Chapter 378: Negotiation
Eric didn’t respond, turning instead to Lu Weiyi. “I want firearms.”
Since the apocalypse, Eric hadn’t had any contact with the outside world. Lu Weiyi’s group had been the only outsiders they’d encountered, and although they had revealed the world outside was destroyed, they hadn’t provided any useful information.
Over the past few months, Eric had tried to create tools to communicate with the outside using limited resources, but the supplies delivered had been carefully selected—only food and clothing, nothing else.
Although he understood how valuable oil was in the outside world, he didn’t know exactly what to ask for in exchange. In the end, he could only request something essential for survival.
“I don’t have much left. After a year of use, there’s even less,” Lu Weiyi didn’t reject the request, but he set a limit on quantity.
Pre-apocalypse firearms were now mostly useful against ordinary people. Guns were ineffective against high-level superhumans, which was exactly why Lu Weiyi was desperate to get weapons researchers from Cangnan—crystal-core weapons would inevitably replace traditional firearms.
Eric immediately began discussing quantities. Meanwhile, a man who had been quietly listening grew increasingly restless and finally asked, “Boss, if you leave, what about us?”
“You?” Eric’s clear eyes held an air of innocence. “What do you have to do with me?”
“But… you… you’re our leader, we…”
“We’re just living in the same place. We’re all independent individuals, aren’t we? I’ve never interfered with or managed your lives.”
It was exactly what Lu Weiyi had discovered when he’d first come here: Eric never intended to stay. From the start, his goal was always to leave. That’s why he allowed people to self-organize however they wanted.
Non-involvement had always been his stance.
“But…”
Only now, hundreds of people realized—they had been abandoned.
As their small society was about to be breached by outsiders, their most likely protector had walked away. What would happen to those with no ability to resist?
They didn’t dare imagine.
Eric, however, had already started negotiating specifics with Li Zhuang, discussing numbers and equipment in detail, ignoring the pleas around him.
Eric knew he didn’t hold the advantage. It was likely that the only reason the other side was being so lenient was out of consideration for his “cheap little brother.” He didn’t ask for anything excessive, and Li Zhuang offered a fair quantity. Within half an hour, the deal was done.
“Are they taking anyone with them?” Li Zhuang asked at the end.
Antonio met countless hopeful gazes and pointed out a dozen people.
The chosen ones immediately rejoiced, rushing off to pack. The rest, having given up on Eric, turned their resentment toward Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang, demanding to know what gave them the right.
“When you were coercing those women, did you ever bother explaining why?” Lu Weiyi’s gaze swept toward the corner where the women huddled.
“That’s not the same…” a man shouted hoarsely, veins bulging on his neck, giving him a grotesque appearance.
Their days of ruling like petty tyrants were coming to an end, and none of them were willing to accept it.
Lu Weiyi said nothing. He raised a hand, clenched his fingers—and the man’s head exploded instantly. Brain matter and bone shards sprayed onto those nearby, plunging the scene into utter silence.
Time seemed to freeze. As the women screamed, the men stumbled back in panic. A few, too close, collapsed to the ground, where foul-smelling blood and tissue slowly pooled across the uneven surface.
The truth was, before the apocalypse, they had all been ordinary people. They’d only dared to act so arrogantly because there had been no law. Now that someone stronger had intervened, they were nothing more than the next group of lambs to the slaughter.
Eric raised an eyebrow at the sight but said nothing.
Qin Yu, on the other hand, sauntered over without a care. “Hey, handsome. What was that just now? A superpower? Or some kind of new weapon?”
“It was a superpower. Don’t you have one too?” Lu Weiyi’s reply instantly exposed her attempt to fish for information.
Qin Yu choked on her words. “Is the reason you don’t have a girlfriend because every girl who gets near you gets verbally annihilated?”
“No,” Lu Weiyi answered seriously. “They were all scared away by my sponsor… I mean, my boyfriend.”
Qin Yu: “…” She felt like she’d just learned something explosive.
Li Zhuang chuckled as he watched Qin Yu fall silent, then stepped in to smooth things over. “We’ll explain it to you later.”
After Lu Weiyi’s display, everyone on the island fell in line.
“The rest of you have only one option,” he said coldly. “Restore the oil processing machines and exploration equipment. If I don’t see progress within a week, there’s no reason for you to keep living.”
His voice was utterly emotionless, yet he was sentencing over 200 people.
Everyone looked around, but no one dared step forward.
Seeing no response, Lu Weiyi continued, “Once the machines are operational, you’ll have a choice. One: stay here, work, and receive a monthly wage like before. Two: take 100 jin (about 50 kg) of food per person and leave—go wherever you want.”
“Will you send us out of here?” a man standing in the corner asked.
Lu Weiyi glanced over and recognized him as Liu Run, the man who had previously approached them for a chat. He used to be an engineer here. Now, he looked much older.
“To our base, or to Capital.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a woman suddenly rushed over, her eyes wild as she reached out to grab Lu Weiyi with both hands. He stepped back to dodge, and Dong Hongyuan, who had followed closely behind, immediately pulled her back.
“I want to go back to Capital! I want to go back to Capital—” He Mei was still the most beautiful among the group of women, though now thinner—and with a visibly swollen belly.
Lu Weiyi’s gaze froze on her stomach like a stuck machine, then he turned stiffly to look at Li Zhuang.
“Is she… pregnant?” Li Zhuang asked bluntly.
“Yeah,” Dong Hongyuan replied with a faint smile.
“Congratulations. Looks like your long-time wish to have an heir has come true,” Li Zhuang said, then glanced again at He Mei’s belly. “How far along? Almost due?”
“Don’t know.” There were no doctors on the island, so it was impossible to determine.
Lu Weiyi gauged it based on Yin Jin’s pregnancy and said, “Eight or nine months.”
Initially, he hadn’t planned to interfere with Dong Hongyuan’s affairs, but the presence of a child changed things.
“Do you want to leave? Or go somewhere specific?” Lu Weiyi didn’t ask He Mei—clearly, she had no choice. And compared to the benefits the oil island offered, it wasn’t worth falling out with Dong Hongyuan over her.
“I want to leave, I want to go to Capital!” He Mei struggled and looked pleadingly at Dong Hongyuan, who held both of her arms with one hand and pressed her stomach with the other, effectively restraining her.
“I’m staying here,” Dong Hongyuan said and forcibly led her toward a neatly packed courtyard.
Lu Weiyi looked at Li Zhuang, who slightly shook his head.
After the two left, a woman asked, “What about us? Can we leave?”
“You can.”
“Still enforcing gender inequality in times like these?” a man said and immediately ducked back into the crowd.
If there was true gender equality, would the women have been treated this way?
Before the apocalypse, women were already at a societal disadvantage—now, even more so.
“In the apocalypse, women and children are valuable resources for the continuation of life,” Lu Weiyi explained, for once.
With birth rates plummeting to one in ten thousand or lower, any chance of new life was better than none.
Seeing that no one voiced further objections, Lu Weiyi informed Lin Mo to come ashore. Li Zhuang took earth-type ability users to inspect nearby oil tanks, while the mechanics who came along began checking the equipment and discussed repair strategies with metal-type users.
The once crumpled and layered terrain was miraculously smoothed by the earth-type users. Buried machinery was unearthed, flattened land reappeared, and buildings, walls, and courtyards gradually came back into view—as if time had reversed to before the earthquake.
Eric silently watched alongside the members he had selected to leave with him, suddenly beginning to question if his decision had been a mistake.
“Are all outsiders… like this?” Qin Yu extended a hand, now coated in a layer of ice, sharp icicles growing from her nails like deadly blades.
She glanced at it, then looked off into the distance, her expression dazed.
“No, these ones were specially trained,” Lu Weiyi replied. After all, they were pros at digging and construction.
“Base leader, everyone’s asking if the soil should be changed. Are we planning to plant crops here later?” Lin Mo’s voice called out from afar.
Lu Weiyi waved him off.
“You’re the base leader? What’s your base called?” Qin Yu perked up at the shout.
“Moonbay Base.”
“Can I live there too?” She flipped her long hair and winked at Lu Weiyi flirtatiously.
“Sure.”
“Thanks in advance, Base Leader.”
Qin Yu muttered happily to herself. Eric remained silent, while the ten or so who followed him looked tempted, though none said a word.
Their obvious reactions made everyone on the island more compliant. They accepted their fate and immediately began helping repair the machinery—after all, they had once worked here and were familiar with it.
They also learned more about the outside world from the newcomers. Two days later, Lu Weiyi received a message from Zhuang Mingxu: Lu Xiao was arriving.
Lu Weiyi had to go pick him up. He left a portion of the weapons with Han Jing and gave a brief overview of the island’s previous conditions. “In environments like this, people’s minds are prone to distortion. Watch out—they might do something crazy. Please protect your team.”
“Don’t worry, Base Leader. I’ve got metal-types and some earth-types with me to help out. We’ll be fine,” Lin Mo assured, patting his chest.
