Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 274 One goes down and the other goes up
Ok!

Li Wei was stunned for a moment, but he had to admit that Li Yue's intimidation was quite effective.

The three men's expressions changed, and they hurriedly looked at Li Wei. Li Wei then gave them an overly bright smile. What he had just said was what he wanted to say, but of course it wasn't as unpleasant as it seemed.

Because reasoning with these seasoned veterans who have survived the apocalypse is meaningless; you have to use something much bigger to intimidate them.

As much as they fear, so much they crave a powerful, absolutely secure, and reliable iron-fisted duke to rule them.

And the Ice Duke is the best brand.

After hesitating for a few seconds, the three hurriedly ran back, but Li Wei really couldn't be sure what kind of result they could come up with.

However, to Li Wei's surprise, less than three minutes later, the doors to the underground base were completely opened.

This time, five people jogged out, bowing and scraping, with smiles on their faces, inviting Li Wei and the others into the underground base.

But Li Wei didn't go. Agreeing to surrender was a matter of a moment, but these natural persons weren't stupid. Who knew if there were axemen and heavy machine gunners planted inside?

So this time, without Li Yue even needing to respond, he just made up a story:
“We won’t go in. We know the rules: natural persons are inside, and superhumans are outside. However, we have a blood resistance potion developed and prepared by the Ice Duke. It can suppress the blood plague in superhumans and permanently restore them to normal. Do you want it?”

"In addition, please report your current total number of natural persons, the male-to-female ratio, the number of engineers, and whether you have technicians capable of repairing and dismantling small nuclear power plants. The small nuclear power plant in the underground base numbered 379 is about to be damaged. Could you send a group of people to transfer it over by the end of the month? We can provide protection along the way."

"Furthermore, as per our usual practice, we will provide you with protection, but you must provide 100 healthy individuals as protection fees. Can you give us an immediate answer to all of this?"

As expected, upon hearing Li Wei's words, the five individuals showed some unease. They might not have truly understood the rules of Duke Hanbing's side, but they were indeed intimidated, since Li Wei's words sounded quite reasonable.

"Gentlemen, please rest assured, we know the rules. Currently, there are 892 natural persons and 108 Level 2 ability users in this underground base. We have a complete underground power supply system and an underground ecological breeding system. We don't lack food reserves, but we lack ammunition. In addition, we need blood resistance drugs. We can immediately organize a manpower to check the 379 underground base. If the problem is not serious, we will dismantle the small nuclear power plant there."

"As for the protection fee, we will send out one hundred individuals first thing tomorrow morning. However, we have another request: could you please take those Level 2 ability users with you as well? Leaving them in the underground base poses a significant threat."

“Okay, no problem. Xiaoyue, you and Xuanxuan stay here for now. I’ll go back and have Nelson arrange a bus to pick you up first thing tomorrow morning.”

That was the tentative decision.

The scavenging camp couldn't accommodate any more people, and taking all the Level 2 ability users with them was already beyond the limit.

Therefore, we can only build a branch base here.

It is necessary to build them. Of course, they will definitely be merged into one in the future. The two bases together only have a little over a thousand people, which is about the size of a large village. How can we divide our troops to guard them?
Moreover, there are other challenges to be faced in the future, although in reality there shouldn't be any challenges left.

Okay, stop there, we can't think like that.

Next, Li Wei disassembled a silver token and obtained two black iron tokens. He gave one of them to Zhao Xuanxuan, whose current professional card level was only 3+2+2. This would be considered a slight improvement in her strength, allowing her to stand on her own.

He then took He Yuying back, a distance of 160 li, and couldn't delay, as he needed to go back tonight to arrange many things.

While Li Wei was happily returning home, about 300 miles west of this small town, there was a small town nestled against the mountains and by the water, with convenient transportation.

The town is clearly a recent reconstruction, with both its layout and architectural style leaning more towards underground development.

If Li Wei and the others were here, they would immediately recognize that this is the location of a branch of the expedition.

Unlike Li Wei's scavenging camp, all the buildings on the surface of this town were demolished and removed, and a concrete wall with a circumference of two kilometers, a height of three meters, and a width of only 50 centimeters was built around the town's green park, without any auxiliary city defense facilities.

In fact, this can only be considered a level 2 city wall.

Inside the city walls were vast stretches of farmland, roughly fifty acres in size.

Between the farmland is an open space the size of a basketball court. From here, you can see the entrance to an underground base that was converted from an underground parking lot. The entrance is even equipped with an alloy door that was transported back from somewhere. It is a meter thick and cannot be opened even by a level 5 rock giant.

Above this underground base, a sturdy variant bastion was built.

Its style is indescribable, but the walls are all 150 centimeters thick. The bastion has three layers, each five meters high, and is covered with various firing ports. In total, there are nearly a hundred siege crossbows, not to mention the even more powerful giant crossbows, which can strike the air and the ground seamlessly.

It's almost no exaggeration to say that this is a textbook example of a building specifically designed for mass killing of zombies.

At this moment, around and inside the camp, several handcarts and electric trucks were transporting supplies back and forth. More than a hundred free civilians, plus nine players, were busily and orderly transporting various supplies from the entrance of the underground base to the underground.

This underground space is also enormous. Originally a two-story underground parking garage plus an air-raid shelter, it has been expanded to a total area of ​​100,000 square meters, which is quite impressive. In particular, a small nuclear power plant has been disassembled and reassembled inside, giving it almost all the conditions for a future spacecraft to take off.

At this moment, atop that mutant bastion, a middle-aged man with a conspicuous scar on his face was gazing at the eastern horizon, as if there were some mysterious thing there.

Beside him stood an elderly man with graying hair and beard, his eyes bright and piercing, his demeanor extraordinary, and his every move exuding the air of a master.

If Li Yue or Liang Yuzhi were here, they would definitely recognize him, because he is a five-star cross-border player. Not only is he stronger than the two of them, but his past achievements and the territory he owns are also superior to theirs.

At this moment, a thin layer of gray mist was shrouding the two of them, a state unique to the Conspiracy Card.

"It's basically confirmed. Continuing east for 300 li, we'll reach the territory of the Flame Duke, and about 200 li further east is the camp of that dark horse, Li Wei."

At this moment, the old man with gray hair and beard spoke calmly, while the scarred man beside him had a glint in his eyes.

"So, the Flame Duke is the boss of the level that's destined to go out of control next October?"

"You can't say that. There are many variables involved. Although this is an assessment, if you treat it like a game, you will lose badly."

"In short, my advice is not to think about stealing Li Wei's house first. Develop first. That guy is young and fearless. Scorpion and Widow are both idiots. If he raises the difficulty to 180, the radiation storm will give them a good beating. Even if they survive by chance, they will be severely injured. Li Wei's way of doing things is simply evil. You must not learn from him."

"The first year must be stable, the second year must be ruthless and fast. Do you know why all five departments have simultaneously dispatched five-star cross-border players this month? The purpose is actually the same: next spring, I want you to gather elite players and set off eastward with me to wipe out Duke Flame!"

"But isn't he the boss of the level?"

"Heh heh, so what? So what if they're wiped out? Do you know that the total number of humans in this world was once as high as eight billion? Countless people died in the fifteen years since the apocalypse, but even so, there are still a large number of survivor camps hidden in the corners and alleys, organized and protected by powerful superhumans such as Duke Flame. But sooner or later they will face the problem of getting out of control. This is what the Alliance of Lords of the Heavens has been doing."

"In short, by killing Duke Flame, you can get at least 5 five-star universal gold cards and at least 500 natural persons. Isn't that great?"

"Let me say something that might be a little out of line: a Flame Duke actually has at least three expansion routes around him. The third expansion route has already been established, so now you and Li Wei are like destined rivals. If his camp isn't destroyed, you will definitely be destroyed."

“When it comes to development, if you’re slow at one step, you’ll be slow at every step. Resources are limited, and so are the universal gold cards.”

The old man said with a touch of emotion.

"I heard that Widow Yang from our department is with Li Wei?" the scarred man asked tentatively.

"Yes, but don't expect to persuade her to switch sides. She's not an ordinary player. The punishment for switching sides at her level is no different from killing her. In short, just do things within the rules. Don't resort to any underhanded tricks; that would be an unfair victory," the old man said dismissively.

"I understand now." The scarred man nodded. Although he had been in sixth place for the past few months, he was not in a hurry at all. He was taking it easy and developing steadily, which was good!

Ok?
Suddenly, a line of information silently appeared before all nine players present, including the scarred man and the old man.

Due to changes in the surrounding environment and ecology, the future development of the current expansion route has reached a bottleneck. Within the next year, the maximum amount of expansion points obtainable will be drastically reduced by half.

-

what?
The scarred man could hardly believe his eyes. What the hell? In broad daylight, are you kidding me?
He looked at the old man beside him in horror, only to see that the old man who had been talking so eloquently just moments before was now looking just astonished, his eyes filled with shock and confusion.

"Elder Chu, what's going on?"

The old man took a long time to come to his senses, looking somewhat lost and bewildered.

"Duke of Flame has been annihilated!"

"But how is this possible?"

"Just because of two five-star half-crippled individuals?"

He muttered to himself, incredulous. It wasn't some random cat or dog; it wasn't just a mid-game boss, but a five-star+ level boss with special skills.

He bet that neither Scorpion nor Widow Yang, those two bitches, had ever seen anything like this when they completed their pioneering missions. It was something only the top five on the leaderboard were qualified to do.

At that moment, only one big word rose in the old man's mind.

Grass!
(End of this chapter)