Mechanic endlessly amassing troops in the apocalypse

Chapter 182 Spy Within a Spy

Standing at the gate of the Iron Stone Camp, Xu Lao looked at Wu Qiming's smiling face, his mind buzzing.

New world?

On the way here, when Mei happy mentioned that she came from the New World, he didn't take it seriously at all, and even laughed at her in his heart for giving such an arrogant name.

But now, Wu Qiming personally opened the door from the inside, looking extremely eager.

"Brother Mei, you must be tired from your journey. Please come in, please come in. The room and food are all prepared!" Wu Qiming shook Mei Xicai's hand with great enthusiasm.

Mei Xicai nodded slightly and replied with a smile, "Manager Wu, you're too kind."

Wu Qiming stepped aside to make way and gestured for them to proceed.

Mei Xicai led his men through the gates of the Iron Stone Camp.

At this moment, Wu Qiming's gaze swept over and landed on Han Yan. His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, as if he had just remembered that there was such a group of people: "Han Yan, take them to the shantytown on the east side to settle them in."

The shantytown on the east side? Old Xu gripped his cane tightly.

Even though he had never been to Ironstone Camp, he had heard that it was a place where refugees lived.

The tin shed was drafty and didn't even have a decent bed.

He was just boasting to Mei Xicai about how he had connections and was being treated differently, but now Mei Xicai is being treated to fine food and wine in the core area, while he has been relegated to a shantytown for refugees.

Han Yan walked up from the back of the crowd with an apologetic smile on his face and said softly, "Oh dear, Mr. Xu, I'm so sorry. Today, Manager Wu is busy receiving distinguished guests. As you can see, people from New World have arrived, and we're just too busy to handle everything."

"Why don't you take everyone to the shack area for the night, and I'll talk to Manager Wu tomorrow to arrange better accommodations for you?"

Old Xu gave him a cold look.

But he ultimately didn't retaliate. The food and lodging of seventy or eighty people depended on the Ironstone Camp, and turning against them at this point would do him no good.

"Let's go." He turned around, leaning on his cane.

Tie Tou stood there stunned for a while before quickly catching up. The veins on his forehead throbbed: "Old Xu, aren't they going too far? We're not ordinary refugees."

"Alright," Old Xu interrupted him, without stopping. "Go and rest first. I'll go see Han Lei again tomorrow."

The people from Lijiazhuang behind him began to whisper among themselves.

"Is this place even habitable?"

"Didn't we agree to assign you to the core area?"

"Is Han Yan playing us?"

Tie Tou turned around and glared at him, then his muttering gradually subsided. But his own expression wasn't much better.

Although the living conditions in Lijiazhuang were not great, at least they had a decent house and a bed to sleep in. These shacks in front of us are not even as good as the pigsties in Lijiazhuang.

Meanwhile, in the core area of ​​Ironstone Camp, in the banquet hall.

Wu Qiming led Mei Xicai to the seat of honor and personally filled his wine glass.

"Brother Mei, I've long admired the grandeur of your camp," Wu Qiming said with a beaming smile. "A camp of two thousand men is one of the most powerful forces in this area. It's an honor for our Iron Stone Camp that you're still willing to bring your men to join us."

Mei Xicai picked up his wine glass but didn't drink it. He just sniffed it and said with a smile, "Manager Wu, you're too kind. Although our New World Camp has a lot of people, to be honest, the management is a bit—well, it's hard to explain."

"Oh?" Wu Qiming raised an eyebrow, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Mei Xicai sighed and put his wine cup on the table: "To be honest, Steward Wu, our lord Li Fei is capable, but he is stubborn and will not listen to advice. Several stewards in the camp are already disloyal to him and are not on good terms with him."

I came here because I simply couldn't stay here any longer.

Wu Qiming picked up his wine glass and took a sip, glancing at Mei Xicai from above the rim of the glass. He didn't say anything, but his attitude was clear: he didn't really believe what Mei Xicai was saying.

Mei Xicai wasn't in a hurry. He took out a neatly folded piece of paper from his pocket and spread it on the table.

"Manager Wu, this is my sincere offer."

Wu Qiming put down his wine glass and picked up the paper. After just one glance, his brows furrowed slightly.

That was a defense deployment map.

The map clearly marks the locations of the New World Camp's watchtowers, patrol routes, supply depots, and personnel distribution. Even the hidden sentries and backup passages are circled in red.

"Brother Mei," Wu Qiming put down the defense map, his tone becoming subtle, "how did you get this map?"

"I am one of the camp supervisors," Mei Xicai said calmly. "I was one of the people who helped draw this map."

Wu Qiming didn't reply. He leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice.

The atmosphere in the banquet hall suddenly became somewhat stagnant.

The two guards standing behind Wu Qiming exchanged a glance, their hands unconsciously reaching for the hilts of their swords at their waists.

Mei Xicai seemed completely oblivious to the tension, picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks and chewing it slowly and deliberately.

"Manager Wu," he swallowed the food in his mouth, raised his eyelids, "if you don't believe me, you can send someone to verify. It takes at most half a day to go from here to the New World Camp and back. Send someone with quick legs to take this map and compare it with the original to see if the markings are real."

Wu Qiming stared at him for a full ten seconds, then suddenly laughed.

"Brother Mei, you jest. How could I not believe you?"

He folded the defense map, but instead of returning it to Mei Xicai, he put it in his own pocket.

"Well then, Brother Mei, you wait for me here." Wu Qiming raised his wine glass, drank it all in one gulp, and then left the banquet.

He returned just ten minutes later, laughing loudly, "Brother Mei, your blueprints are indeed flawless. From now on, you are my brother, Mei Xicai."

Mei Xicai was taken aback, clearly not expecting the other party to verify the blueprints so quickly. He subconsciously asked, "Brother Wu, aren't you afraid I'll use fake blueprints to deceive you?"

Wu Qiming revealed a meaningful smile, "Brother Mei, you underestimate me. Since I'm going to deal with Li Fei, how could I not be prepared?"

Mei Xicai laughed heartily, "So Brother Wu had an inside man! You truly are a master strategist. Now I feel much more at ease."

Yes.

He also raised his glass and clinked it with Wu Qiming's.

The two laughed heartily and tilted their heads back to drink it all.

Mei Xicai put the wine glass on the table, a barely perceptible sneer appearing on his lips.

Fei was right. The traitors in the base haven't been completely wiped out yet.

The next morning, in the shantytown.

Old Xu sat on a bed made of wooden planks, his face so gloomy it seemed to drip water.

He didn't sleep a wink last night.

The shed was drafty, and cold winds seeped in through the gaps in the sheet metal, making his old bones almost fall apart from the cold.

The refugees outside were making a ruckus; some were fighting over half a moldy piece of bread, while others coughed all night in the shed, coughing so hard it was heartbreaking.

This is the refugee quarter of Ironstone Camp.

"Old Xu." Tie Tou crawled in from outside the shed, carrying a half-bowl of porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it. "Please have some."

"This is what I got. One bowl per person."

Old Xu glanced at the bowl of porridge, then at Tie Tou's equally sleep-deprived face, and waved his hand: "You eat it, I'm not hungry."

"You haven't eaten anything all night."

I told you I wasn't hungry.

Tie Tou held the bowl, his lips moved, but in the end he didn't say anything, squatting in the corner and silently drinking his porridge.

Just then, footsteps came from outside the shed.

Han Yan lifted the curtain and walked in, a smile on his face. "Old Xu, how did you sleep last night?"

Old Xu looked at him coldly without saying a word.

Han Yan wasn't embarrassed. He took off his glasses and wiped them with the corner of his shirt. "I'm really sorry about yesterday. Manager Wu really had important guests to entertain and couldn't spare the time to take care of you."

"Distinguished guests?" Old Xu sneered. "People from the New World are distinguished guests, while we people from Li Family Village are just vagrants?"

"Mr. Xu, you're being too polite." Han Yan put his glasses back on. "We're all family, and we'll all be entering the core area sooner or later. But if you want to get into the core circle of the camp sooner, there are ways."

"What method?" Old Xu asked coldly.

Han Yan smiled and said, "Manager Wu will be making a move against the New World Camp today. If you can volunteer to be the vanguard, you can enter the core level faster."

"Vanguard?" Old Xu gripped his cane tightly.

Tie Tou also stopped drinking his porridge and looked up.

There was a two-second silence in the shed.

Then Old Xu suddenly stood up, slamming his cane heavily on the ground: "So, after all this time, you invited us to join you just to be cannon fodder?"

Han Yan looked up at Old Xu, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

"Old Xu, you're a sensible man," he said slowly. "There are seventy or eighty people in Lijiazhuang, eating and living in Tieshi Camp. They should pay some for their food, right? Besides—"

He pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold light: "Do you think you have any way out now?"

Tie Tou suddenly stood up, his fists clenched: "Han Yan, you—" Tie Tou. Old Xu pressed down on Tie Tou's arm and slowly sat back down.

He looked at Han Yan, remained silent for a long time, and then gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, let's go."

Han Yan's smile returned. He stood up and dusted off his clothes. "Old Xu is indeed a wise man. Someone will come to inform you to gather after dark tonight. Don't wander off or cause trouble."

He turned and walked out of the shed.

Ironhead slammed his fist into the wooden board, splitting it in two.

"Old Xu! What does he take us for?!"

Old Xu closed his eyes and remained silent.

Just then, the curtain was lifted again.

"Old Xu."

An unfamiliar voice rang out at the entrance of the shed.

Tie Tou and Xu Lao turned their heads at the same time.

Mei Xicai stood at the door, with no one behind him, but he was carrying a bulging cloth bag in his hand.

"I've come to discuss a business deal with you." He walked into the shed, placed the cloth bag on the ground, and untied the bag.

The contents inside poured out instantly: rice, noodles, canned goods, cured meat, and even several bags of coffee beans sealed in aluminum foil.

Tie Tou swallowed hard.

Old Xu's gaze swept over the supplies and landed on Mei Xicai's face: "What do you mean?"

Mei Xicai smiled and sat down on the wooden board opposite him, speaking casually as if chatting with an old friend: "Han Yan came by earlier, right? He sent you guys to be the vanguard tonight, as cannon fodder."

Mr. Xu did not deny it.

"Then I'd like to ask you a question," Mei Xicai said, arms crossed, "how many of the conditions that Tieshi Camp promised you have been fulfilled?"

Old Xu pursed his lips.

"There's no accommodation in the core area. There are no allocated supplies. Not even a decent meal." Mei Xicai listed them one by one. "They just want to use you to deplete the New World's ammunition, and then discard you."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Old Xu stared into his eyes. "If you came here to humiliate me, then you've achieved your goal. Now, please leave."

Mei Xicai laughed and said, "Old Xu, do you think Han Lei and I are on the same side? We didn't discuss anything, just brought supplies. Isn't that enough of my sincerity?"

Old Xu was speechless for a moment.

Taking this opportunity, Mei Xicai added, "I came here not to join the Iron Stone Camp, but to destroy it."

These words startled even the usually composed Old Xu, who instinctively asked, "Aren't you afraid I'll tell the Ironstone Camp about this?"

Mei Xicai's lips curled up. "Since I dared to come here, I was prepared to die here."

"Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"I'm afraid," Mei Xicai answered frankly, "but I'm even more afraid of being looked down upon by Brother Fei."

A sharp glint flashed in Old Xu's cloudy eyes: "Your New World belongs to Li Fei?"

Mei Xicai laughed and said, "That's right, this is the name that Fei-ge came up with."

Old Xu immediately felt reassured. He had met Li Fei before, and if it weren't for the fact that he was on the opposite side of Li Fei, he would have liked to join Li Fei's side as well.

"We've had conflicts with Li Fei, will he accept us?" Old Xu asked, voicing his biggest concern.

Upon hearing this, Mei Xicai immediately knew there was hope and urged, "Do you know what kind of relationship I had with Brother Fei before?"

Before the other party could ask, he replied, "My mortal enemy. My team members wanted to kill Fei Ge, but even so, he was willing to let me join his camp. So what impact do you think your actions will have?"

Old Xu lowered his head and pondered for a long time before asking, "Alright, I'm willing to cooperate with you. Tell me, what's the mission?"

Mei Xicai pushed the cloth bag on the ground towards Old Xu, "Cooperate with me and wipe out the main force of the Iron Stone Camp in one fell swoop."

Tie Tou glanced at Old Xu, then at the pile of supplies on the ground, and opened his mouth.

"To wipe them all out?" Old Xu asked in a deep voice. "Do you know how many Awakened Ones above level 30 there are in the Ironstone Camp? Do you really have the capability?"

Mei Xicai did not answer. He took something out of his pocket and placed it on top of the pile of supplies.

That was a photograph.

The photo shows the building filled with fully armed people carrying guns.

Outside the building, there were countless zombies, numbering at least tens of thousands.

"This is our camp's record from a long time ago," Mei Xicai said, pointing to the photo. "Back then, we weren't very strong, but we were already able to clear out this level of zombie horde. Now, not only has Fei Ge's strength improved, but our strength has also made a qualitative leap. Do you think we have that kind of strength now?"

Mr. Xu's gaze lingered on the photograph for a long time.