a day."

The stench not only caused air pollution, but more fatally, it would attract scavenging exotic beasts.

He used the Wind-Chasing Claw to entangle the corpse parts.

He dragged the remains to the exit downstream of the Water Pool.

He lifted his leg and kicked.

"Splash!"

The corpse fell into the water and rushed downstream along the turbulent creek.

For the next half hour, Lin Ye moonlighted as a sanitation worker, dragging all the corpse parts and broken bones by the Water Pool into the creek.

Washing the blood off his hands, he watched the crimson creek flow away.

"Consider it a blind box gift package for the folks downstream; no need to thank me."

Returning to the cave.

The water in the small iron pot was already boiling.

The mutton was stewed until soft and falling off the bone, and the aroma of the meat permeated the cave.

He whittled a pair of simple chopsticks from a wooden stick.

He picked up a piece of mutton and put it in his mouth.

Then he picked up the iron pot and took a big gulp of hot soup, feeling warm in his stomach.

After finishing breakfast, Lin Ye didn't rush to set off.

He walked to the corner and brought over all the hardwood branches he had whittled before going to sleep last night.

The dagger flew, carving wood shavings.

Polishing broken bones, binding tail feathers.

An hour later, a dozen brand-new wooden arrows were formed.

Lin Ye inserted them into the long pockets on the outside of his backpack.

He extinguished the remaining fire in the fire pit.

He shouldered his backpack containing smoked meat and water.

He tied his dagger to the outside of his thigh, hung the fire axe on his lower back, and hung the crossbow on one side of his backpack.

Fully equipped, state maxed out.

Lin Ye adjusted his backpack and strode toward the cave entrance.

"Let's go, time to head into the city and rack up some points!"