Chapter 22
The collapse of morality in the apocalypse.
There were three residential communities around the mall, all practically just across the street from it. Aside from Star Sea Residential Community, where he lived, there were also Anke Residential Community and Golden Residential Community, where Fatty Lei lived.
The survivors who had joined the camp that day were from Anke Residential Community.
Honestly, Lu Li had been a little surprised when he learned where they came from.
Anke Residential Community had an underground tunnel leading straight to the supermarket on the mall's basement level. Normally, its residents would use that route to get to the mall.
But that place had long since been overrun by Rattata. Any ordinary person who went in would have no chance of coming out alive.
"Take me to meet them. I'm pretty interested in how they got here," Lu Li said.
"No problem. We'll go after breakfast." Fatty Lei readily agreed.
With Fatty Lei leading the way, Lu Li soon met the survivors who had just joined the camp.
"This is An Kang, and the lady beside him is Liu Li. These are their daughter, An Xi, and their son, An Ran." Fatty Lei introduced the An family one by one.
Lu Li raised his eyebrows. He hadn't expected them to have brought their whole family along.
Fatty Lei hurriedly explained, "An Kang actually came to the mall yesterday. He was planning to go to the underground supermarket, but I stopped him. I didn't expect him to bring his family over to join us today."
"This is Lu Li, our camp's second-in-command," Fatty Lei told An Kang.
Upon hearing that, An Kang immediately greeted him. "Greetings, Chief."
"No need to be so formal. Just call me by my name." Lu Li quickly stopped An Kang from bowing.
"Mr. An, could you tell me how you got here? As far as I know, if you didn't take the underground tunnel, you would've had to make quite a long detour," Lu Li asked curiously.
"There's no reason I can't tell you, but what I'm about to say might be a little hard to believe. Still, I can guarantee it's all true," An Kang assured Lu Li solemnly.
Lu Li nodded, looking ready to listen.
"We came through the underground tunnel, but we didn't enter the underground supermarket. Once we were through the tunnel, we took the stairs straight from the basement to the first floor."
"Didn't you see any rat magical beasts?" Lu Li asked.
"We did," An Kang admitted with a nod, then continued, "Even if you hadn't come to find me, I would've reported this to Sister Jun. Those rat magical beasts are actually having a pretty rough time right now."
"Oh? Did they ruin all the food in the supermarket already?" Lu Li asked, puzzled.
"No. They're fighting a group of gray human magical beasts over territory-or rather, over supplies."
At that point, An Kang could no longer keep a straight face, and his expression turned rather peculiar.
Gray, humanoid Pokémon?
The first thing Lu Li thought of was Machoke. After all, An Kang's description of gray human magical beasts was pretty specific.
"That doesn't sound right. Those gray human magical beasts you mentioned should be omnivores. If they ran out of food, shouldn't you have been their first targets?" Lu Li frowned slightly, thoroughly confused.
According to Pokémon lore, Machoke was actually based on a lizardman. If a Pokémon like that really appeared in the real world, it probably wouldn't be a simpleton obsessed with building muscle like it was in the anime.
"No... They do eat people, but what they prefer is..."
Fatty Lei couldn't help prompting him. "What?"
"Protein powder! Those gray human magical beasts invaded the underground supermarket to snatch its protein powder. They usually hang around the gym in our community, pumping iron."
"Compared to other magical beasts, gray human magical beasts aren't actually much of a threat to humans. Unless they're so hungry their eyes turn red, they won't hunt people."
Lu Li: "..."
If An Kang had said those Machoke were fighting over some other supplies, Lu Li would certainly have questioned the rule that Pokémon always hunted whatever offered the best return for their effort. But if it was protein powder, everything made sense.
For bodybuilding fanatics like Machoke, protein powder really was more appealing than humans-even more tempting than other Pokémon.
There was nothing strange about them going to war with a pack of Rattata over protein powder.
"We followed those gray human magical beasts into the mall. Thanks to them, we didn't run into any danger along the way," An Kang said with relief, as well as a gratitude he hadn't even noticed himself.
"If that's what happened, then it makes sense." Lu Li remembered something else: there seemed to be quite a lot of protein powder on the second floor.
Lu Li wondered whether he could conduct a little protein-powder diplomacy with those Machoke, or perhaps offer them some as tribute.
But fearing the classic outcome of "I want the goods, and I don't want to pay," Lu Li ultimately decided to keep that plan to himself.
If those Machoke refused to play by the rules and snatched both him and the protein powder, losing his life over it would be a terrible bargain.
"But I remember Anke Residential Community having several grocery stores, right? Have they already been picked clean?" Lu Li asked.
At that, An Kang explained with a bitter expression, "Anke Residential Community has been taken over by a gang of thugs."
"Seriously?"
Hearing that there was another survivor camp nearby, Fatty Lei immediately perked up.
"On the third day after the apocalypse began, the property management staff at Anke Residential Community set up a gathering place for survivors. At first, people really did come together to support each other."
"But on the fourth day, Wang Dazhuang, the manager of the property's security department, suddenly led a group of men to kill the property manager. Then he took over Anke Survivor Camp with a bunch of thugs just like him."
"Most of the residents of Anke Residential Community had families with them. Their loved ones were a weakness, and Wang Dazhuang was ruthless. After he killed a few more people to make examples of them, hardly anyone dared resist."
"Oh, and the Anke Property Manager was Wang Dazhuang's brother-in-law. That bastard had no conscience whatsoever. Not only did he kill his brother-in-law, he didn't even spare his own sister."
"The most disgusting thing was, they wouldn't even leave the bodies..."
"Don't tell me they ate people?" Fatty Lei stared at An Kang in horror.
An Kang glanced at Fatty Lei as though he were a monster, then hurriedly explained, "No. Whenever Wang Dazhuang goes out to gather supplies, he uses corpses as bait to draw
the magical beasts' attention."
Only then did Fatty Lei breathe a sigh of relief.
"You scared the hell out of me! I thought someone nearby had already crossed that line." Fatty Lei patted his chest in relief, the cold sweat on his back still not dry.
"Anyway, that survivor camp in Anke is an absolute mess," An Kang continued. "All kinds of nasty stuff happens there. Calling it a collapse of morality would be putting it mildly, so I took my family back home to hide."
"But the food we'd stored at home was running out. That's why I risked coming to the mall to try my luck at finding supplies. You know what happened after that. Once I met you and heard you say the camp here was decent, I brought my whole family over."