My MCV and Doomsday Novel - Chapter 422

Chapter 422: Guiding Fee

“Boss, a shabby minibus is right behind us. They may be survivors from Qishan City.”

Several people were sitting in the leading SUV, among them was a youth covered in tattoos, and he was the one who spoke to the middle-aged driver. The youth noticed that the minibus was well-preserved but not modified or reinforced. He knew that it was a favorite model for ordinary survivors as its interior was spacious, but that one was below average. Finally, he noticed that its license plate number was not local.

‘How were they able to drive such a shabby minibus all the way here for more than one kilometer?’

“I saw it.” The middle-aged man in the cab was wearing sunglasses and a short-sleeved jacket, which showcased his muscles. The temperature was below zero, but he didn’t feel cold at all.

The middle-aged man said coldly, “Little Seven, go and collect the guiding fee from them. Be careful not to scare them. Most of them should be ordinary survivors.”

The middle-aged man was called Ling Feng. He was leading an elite team of survivors, and they were roaming in the wild most of the time. In order to gain more resources, they would usually accept mission issued by Xiayuan Island, mostly ones that had to do with killing mutant beasts.

“Brother Ling Feng, you are magnanimous. If I were you, I would ignore them in such a cold day,” Little Seven whispered.

Although Ling Feng’s eyes were covered by the sunglasses, thus making his expression hard to read, he could not help but faintly smile when he heard his subordinate’s fulsome flattery.

Currently, Jiang Liushi’s minibus had reached the end of the traffic stream, but he was speechless. He wondered why those cars in front of them didn’t move forward. Only a single lane could be accessed. Looking ahead, surrounded by heavy snow, there was no other way, so he had to stop temporarily.

At that moment, Jiang Liushi saw a young man with tattoos jumping from the SUV in front of them. Even though it was snowing, the young man was still wearing a T-shirt, and they could clearly see his bulging muscles.

Jiang Liushi could sense energy fluctuations coming from the young man who was quickly approaching the minibus. He knocked on Jiang Liushi’s window, and the latter glanced at him before looking at Ran Xiyu. Then, she shook her head, indicating that there was no danger.

Jiang Liushi rolled down the cab’s window indifferently and slowly. “What’s wrong?”

In the young man’s eyes, Jiang Liushi, who was sitting leisurely in the driver’s seat and looking at him, seemed about 20 years old. Apart from being very quiet with a mysterious temperament, he did not exude any strong energy fluctuations.

After seeing Jiang Liushi, the young man knew that his judgment of them being ordinary survivors was right. However, he suddenly noticed the minibus’ luxurious interior and saw a beautiful young girl dressed in a black leather jacket and pants sitting in the co-pilot seat. Surprisingly, that beauty seemed delicate and tender, without the slightest trace of bitterness.

Although Little Seven had sensed some energy fluctuations from the car, he believed that this team could not be compared with his own. At the same time, he felt unhappy talking with an ordinary survivor instead of a paranormal.

“What’s wrong? It’s a matter of life and death, or more precisely, yours!” Little Seven raised his eyebrow, making his face look cold. “You are going to Xiayuan Island, right? You should know that this area is filled with many beasts and all the roads are in ruins. If you want safe passage, you can follow us as we know of a shortcut. Our team comes from Xiayuan Island so we can protect you. Of course, you can also choose not to follow us. Anyway, the guiding fee is not worth a few dollars to us. It’s just that our boss has a good heart and let me come to inform you.”

Jiang Liushi frowned. He got a lot of information from the young man.

“How much does the guiding fee cost?” Jiang Liushi asked.

“Ten jars of canned meat or ten liters of gasoline,” Little Seven answered. He deliberately said that. In this terrible post-apocalyptic world, some ordinary survivors would risk their lives to find one can, let alone ten cans. There wasn’t enough gasoline at all.

Jiang Liushi had to keep every drop of gasoline he had for the flamethrower. As for canned meat, how could they possibly have food which was not nutritious with them? The young man was asking for trouble on purpose.

“Hmm…How about this?” Jiang Liushi suddenly stretched out his hand and revealed a few chunks of charred meat.

Zhang Hai was the one who had cooked those chunks of meat in order to feel Luoluo, but he had lost control of the fire. Moreover, they had not expected that Luoluo would refuse to eat the charred meat. As a result, they wanted to throw them away.

At that moment, Jiang Liushi handed them to the young man. Anyway, mutant meat was worth more than canned meat. When the black meat was taken out from the car, it contained cumin flavor.

“Do you take me for a fool?” Little Seven was angry at first, but then he noticed that Jiang Liushi had given him mutant meat.

“Isn’t it enough?” Jiang Liushi asked again.

“These chunks are enough,” Little Seven answered at once. He was afraid that Jiang Liushi would go back on his words. He guessed that the charred chunks mutant meat were all they had.

When he returned, Ling Feng could tell that there was something wrong.”What’s wrong? Did they not want to pay the guiding fee?” Ling Feng asked. Actually, the guiding fee was nothing to his elite survivors’ team, but it was one of their rules. Otherwise, other survivors’ teams will nurse a grievance. After all, every team did so.

“Here you are.” Little Seven gave the charred chunks of mutant meat to Ling Feng.

Ling Feng was shocked by the amount of meat and shook his head. “I told you not to embarrass them. Why did you take all of their mutant meat?”

Later, Jiang Liushi followed them slowly to that shortcut. The so-called shortcut was just a dirt road covered by heavy snow in the mountains, which none others than locals could know how to find.

Along the way, Jiang Liushi noticed that there were large trees on both sides that had fallen. Without exception, the trees had been uprooted violently, and their barks were seriously damaged. It seemed that mutant beasts such as fierce calves had appeared too. In some places, there were deep pit caves and traces of intense battles. Obviously, that shortcut had also been affected by mutant beasts’ attacks. After driving for about one day, at noon, the team finally went out from the lush forests.

Seeing the situation in the distance, Jiang Liushi was totally shocked. He saw a very large city, standing out in the snowstorm. The walls of this city were not visible in the wind and snow, and this city was built entirely on the mountain. The gray concrete walls extending into the distant snow plains. In front of the city walls, a large number of barbed wire and iron fences were arranged, and behind the iron fences, one could see a tall sentry tower. The sentry tower had six floors, and at the top floor, a very powerful heavy machine gun was aimed at the bottom. What surprised Jiang Liushi most was that he could see several huge concrete columns, which were spewing hot plumes of smoke above the mountain.

The hot plume and light indicated two things-Industrial system and power system! And lights could appear during the day, indicating that the power system inside was intact. Seeing the traces of modern civilization again, Jiang Liushi became quite excited.

Xiayuan Island was several times larger than Shenhai Island. As a result, Jiang Liushi believed that the modern human civilization system preserved inside would be complete.

“Everyone, get out of the way!” Someone shouted suddenly.

Jiang Liushi recovered and found another large fleet coming their way with more than 30 cars. The leading one was a heavy truck, which was driven as quickly as a flash, ignoring the other cars in its path.

The blizzard had made the road slippery and the one driving the heavy truck did not intend to use the brakes at all. As a result, it hit one of the survivors’ cars, which then was smashed against several other vehicles. The heavy truck kept rushing on the lane leading to the quarantine gate on the farthest outskirts of Xiayuan Island.