Chapter 33
Reusable sacrifices.
Still, in some respects, Lu Li's proposal had far too much going for it.
For one thing, it would punish these four animals who had abandoned all humanity in the apocalypse. For another, it would let the people in the camp live a little more peacefully.
Jun Shutong hesitated for only a fraction of a second, and even in that fraction of a second, she was considering whether they could keep using this method in the future.
"All right." Jun Shutong nodded firmly.
"Leave it to me. Before they start serving their sentences, I still need to give them a little orientation." Lu Li volunteered to take on the task that could so easily inspire fear.
Then Lu Li made a point of talking Jun Shutong around. Only after he was certain she had abandoned her impulse to play the hero did he head to the temporary prison, satisfied.
Zhao Zhu and the others were securely tied to chairs, with two elderly men assigned to guard them standing nearby.
After entering the "prison," Lu Li deliberately sent the two elderly men away.
He pulled up a chair, sat down, and asked expressionlessly, "Lu Li asked, ‘Zhao Zhu, right?’"
"Yes, sir. You can just call me Little Zhao." Zhao Zhu nodded repeatedly, his face full of flattery.
Lu Li folded his arms and announced, "Your sentences have been decided."
"Sentences?"
At that word, the corner of Zhao Zhu's mouth twitched. Inside, he cursed furiously. It's the apocalypse! What gives you the right to judge me? Whose authority are you even judging me under?
Rage surged through Zhao Zhu, but he did not dare let even a trace of it show on his face.
Already filled with a growing sense of foreboding, Zhao Zhu hurriedly declared at the top of his voice, "Sir, I didn't have a choice before, but now I can be a good person! I'm willing to contribute to the camp. From now on, I'll be a brick in the camp's wall-you can put me wherever I'm needed!"
"That's fine. What you'll be doing next is contributing to the camp." Lu Li gave him a "kindly" smile.
That ominous feeling wound around Zhao Zhu's heart like a vine. His face turned deathly pale as he stared at Lu Li, his fingertips whitening from how hard he clenched them. Like a lamb awaiting slaughter, he waited for the verdict.
Lu Li abruptly changed the subject. "Have you ever gone fishing?"
Zhao Zhu's mind buzzed. He instinctively concluded that Lu Li intended to use them as bait. The instant the thought surfaced, an icy terror seized him.
"No! You can't do this! I want to see that beautiful Public Security Officer surnamed Jun! We may have done wrong, but you can't just stop treating us like human beings!"
Zhao Zhu bitterly regretted everything. If they had turned around and run the moment they spotted Jun Shutong, how could they possibly have ended up like this?
"Don't worry. There won't be any danger. Of course, there might be a little danger."
"There's an arcade on the other side of this shopping mall, and a Ghost Magical Beast lives inside. We don't know when it'll get hungry, so we send two people to the arcade every day."
"If that Ghost Magical Beast gets hungry, the people we send become sacrifices. Honestly, I've always thought this kind of sacrifice was a bad idea."
"Because it's unfair to the people in the camp. But things are different now. You're here." Having finished, Lu Li looked at Zhao Zhu with a smile.
After hearing Lu Li's words, Zhao Zhu seemed to lose every ounce of strength. The last flicker of hope in his eyes went out like a dying candle, and he wilted like a frostbitten plant.
Zhao Zhu understood that their fate now was to wait until the Ghost Magical Beast ate them.
Looking at Zhao Zhu's despair-stricken face, Lu Li's lips curved slightly upward.
He had said all this precisely to deepen the fear and despair in Zhao Zhu and the others. That way, Mimikyu would have an easier time "eating."
"Relax. You'll be split into pairs. Once the other pair dies, your sentence will be over. At that point, you can consider joining the camp or simply leave." In the end, Lu Li still gave the four of them a little hope.
It was not an act of kindness. He was worried that they would give up entirely if they fell into complete despair.
Mimikyu wanted emotions such as fear. If these people became so utterly desperate that they stopped caring, they might no longer feel any fear.
"So start praying. Pray that the other pair dies before you do. Then you'll be free." After saying that, Lu Li ignored their reactions and walked straight out of the prison.
"Keep a close eye on these men. From now on, the four of them will be going as sacrifices in place of the camp's people." Worried that the four might escape, Lu Li made a point of reminding the two elderly guards.
"Don't worry, young man."
"With Old Zhang and me watching them, these four won't get away." One elderly man with shrewd eyes patted his chest and gave a confident assurance.
Lu Li nodded, then went to report back to Jun Shutong.
The ninth day after the Pokémon arrived.
Ever since the heavy rain on the seventh day, the entire camp had taken on a thriving atmosphere.
No one mentioned the people who had died that day anymore. After all, death had long since become an everyday occurrence since the apocalypse began.
Now that water was no longer scarce, Lu Li felt that everyone's skin looked much better hydrated.
Jun Shutong, in particular, had finally regained her old presence, just as she had been when the two of them first met.
"Dawn Camp currently has forty-eight people. The elderly and children account for two-thirds of them, and we have fewer than twenty able-bodied adults. These days, everyone generally gathers supplies between the third and sixth floors."
"As you asked before, Lu Li, we specifically marked the areas where Magical Beasts have been spotted."
As Fatty Lei spoke, he handed Lu Li a map.
Lu Li took the map and examined it.
The shopping mall had seven floors in total. Some of the glass roof on the seventh floor had been shattered by Pokémon, which was why Jun Shutong had established Dawn Camp on the sixth floor.
Everyone was also worried about flying Pokémon appearing, so hardly anyone dared to go up to the seventh floor. Jun Shutong had even specifically ordered all the Emergency Exit doors leading there to be locked.
The third through fifth floors were safe zones, with practically no Pokémon around. Perhaps there had been some before the Pokémon's arrival, but those Pokémon must have moved elsewhere afterward.
As for the second floor, there were currently two identified Pokémon: Mime Jr. and Klink.
Mime Jr. was confirmed, since Lu Li had seen the Pokémon with his own eyes. Klink was only his guess, however, because the sound he had heard earlier really did resemble the sound a Klink would make.
The first floor was home to all kinds of wandering Pokémon and Raticate.
The first through third basement levels were a paradise for Pokémon that preferred dark places. The main Pokémon there were probably Raticate, but Lu Li suspected there were also Pokémon such as Ek-
ans down there.
Back when the internet still worked, the authorities had said that humanity had lost the skies, the forests, and the oceans.
But Lu Li thought the authorities had been far too conservative. Humanity had now lost even the cities-or at least, the city sewers had become completely off-limits.
Even Palpitoad had come up to the surface to hunt, which showed just how fierce the competition in the sewers was.
Around the shopping mall, Grass-type and Bug-type Pokémon lived in the green belts. There were also wandering Pokémon roaming everywhere, such as Pikachu and Dodrio, with no fixed homes.
So far, no Pokémon capable of destroying the entire city had appeared nearby. Of course, he had no idea whether there were any elsewhere.
Still, there probably were no powerful Pokémon that could casually wipe out a city-at least not here. If there were, Dihui City would already be gone.
Surviving the initial culling is a kind of luck in itself, isn't it? Lu Li thought with relief.
What concerned Lu Li more were the Houndour setting fires everywhere.
The good news was that the pack of Houndour had probably moved farther away, because the building that caught fire this morning was even farther away than the last one.
The bad news was that the observer had spotted another new Pokémon today.
The witness said he had seen a strange bird eating a streetlight yesterday afternoon.
Seeing how absorbed Lu Li was, Fatty Lei chimed in with a complaint. "Lu Li, have you noticed that these Magical Beasts seem to eat just about anything?"
Lu Li looked up at Fatty Lei, raising his eyebrows slightly to signal him to continue.
"Just think about it." Fatty Lei began counting on his fingers. "There's the Ghost Magical Beast that eats souls, the rat Magical Beasts that eat anything, and that bodybuilding Magical Beast that goes looking for protein powder."
"Today, we found another Magical Beast that eats metal. An old man told me earlier that he'd also seen a lump of black sludge eating garbage. Is there anything these Magical Beasts won't eat?"
Lu Li fell silent at that. There were so many different Pokémon types that there were Pokémon that ate practically anything, such as Magnemite, which ate electricity.
As for the lump of black sludge Fatty Lei mentioned, that was probably Grimer.
After finishing his examination of the map showing the nearby Magical Beasts, Lu Li casually handed it back to Fatty Lei.
"Did that Ghost Magical Beast keep anyone there yesterday?" Lu Li asked.
"Those two bastards were kept there. Once it's past noon, we'll need to send someone to bring them back out," Fatty Lei said, his face full of disgust.
"Good, then. Remember to keep a close eye on them. It'd be a shame if such useful reusable sacrifices escaped," Lu Li reminded him.
Fatty Lei nodded and flattered him with a grin. "Only you could come up with such a nast... such a good idea, Lu Li. Lots of people in the camp are grateful to you now."
Lu Li rolled his eyes at him. He was the one who had originally proposed the sacrifice plan. He would be thankful enough if the camp's people weren't condemning him behind his back. Grateful? He knew better than to take that sort of talk seriously.
"There shouldn't be any other problems in the camp, right?" Lu Li asked about the camp's other affairs.
"We currently have enough food and water to last a month. But... if the Federation still hasn't sent anyone by then, we'll be in trouble." A trace of worry flashed in Fatty Lei's eyes, impossible to hide.
In truth, he no longer held much hope for the Federation. But that was precisely why he was so worried.
After all, anyone who failed to plan ahead would soon find trouble at their doorstep. Although they did not need to worry about food and water within the next month, newcomers were joining the camp almost every day.
They said the food would last a month, but in reality, it would hold out for twenty days at most-and that was assuming no large influx of newcomers.
Lu Li had thought of that too. He gently patted Fatty Lei's shoulder and reassured him, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We'll find a way."
Fatty Lei nodded, but that did little to improve his mood.
Whenever they discussed food and water, he sank into the dejected feeling that humanity was doomed.
Lu Li also knew that Fatty Lei could see no hope for the future. But he could.
After finishing his meal, the thought that he still needed to go back and feed Feebas immediately put a spring in Lu Li's step, and a smile spread across his face.
After all, he had secured another twenty days to develop, bringing him one step closer to becoming a Trainer.