No good people outside the city

Outside Ice Prefecture City lay a lawless no-man's-land.

Little White Tiger might have swaggered around the city, but outside its walls, he had to tuck his tail between his legs.

People in the city still had some humanity left. Outside, it was a dog-eat-dog world.

Little White Tiger sat uneasily in a small van.

The driver was a teenage boy who looked about Little White Tiger's age.

"Bro, what are we going out of the city for?" Hi Dog asked quietly, hugging a large canvas bag.

"To find Lei Zi."

As Little White Tiger watched the scenery outside grow increasingly desolate, an inexplicable sense of relief washed over him.

Lei Zi were a specialty of the apocalypse.

A bunch of desperadoes who worked for money.

Pay them enough, and they would put their lives on the line for you.

But there were also fake Lei Zi who took the money and never did the job, so Little White Tiger had decided to go outside the city and find them himself.

The Lei Zi in the city weren't up to scratch, after all. Every truly formidable Lei Zi had dozens of deaths to his name.

People like that didn't dare stay in the city for long.

The Awakened Old Xie had hired to kill Little White Tiger was a genuine Lei Zi, a ruthless bastard who wouldn't stop until he got the job done.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.

The van dropped them off at a fairly large settlement town, the closest one to Ice Prefecture City.

The town had around a hundred resident households and mainly did business with passing truckers, Lei Zi, and fugitives.

There might not have been many locals, but anyone who could survive between the Transformed and vicious bandits was no ordinary person.

"Thanks. Five thousand."

The driver took off his gloves and held out a hand to Little White Tiger with a smile.

"What the hell? Didn't we agree on two hundred back in the city?" Hi Dog stared at the driver in disbelief.

Five thousand was more than half a year's wages in the city.

The driver was big and burly, with a short, spiky haircut that made him look cocky.

"Would you have got in if I'd said five thousand back in the city? How am I supposed to rip you off if you don't get in?"

The driver argued as though he was perfectly justified. "How am I supposed to make money if I don't scam people? Don't I need to eat? Doesn't the van need gas?"

As soon as he finished, four or five middle-aged men surrounded the van. Two of them had guns.

Judging by the setup, this clearly wasn't their first time shaking down passengers.

Bang, bang, bang!

One of the middle-aged men knocked on the window. "What? Don't want to leave?"

"You fucking dare scam me?" Hi Dog punched the driver in the face.

The punch didn't do a damn thing to him. He casually spat, then grinned. "Another thousand. Medical expenses."

"Six thousand. Pay up."

The door opened, and a middle-aged man pressed his gun against Little White Tiger's head.

"Heh. You fuckers really taught me a lesson."

Little White Tiger gave a bitter smile.

He had barely left the city before running into this. The saying was right: there were no good people outside the city.

"Seven thousand. Another thousand for tuition."

The driver hopped out with an easy swagger, unzipped his fly, and turned around to relieve himself.

The middle-aged man gestured at Hi Dog's canvas bag with his gun. "Get the money."

"Sure."

Little White Tiger shrugged. "There are more of you. You're the badasses."

The two exchanged a knowing look, and Hi Dog lifted the canvas bag and unzipped it.

Little White Tiger pretended to reach for the money.

"Hey, your buddy's been hit." Hi Dog pointed at the driver.

"Huh?" The gunman at the door instinctively turned his head.

Whoosh!

Little White Tiger snatched the Shotgun out of the canvas bag and shoved it into the man's face.

"Nobody fucking move."

Hi Dog seized the opportunity to haul the gunman on his side against the window, then shoved a hand holding a grenade straight into the man's crotch.

"Move, and you lose your dick."

The situation reversed in an instant.

Little White Tiger grabbed the middle-aged man's gun with one hand and pressed it against his own chest.

"Buddy, I'll count to three, and we fire together. Whoever chickens out is a fucking coward."

The middle-aged man froze. He hadn't expected Little White Tiger to be this reckless.

"One."

The middle-aged man swallowed.

"Two."

The middle-aged man instinctively looked toward the driver.

"Three."

Little White Tiger roared, and the man jolted. "Okay, okay! I give! Just go. You don't have to pay!"

Hi Dog grinned, slung the canvas bag over his back, and swaggered out of the van with one hand gripping the other gunman's belt.

"Hey, you should've said you had guns."

The driver spread his hands and complained, "Just give me four hundred. I wouldn't have taken you if I'd known."

His extortion attempt had failed, but he wasn't angry, nor did he intend to fight it out.

Anyone who went around scamming people was bound to run into someone tough. Every kind of freak and monster could be found outside the city.

The driver had no intention of going head-to-head with Little White Tiger. He waved a hand. "Pay up and go. What rotten luck."

Little White Tiger bared his gleaming white teeth and chuckled.

Hi Dog slapped down a ten-unit note.

The driver stared blankly at the ten on the hood.

Even a normal trip cost a hundred per person. What was this ten supposed to mean?

"This doesn't even fucking cover the gas."

Before the driver finished complaining, Hi Dog raised his chin. "Change."

"What?"

The faces of the driver and the middle-aged men twitched.

The extortionists had run into extortionists.

Little White Tiger tapped the ten-unit note with the Shotgun. "Change. Give me five thousand."

The driver's expression darkened. "Tiezi, don't push it. We weren't trying to kill you. I'm charging you the normal fare now."

The driver and the middle-aged men were all dressed in rags. They clearly weren't rich.

Little White Tiger didn't press them for money. "Forget the cash. I'm taking the van."

The driver nearly rolled his eyes in fury and glared at Little White Tiger.

"We're all Black Mountain Town locals. One word from me, and you won't get out of here. Believe it?"

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

Dust burst up beside the driver's feet. He and the others exchanged a glance, then took off running.

"Badass."

Hi Dog gave Little White Tiger a thumbs-up and dropped into the passenger seat.

Having offended Black Mountain Town's locals, they couldn't stay in this settlement town anymore. They would have to find Lei Zi in the next town.

Little White Tiger climbed into the van. The two stared at each other, then at the empty driver's seat.

"Drive."

"You drive."

"I don't know how."

"Neither do I."

They stared at each other, dumbfounded.

Little White Tiger bit the bullet and fumbled around for a while, until hurried footsteps sounded behind them.

The two turned to look, and their scalps prickled.

Two or three hundred people charged out of the town, carrying all kinds of weapons.

The spiky-haired driver was leading them.

"We've kicked a hornet's nest."

People outside the city were famous for sticking together. Without that, they couldn't possibly survive out here.

Little White Tiger figured most of the town's residents had come out. There were even seven or eight snot-nosed kids in the crowd.

Bang!

A shot shattered the side mirror. The driver hurriedly turned and roared, "Don't fucking shoot my van, damn it!"

"Drive!"

Hi Dog shouted anxiously.

If these people caught them, they would smash every bone in their bodies.

Little White Tiger couldn't worry about anything else. He floored the accelerator, and the van shot forward.

Fortunately, the road outside town was a straight, graded dirt road. Little White Tiger had no choice but to wing it.

The townspeople chased them for a kilometer or two, but once the van disappeared from sight, they had to give up.

"The van's gone, Earthworm. Let it go."

"I fucking told you ages ago to go rob travelers with your eldest cousin. Your whole family are highway robbers, but you drive a lousy little van. What, trying to go straight?"

"Tell the lookouts in the other towns. We have to find them."

As the townspeople talked over one another, the driver snatched an automatic rifle from someone beside him and slung it over his back.

"I'm getting my van back today, no matter what. You lot go back. I'll chase them myself."

The driver gritted his teeth and ran off down the dirt road.

"That kid Earthworm has a one-track mind."

"Forget it. A few rich city boys just arrived in town anyway. Let's go back and kill them. With a few modifications, their vehicle could serve as a truck. Just right for Earthworm."

"Come on, let's go."