"Ah, what a pity." Feeling his Sequence level up, Luo Fan instead sighed silently to himself.
Yes, he had only just checked in, and his Sequence had leveled up right afterward. That made Luo Fan feel he had lost out a little.
After all, barring any surprises, the money he received from checking in should have increased after his Sequence leveled up.
He opened the shop and took a look. The merchandise had not changed. Right, there had been no notification of a shop update.
Shaking his head, Luo Fan settled down and continued resting.
They could rest until noon the following day, so everyone, Luo Fan included, enjoyed a rare deep sleep.
"Luo Fan, Luo Fan..." He had no idea how long he had slept before a series of calls suddenly woke him.
"What is it?" Luo Fan opened his eyes. The person calling him was Niu Dagang.
He glanced at a clock hanging inside the vehicle. It showed that it was around ten in the morning.
"Get up. Something's happening," Niu Dagang said gravely.
Hearing that, Luo Fan scrambled up.
"Didn't Brother Zhao say we could rest until noon? Are there more Fierce Beasts?" Sitting up, Luo Fan looked out the window. There was sunlight outside, so it couldn't be supernatural entities.
"No, we've run into another survivor squad," Niu Dagang said, pointing in a direction.
Luo Fan looked in the direction Niu Dagang was pointing.
Sure enough, a survivor squad was heading their way. There appeared to be twenty or thirty people.
They had only one small box truck leading the way, with two ox carts following behind.
Seeing this, Luo Fan understood.
Zhao Chunfeng's divination could detect the surrounding Fierce Beasts and supernatural entities as far as possible, then let him choose a suitable route to avoid them.
Other survivor squads, however, presumably fell outside the scope of his divination.
The other group had clearly noticed the Hope Convoy as well. After approaching, they stopped roughly eighty to a hundred meters away.
Seeing another squad approach, the resting survivors of the Hope Convoy quickly got up, their expressions wary.
A short, thin man of about fifty with a bald crown climbed out of the truck's passenger seat.
Zhao Chunfeng also jumped up in the off-road vehicle.
"Should we go over?" Luo Fan asked when he saw Zhao Chunfeng get out.
"Come on, let's follow him." Although Zhao Chunfeng was the leader of the Hope Convoy, he had no combat ability, after all. Niu Dagang nodded and followed him with Luo Fan.
Likewise, after the skinny old man with the bald crown got out, a man of about twenty emerged, leading a little girl of seven or eight.
Clearly, the young man and the little girl had also awakened Sequences.
"Hope Convoy. I'm Zhao Chunfeng. This is Niu Dagang, and this is Luo Fan." Once the two sides drew close, Zhao Chunfeng introduced his side first.
"Luo Family Town Squad. My name is Luo Dahai. This is my son, Luo Xiaohai, and this is An Xiaoran." The skinny man with the bald crown introduced his side as well.
Luo Dahai wore a broad smile, looking like an honest old farmer.
His son, Luo Xiaohai, on the other hand, held his head slightly raised, his expression arrogant.
As for the seven- or eight-year-old girl beside them, An Xiaoran did not even lift her eyelids. She gave the impression of a quiet doll, seemingly indifferent to everything around her.
With a cigarette between his lips, Zhao Chunfeng looked easy to talk to, while Luo Dahai was all smiles. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two sides agreed that everyone would contribute some ingredients for a hot pot lunch later, giving them a chance to talk.
With that preliminary discussion concluded, both sides returned to their respective convoys.
"Dad, they don't look strong. And that Niu Dagang guy is injured, too. If I make a move, I can wipe them out."
Back at their convoy, Luo Xiaohai eyed the Hope Convoy's vehicles with some greed, clearly entertaining thoughts of killing them and taking their vehicles.
"When will you learn to use your brain? Can you be sure how strong they are just by looking? What if you run into someone you can't handle?" Luo Dahai shot his son an irritated glare and scolded him.
"Then what do we do? If we don't fight, are they going to tell you which Sequences they've awakened and what levels they are?" Luo Xiaohai said, curling his lip dismissively.
"That's why having everyone contribute ingredients for a hot pot is an important way to gauge their strength. From the ingredients they bring out, we can roughly judge what sort of lives they're leading, which indirectly reflects their strength," Luo Dahai explained.
"Well, all right." Hearing his father's explanation, Luo Xiaohai thought it over, found it somewhat reasonable, and nodded.
The little girl beside them, An Xiaoran, had not spoken from beginning to end. Her expression remained calm throughout.
"They don't seem to have good intentions," Niu Dagang warned Zhao Chunfeng back at the Hope Convoy.
"When survivor squads meet, the stronger squad will think about swallowing up the other. That's nothing unusual."
Zhao Chunfeng did not find it strange. He continued, "So we just need to show our strength and make them think twice about acting."
In the apocalypse, people's hearts were sometimes more dangerous than supernatural entities, so when two survivor squads met, they usually sounded each other out.
Only when their strength was fairly close did they qualify to sit down and talk together.
"Actually, wouldn't it be safer to ignore each other when we meet, keep our distance, and go our separate ways?" Luo Fan voiced his doubts to Zhao Chunfeng.
Indeed, since both sides had their own hidden agendas, there was no need to deliberately gather together, was there?
Take their encounter with the Luo Family Squad, for instance. Did they really have to share this hot pot?
"Luo Fan, think about it. It's only been a few months since the apocalypse began, after all. Most survivors are running for their lives everywhere. They simply don't have that many channels or the energy to learn about the current situation."
"So when survivors meet, exchanging information is very important."
"A seemingly insignificant piece of information might save your life at a critical moment."
"Otherwise, why do you think I know so much more than you?" Zhao Chunfeng explained.
His words made Luo Fan nod in understanding.
Seen that way, although encounters between survivor squads were dangerous, exchanging information really was something both sides needed.
"So we need to bring out ingredients that will make them think twice, so they won't dare underestimate us. Only then can we exchange information calmly," Luo Fan added.
Ingredients that would make them think twice? Wasn't that convenient? They still had fresh Fire Rotbird meat.
If they could even bring out meat from a ranked ferocious beast, that should be enough to crush the other side's little schemes, right?
Before you continue