On the way, Li You stared suspiciously at Bai Ye. He leaned closer and whispered, "Brother Ye, where's your Taboo Object? I didn't see you throw it away."
He did not actually say the words "Taboo Object," merely mouthing them.
Bai Ye glanced at him without answering. The Taboo Object was naturally still on him. As for why it had not been found, that was simple. When the soldiers searched his shirt, he hid it in his pants. When they searched his pants, he used Time Stop to hide it back in his shirt. They would find it only if ghosts did the searching.
Before long, led by the soldiers, the two arrived at the main force. The soldiers were setting up camp and pitching tents.
Meanwhile, the residents of Gray Soil Town huddled together in an open area, watched over by several heavily armed soldiers.
Bai Ye kept observing. Two people stood out among the soldiers: an officer in a high-ranking uniform and a young man carrying a silver metal case nearly half a man tall.
The officer looked to be in his thirties. His cold expression carried a trace of arrogance. Both his legs and arms had been replaced by mechanical structures, and exposed portions gleamed silver like mercury. Those intricate, sophisticated alloy mechanisms were clearly far beyond King Snake's mechanical arm.
The man carrying the silver case looked far more normal. His body was no different from an ordinary person's, except for his unnervingly striking eyes—hawk eyes! His golden-brown pupils were so sharp they seemed capable of piercing the night.
After giving the two a glance, Bai Ye roughly understood their identities: one mechanical modifier and one Genetic Modifier. Judging from appearance alone, they were far stronger than King Snake and Tan Jie.
"Reporting, sir. Two Wastelanders have been brought in. No weapons were found on them, nor are there any signs of genetic or mechanical modification," the soldier said respectfully.
The officer nodded coldly and casually glanced at Bai Ye and Li You. Seeing that they were filthy and dressed in ragged clothes, no different from the other Wastelanders, he said nothing more and impatiently waved a hand.
"Assign numbers in order. Put them in the refugee camp."
Soon, Bai Ye and Li You each received a crude number tag and were placed among the residents.
The two blended into the crowd without any awkwardness. Looking at the mournful, numb expressions around them, they casually found a secluded spot and sat down.
Several nearby Wastelanders raised their eyes to look at them. Seeing that both were filthy enough for their faces to be unrecognizable, they merely glanced at them before looking away.
Only then did Bai Ye relax, seeing that no one had recognized him as Deputy Commander Bai.
He had always been willing to assume the worst of people. Among so many people, there would inevitably be someone with ulterior motives who might expose the fact that he possessed a Taboo Object in order to curry favor with the officer. That was why he had deliberately disguised himself.
"Brother Ye, you're 258 and I'm 259. Why are they assigning us numbers?" Li You asked, studying the number tag in his hand.
"Did I get here before you?" Bai Ye shot him a sidelong glance.
Li You froze. "No. Didn't we arrive together?"
"You know we arrived together, yet you're asking me? Go ask someone else!"
After being snapped at, Li You muttered some indistinct curses under his breath, then went to strike up a conversation with someone nearby.
Not long after, he returned with an ugly expression.
"The numbers are for grouping us. Twenty people per group, and those twenty have to watch one another. If anyone in a group escapes, the whole group gets shot. Those bastards are vicious. Now no one will dare run."
Bai Ye nodded thoughtfully. "Go ask them what they captured so many people for."
Although he had already guessed, he still needed confirmation.
"Friend, what are Dawn City's officers planning to do with us?" Li You sidled up to a Wastelander and asked quietly.
The Wastelander looked numb and seemed unwilling to respond. Li You shamelessly asked several more times before the man finally muttered, "The big shots from the city want to take us to Black Mountain. They say they're short on manpower and want us to scout the way there. They also said that if it succeeds, they'll take us to Dawn City, and we won't have to scrape out a living in the wasteland anymore."
"That's a good thing! We can become city folk!" Li You said, pretending to be delighted.
The man gave a miserable smile. "That might fool children, but can just anyone enter Dawn City? Even if the big shots are telling the truth, how many of us will survive after going to Black Mountain?"
After saying that, the man fell silent again, staring blankly ahead.
Li You was secretly alarmed. Just as expected!
He moved back over to Bai Ye.
"Brother Ye, what do we do now? Should we find a chance to run?"
"Run for what? You need to look at this from another angle, understand?" Bai Ye had no intention of running. Stepping into the wilderness at night was no different from courting death. Wasn't that why this convoy did not dare travel at night?
"What angle?"
"It looks like we've become cannon fodder, but until we reach Black Mountain, this convoy is protecting us."
Li You's eyes lit up. "That's true. Mutated Beasts are running rampant, and nowhere is safe. If we stay with this convoy, at least we won't have to worry about Mutated Beasts.
Brother Ye, that's brilliant! I understand even better now what you said before: only those who keep reverence and humility in their hearts can live long."
"Enough. Get some rest." Bai Ye lay directly on the ground and closed his eyes.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The clock in Gray Soil Town's central square chimed. Twelve o'clock... had arrived.
Bai Ye, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. Without drawing attention, he poked Li You, who was sleeping beside him.
Li You opened his eyes in confusion. "What is it, Brother Ye?"
"Get ready to make a move." Bai Ye's low voice instantly woke Li You completely.
He asked in shock, "No, Brother Ye, make what move?"
"Kill them all!"
"Ah!?" Li You was dumbfounded. He suspected Bai Ye was joking, but the savagery hidden in Bai Ye's eyes made it seem otherwise.
"No, Brother Ye, it's just the two of us against a hundred heavily armed soldiers?"
"Yep."
Li You: "..."
At that moment, his mind went completely blank, replaying what Bai Ye had said before.
The so-called Wasteland Survival Path was the knowledge that could help one live long in the wasteland. Its sixteen-character creed was: insult the weak, bully the small, submit to the fierce, obey the strong.
To survive in the wasteland, one must keep reverence and humility in one's heart...
"Brother Ye! My dear brother! This... this isn't what you said before!" Li You wailed miserably. "Didn't you say people should be humble and..."
"What's different? No one understands humility better than I do. While I'm being humble, I even relocate gravestones and graves!" Bai Ye said with a feral grin.
Li You stared at him, dumbstruck. No! Were they even talking about the same word for humility? How had Bai Ye become a completely different person after one night's sleep?
Before you continue