125: Chapter 123 Dong Hu's Attack

Chapter 123: The Advance of Dong Hu

Outpost Camp.

Dong Hu stood guard at the city gate with a solemn expression, staring at the people slowly approaching.

These refugees had followed the convoy he had previously taken to recruit refugees.

The batch of people brought back earlier had already been sent into the quarantine camp. Members of the Guard Team and the militia were patrolling right outside the walls of the quarantine camp.

Over the next few days, all the refugees brought back would have to undergo strict monitoring and inspection, and any dangerous elements would be weeded out. Only after ensuring safety could they be released.

"How many wanderers have approached in the past two days?"

"They are all gathered on the outer perimeter of the wall, and looking at it, there are at least over 100 of them. The ones from Wild Dog Valley should have all come over."

The soldiers guarding the city wall had long since received Dong Hu's orders to strictly monitor the situation of those people outside the wall, so naturally, they understood the situation at this time.

Hearing the number and looking at the still-gathering wanderers, Dong Hu frowned and thought to himself, "Given the situation of the camp, accommodating another three hundred or so people has temporarily reached the limit. We must expand or lead people into Vine Town to live, but an abnormal sandstorm is coming, so I'm afraid it won't be that easy. And there's also the matter of the water source—I need to discuss it with Old Feng and Old Ren."

He frowned slightly: "Organize the members of the Guard Team to watch them, let them in, and lock them in Isolation Zone No. 2."

"Yes."

Wang Ting's strength had increased, and he had extracted a massive amount of resources from the black market, which allowed the upper limit of the population that Outpost Camp could accommodate to continuously rise. However, this was just an increase in the upper limit, and many shortcomings were hard to make up for all at once.

Take the water source for example; it was true that Vine Town had a water source, and it could be channeled to farmland for irrigation, but as the camp's population increased, the demand for water was also increasing.

Transporting water out of the Infinite Building was not that easy. At the current stage, it still needed to be carried manually, unless Ren Chuan's Machinery Factory was fully operational and started manufacturing water pipes, otherwise the difficulties would still exist.

Watching the members of the Guard Team gather, all fully armed with live ammunition, Qu Ling led them in closely eyeing the wanderers who were successively being let into the Outpost Camp fortress.

"The number of Guard Team members is also a problem."

Currently, there were 20 official members of the Guard Team, all of whom were the core faction Wang Ting had brought out from Scarecrow Town. Among this batch of people, their strength and quality were relatively strong.

Feng Bo, Ren Chuan, and Dong Hu had successively used blood vine fruit and enhancement potions, and at this point, all three of them had broken through the human physical limit twice in their physical bodies.

It was precisely for this reason that Wang Ting felt at ease leaving the camp to them for temporary management. With three people who had broken limits twice, coupled with two heavy machine guns, even if Researcher Huoling wanted to stir up trouble, she would have to think about it seriously.

Xiang Nan, Xu Yan, and Qu Ling had all redeemed blood vine fruit for some time and were currently accumulating contribution points for a second blood vine fruit, all possessing the strength of breaking limits once.

Fu Xing, Huang Han, Lin Dagui, Ding Yu, He Chong, and others were slightly inferior, but they were also on the verge of breaking limits once.

Compared to Scarecrow Town, their overall strength was actually not much behind, and might even surpass it.

Of course, this was also related to Wang Ting. He had set the daily base contribution points for Guard Team members at 15 points, with missions counted separately.

One contribution point was equivalent to one energy block, and this ratio was certainly not low.

Currently, there were not enough Guard Team members. With tasks like patrolling, hunting, and collecting coming down, they could earn a lot of contribution points every day.

Naturally, the accumulated amount was no small income, enough for them to exchange for blood vine fruit.

Dong Hu, Ren Chuan, and Feng Bo bore the heaviest responsibilities and earned the most contribution points daily, at 200 contribution points a day.

Aside from the Guard Team members, the militia and general residents did different kinds of work and also had their own contribution point exchanges, roughly between 3 to 10 points.

Captives naturally had them too, except their earnings were only a quarter of those in normal positions.

Wang Ting permitted such a high exchange ratio for only one main purpose: manpower was insufficient, especially powerful individuals.

In Vine Town, the land extending from the right side of the residential base toward the forest had actually been cleared out bit by bit by Ren Chuan leading people.

Three hundred acres of farmland lined both sides of the road, distributed neatly and symmetrically, with paths intersecting between the fields.

The seeds in the soil had grown wheat seedlings. Although this wheat had only sprouted about eleven to twelve centimeters and looked like just a faint, tender green, its vibrant vitality made one feel much more relaxed in mind and body at a single glance.

On the 300 acres of farmland, many people were working. Most of them were survivors and captives from the Three Wolves Gang. Holding farming tools initially produced by the Machinery Factory, they slowly churned the clumps of earth in the land, broke them apart, and turned them into the soil until this patch of land was suitable for cultivation.

The remaining portion of the people were not clearing land, but were working hard to repair irrigation ditches, diverting the water drawn from the river among various plots of farmland.

And some people were holding small shovels and hoes in their hands, chopping off the vines growing out of the ground one by one.

"Captain Ren, the vines growing in this field are simply too many. We can't neglect watching them for even a day or two. If this goes on, every 2 to 3 acres of fields will probably require 1 person to tend to them."

Ren Chuan frowned, but still said decisively, "If people are needed, then add people. Food is the fundamental thing; don't let these vines grow so fiercely that we fail to grow crops instead."

Ren Chuan came from the farm town; how could he not know about farming? On the Scarecrow Farm floor, due to suitable temperature and conditions, generally speaking, a dozen or so acres of wheat fields only required one person to tend to them—weeding, fertilizing, and watering. Except when sowing and harvesting required everyone to work together, regular care did not need so many people.

But this was not the Scarecrow Farm floor, but Vine Town, where vines were the underlying rule of this floor. Rapidly growing vines would rob the plants of nutrients; if these vines were not removed, the wheat harvest would definitely be terrible.

Such a situation meant that 2 to 3 acres of fields required 1 person to tend to them.

Raising his head, Ren Chuan saw the tall figure of Dong Hu walking into the fields.

"Old Dong, you've come just in time. What is the current situation with the batch of refugees you recruited? The farmland side needs manpower. Relying solely on our original Guard Team members is probably a bit insufficient."

The outpost had a total of 40 Guard Team members. One team had been detached here to guard the Three Wolves Gang, and another team had been split off to watch Researcher Huoling.

Exploration and city defense also required manpower. Currently, on the exploration side, the number of people had been reduced to a five-person squad.

Dong Hu frowned, showing a bit of distress. Every time he met Ren Chuan and the others, he would be asked about manpower; this was not the first time.

"Let's go find Feng Bo, Xiang Nan, Qu Ling and the others to hold a meeting together and talk about this exact matter."

Dong Hu's gaze swept over the captives of the Three Wolves Gang working in the fields and heads of the farmland.

He was vague in his words, seemingly having misgivings, and did not spell things out directly here.

Ren Chuan raised his eyes slightly, nodded, and then said, "Then let's go find them together. It's also time to have a meetup."

The two of them each looked for the people, and then found a large room in the residential area base.

There were only six people in the entire room: Feng Bo, Ren Chuan, Dong Hu, Xiang Nan, Qu Ling, and Xu Yan.

These six people were the most senior and most loyal to Wang Ting in the Outpost Camp, serving as Wang Ting's right-hand men in controlling the camp.

"Brother Dong, did you convene today's meetup? Is there any important matter that made you rush to call us over?"

Dong Hu nodded heavily and said, "When I went to Wild Dog Valley to recruit refugees, I received exact news."

"Around some of the Shelter towns in the north, abnormal sandstorms have already appeared. Although they haven't affected our side temporarily, I'm afraid it won't be too far off."

Hearing the words "abnormal sandstorm," the expressions of the five people present changed abruptly, instantly turning solemn.

"The boss is still outside. We need to go to Zombie Town first to bring the boss back. If he encounters an abnormal sandstorm, I'm afraid the boss will also be in danger."

Ren Chuan immediately thought of Wang Ting, while Feng Bo calmed down a bit: "Where has the abnormal sandstorm reached now?"

"Black Horn Town, still more than a hundred kilometers away from us."

Feng Bo breathed a sigh of relief: "Then there's still time. No matter how fast it moves, it's impossible to rush here immediately. What you want to say shouldn't just be this, right?"

Since the sandstorm wasn't arriving immediately, Dong Hu convening everyone was clearly not for this matter.

"It's about the camp."

Dong Hu glanced at his companions and said earnestly, "The boss has treated us well, and he dares to leave the camp for us to guard. Now the camp is short of people everywhere, and manpower is severely insufficient. I feel that we need to take the initiative."

The few people present showed pensive expressions, and Xiang Nan asked, "Brother Dong, how do we take the initiative?"

Dong Hu said in a deep voice, "The camp cannot keep up with the boss's demands. Although the boss hasn't explicitly said it, he has always wanted to build a large camp where no one goes hungry. You all should have noticed it, right?"

Guard Team members were insufficient, whether it was the Scarecrow Farm, exploration, or the Machinery Factory responsible for processing, almost all places were in a state of insufficient personnel.

If judged by a newly established camp, their development was actually very fast. But compared to what Wang Ting brought and his expectations, their speed was still too slow.

The few people looked thoughtful, and Feng Bo slowly spoke: "I have to admit that although the boss likes to hunt new monsters, aside from this hobby, he actually hopes that everyone can live better in this terrible world."

If Wang Ting purely wanted to have a better life for himself, he could completely rely on his own abilities to go to Jumu City or settle down in a larger Shelter city.

After all, the larger the Shelter city, the better the conditions.

But he didn't do that. Instead, he brought everyone here to build the camp bit by bit. Furthermore, even for the lowest-tier residents of the camp, or even just captives, Wang Ting rarely seemed to let them go hungry.

This was something they had never seen before.

Hearing this, Xiang Nan also felt the same way in his heart. However, when thinking about what to do, he scratched his head directly, unable to think of a way for a moment.

"Then what should we do? Give us a method."

"First, build up the Guard Team, and then put hard effort into exploration, collection, and infrastructure. Guard Team members are insufficient, and my idea is to first draw a portion of people from the men under your respective hands and the capable women to expand the Guard Team. First expand the Guard Team members to 80, and then select some well-behaved ones from that batch of captives to replenish the residents for labor."

Feng Bo frowned slightly: "The plan is fine, but just for this, there shouldn't be any need to convene us, right?"

Dong Hu said, "If we are going to move, let's all move. I'll lead a batch of people to continue gathering population. The north has suffered this great disaster, so there must be quite a few people fleeing. Our reputation isn't prominent, so certainly not many people will come directly to us. I will go straight to the wasteland to catch people; getting one counts for one."

Dong Hu was acting like a bandit. Seeing him express himself like this, the few people couldn't help but look sideways with slightly twitching skin, as this was the first time they saw Dong Hu acting like a fierce bandit.

"The boss is not around, and you're just going out like this?"

Ren Chuan had some misgivings, but Dong Hu said, "Not just me; you guys also have to take turns going out. Gathering a batch of people is a batch. This is just pathfinding. When the boss comes back, we'll still have to ask the boss to take a trip north together and see how many refugees we can intercept."

"As for danger? We are all currently at the strength of breaking limits twice; surely we can't need the boss to push us forward every time. With enough firepower and ammunition, the wasteland isn't actually that dangerous. Moreover, the boss likes to hunt monsters. Although there are many monsters in Zombie Town, they are ultimately limited. This time when I go to the wasteland, while catching people, I will also look for new Infinite Buildings to help the boss find clues."

He paused slightly, and then said, "Just Vine Town alone definitely cannot feed too many people. Even though we can grow some food, the water source and living space still need to be expanded outward. I am just a vanguard; back home, Feng Bo and Ren Chuan, the two of you will probably have to look after things more. Train the Guard Team members, and then pick out the captured refugees one by one and stuff them into various places to work so that things can run better."

"Just do as you say."

Dong Hu's plan was a brick thrown to draw jade, and more of it was a statement of stance among the six of them.

Those who had the most contact with Wang Ting could all sense the difference between Wang Ting and the leaders of other Shelter towns.

Wang Ting didn't just want to survive; moreover, on him, there was always an instinctive desire to lead the people around him to live better. This was a temperament completely different from anyone else in the wasteland, as if he had never experienced the true wasteland.

And it was precisely because Wang Ting treated the people around him this way that they were willing to do such things.

After a round of discussion, the few people set the tone and handed over people under their respective hands who had certain physical fitness or combat experience to form a new militia team. This wave pulled out a total of 40 people, and everyone expanded the Guard Team members to 80 people—20 were the original members, and 60 were newly formed militia, but they could be continuously strengthened through training.

Dong Hu was responsible for external searches, and Ren Chuan was responsible for managing supplies, while also preparing for the second trade with other Shelters.

The trade with Fisherman Town was successful, and several abnormal monsters were still locked up. Now that Dong Hu had taken the initiative, he should also try contacting other Shelter towns.

On Feng Bo's side, he reduced the search tasks in Vine Town a bit, leaving Xu Yan in charge.

As for himself, he began preparing to pick useful people from the refugees and allowed them to join the camp.

Besides this, he had an even more important task: selecting some useful people from the Three Wolves Gang.

Feng Bo came before the captives of the Three Wolves Gang and swept his gaze coldly: "Those with a contribution value exceeding 500, step out of the ranks."