Doomsday Lord Ch. 21 | Heart to Heart

When Chéng Yáng returned to the meeting spot, he discovered that almost everyone had been as successful as he had; over a hundred people were waiting there. This was far more than he had planned, but if they hurried, it shouldn’t be a problem to move them a kilometer. He waited until the last few of his Citizens returned, they gave to order to set off.

“We can’t leave yet! Aren’t you going to rescue the others?” A forty year old man had blocked Chéng Yáng’s path and started angrily questioning him.

Chéng Yáng looked the man over. He was a pudgy man wearing a nice suit. He looked like the kind of person who had had a bit of status in the old world.

“We’ve already gathered too many people. Any more and we risk some of you dying on the way.” Chéng Yáng didn’t want to validate the man, but several others looked like they wanted to know the answer to his question, “We’ll come back later to rescue more people, so don’t worry about them.”

“Can’t you save just one more? You need to go rescue my son! I can pay if that’s what stopping you. How much do you want? A ten thousand? A hundred thousand?”

“If you want to die, I don’t mind letting you stay here on your own, but don’t drag the others here down with you.” Chéng Yáng couldn’t stand the arrogance the man exuded. “Actually, maybe I should leave you here to cool off and pick you up with the next batch.”

“You little…” The man felt a little fear after being berated but he had never been the type to concede to others. “How dare you not help me, do you know who I am? I’m the-“

Before he could finish, another survivor in a red shirt clapped a hand on his mouth.

“Don’t listen to his nonsense, hes just a little stressed. You’ve done something selfless by rescuing us so we have no right to tell you what to do. have saved our lives so naturally we won’t impede your plans.”

Chéng Yáng gave the man in the red shirt a pensive look.

“What’s your name?”

“Call me Hú Yáng. This is my brother Hú Jūn.”

“Hú Yáng, I hope you’ll remember what you said just then.”

“Of course, of course.” Hú Yáng stumbled over his words.

Chéng Yáng didn’t spare the brothers another thought. Why would he care what normal people though. Even if they carried a deep grudge from this, what could they do to him?

It took them about fifteen minutes to reach the Settlement, but it was an easy journey. It hadn’t been long since they’d cleared the area, so they only ran into solo monsters that had recently spawned, but were able to resolve the problems without civilian casualties.

Once they were safe within the confines of the Settlement walls, Cheng Yang had the Players gather the Hell Pig corpses from earlier, butcher them, and distribute meat to the survivors from Huìmín. Although they didn’t have proper cooking tools, if the meat was impaled and held up to the torches on the Wall, a crude roasted meal could be made. The survivors, who hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, or even longer, were more than willing to eat what would usually be considered a subpar meal.

While they ate, Chéng Yáng started another round of Research for each Class Statue, then gathered his forces and returned to Huìmín.

Although they focused on saving people, the Phoenix Village Citizens did their best to collect food from the ruins. With their strength, it wasn’t hard to clear rubble or carry a large amount of supplied on their backs. Although there would be an infinite buffet of monster meat in the future, it was far from a balanced diet so it was important to collect what they could now. In the future, a Farmer Profession would appear that allowed for the rapid growth of staple crops, but it wouldn’t be for a while.

Many of the normal people living in Phoenix Village would get sick, or even die if they ate nothing but meat between then and now. As for the Players, although they couldn’t get sick, malnutrition would apply a debuff to them, reducing their Attributes, and thus their chance of dying in combat.

For most of the day, Chéng Yáng ferried people and supplies between Phoenix Village and Huìmín. As time passed, the originally empty field gradually became lively. Although he never brought back as many people at a time after the first trip, since venturing deeper into the ruins meant wasting time fighting monsters, he was able to raise the population of Phoenix Village to over six hundred by the time he stopped.

Chéng Yáng had stopped at around four in the afternoon. When he’d started the fourth round of Research for the Class Statues at 2:00 PM, he’d barely had enough Soul Fragments. For the fifth and sixth rounds that needed even more, if he didn’t change his plans, there was no way he’d have enough. If he wanted to level up his Settlement as fast as possible, he would need to focus his efforts on gathering Soul Fragments for the rest of the day.

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Chéng Yáng called his friends into the Cultivation Chamber that they shared. He planned to allow some of the Huìmín residents to become Players to bolster their forces and focus on farming monsters, but before he did that, he would need to set up some rules, and subdue the vast number of normal people living in Phoenix Village.

“What did you need us for?” Niú Bīng asked when the final person, Yú Kǎi, had arrived.

Chéng Yáng chuckled. Niú Bīng had always been a serious and straight to business person, but in this situation it was rather comical.

“Don’t you have questions you want to ask me now that we’re alone?”

“What’s use? Even if you know the answers, the only important thing is being able to live another day. Other than that, the only things I think about are Páng Shān and my parents. I’m worried but there’s nothing I can do. After all, we can’t even reach Xiāngyáng to save the families of the others.”

Liú Hào also looked aggrieved when Niú Bīng said that. His family lived in a different province so there was absolutely nothing he could do, even if he was a Player now.

“Yángzǐ, do you think I’ll have a chance to see my parents again?” Liú Hào asked, his voice cracking.

“Don’t worry so much.” Chéng Yáng gave his friend a playful punch in the shoulder, “Didn’t I tell you to give your families some advice? It wasn’t meaningless, it was also in the dream I had. Every big city has a Safe Zone that prevents monsters from entering and allows people to become Players. If your folks followed your advice, they should be perfectly safe.”

Now that Chéng Yáng thought about it, if they had reached the Safe Zone and became Players, they probably had S-Rank Innate Abilities based on his current theory. Actually it wasn’t like it was impossible to reach the Safe Zones before monsters encircled it, so why had there been so few S-Rank talents? Maybe after becoming Players, but before the monsters had gathered around the Safe Zone, they had gone out to test their powers, then realized just how powerless a single person was and died a tragic death, wasting their potential.

Chéng Yáng felt suddenly enlightened, as if he had discovered a secret history. How much better would humanity’s position have been in his previous life if not for people’s arrogance after gaining a small bit of power? Most of the S-Ranks he knew of in his previous life must have been those that were either sufficiently cautious, exceedingly steady, or too cowardly to leave the Safe Zone after becoming a Player.

“Yángzǐ, my friend, I won’t thank you[1], but you’ve done me an enormous favor. As long as my parents are alive, I know we’ll eventually be reunited.” Liú Hào said while suppressing tears, the relief he felt after worrying for so long made it impossible for him to stay calm.

“We’ve been good friends, but after what we’ve experienced, we’re become brothers for life!” Niú Bīng straightforwardly declared. ” I won’t bother with formalities but from now on I owe you a debt of gratitude. Even if you try and chase me away I’ll always come back!”

“Since these two have already bared their souls to you if I said nothing wouldn’t I seem cold-hearted?” Yú Kǎi looked between Niú Bīng and Liú Hào with a wry smile on his face. ” I don’t know why you were chosen to foresee this disaster, nor why it happened. What I do know, is that when you heard that something terrible would happen, you chose to make preparations that allowed me to avoid the miserable fate of living through the kind of tragedy Huìmín went through. It might be a little shallow compared to the other two, but I know that if I ride your tailcoats, I’ll be able to maintain a decent life. I’ll do my best not to drag you down, and I’ll follow any orders you have so I don’t get chased away. From now on your fate and mine will forever be tied together.”

Chéng Yáng looked at the three of them while wearing an incomprehensible smile. He felt like he was seeing double as he remembered the pact they’d made in his previous life to always look after each other. Back then they promised to have each other’s backs, but now they were entrusting their lives to him, it was a heavy burden, but one he took up readily. These were the most important people in his life, if he couldn’t allow them to live comfortably despite the apocalypse what was the point of regressing and obtaining so much power?

“I’ll make sure you’re trust in me wasn’t misplaced.” Chéng Yáng said with cheery confidence. “We’re brothers for life now!”

“Now lets hear why you called us over here.” Niú Bīng pulled the discussion back on track.

Chéng Yáng nodded.

“My plan for the next few days is to fulfill the conditions necessary to level up the Settlement. This will give us the numbers and the raw strength we need to break through to Xiāngyáng and rescue the families of our comrades. In order to level up the Settlement, I’ll have to allow a group of people to become Players so that they can gather Soul Fragments for Phoenix Village.”

“I assume that the point you wanted to discuss with us?” Yú Kǎi asked, “You’re worried that although we’ve earned their gratitude but not their loyalty? They’re only here cause they don’t have any other choice. I wouldn’t be surprised if after getting to Xiāngyáng some of them would rather stay there and be free, than come back and have to follow your orders. Even if they do come back with us, why would they be loyal? With so many Players, even if its you, Yángzǐ, I don’t think you’d be able to stop them from taking over.”

“I’m not worried about a coup.” Chéng Yáng replied, “But we do need to work on building loyalty. Everyone has been acting together so far because we didn’t have the numbers to do otherwise, but starting this afternoon, we’re going to split into five groups. Five combat teams. Each of us will command one and I plan to give command of the last one to Old Lǐ. From what I’ve seen, the main thing he wants is to save his family and keep them safe. That’s something I’m more than capable of providing, so I don’t think he would defect. Moreover, I can’t afford to lose him, his Innate Ability is too useful, so I don’t mind giving him some power.”

“I get the point about Mr. Lǐ, but how is that going to inspire loyalty in everyone else?” Liú Hào asked, “Why would that stop anyone from leaving? Wouldn’t the added supervision make ambitious people want to get away even more?”

“The ambitious people would stay because we’ll give them power.” Yú Kǎi rapped Liú Hào’s forehead, “All those games must have made your brain rot. Use your head, since we’re going to make combat teams, naturally their will be lieutenant positions. We can funnel those with ambition into those positions and tie them to the Settlement.”

“Rewarding those that perform well will also encourage those who are on the fence. If they see that we can provide them benefits they won’t leave unless they have a good reason. ” Niú Bīng analyzed. “Aside from leadership positions, we could also add opportunities to visit the Instance Dungeon or rights to equipment.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Liú Hào said with a frown of confusion, “But what makes you so confident that we don’t need to worry about a coup? The normal people might not be a problem but an overly ambitious Player might be.”

“Because I have a carrot that will entice them to obey, and a stick that can resolve the problem on the spot.” Chéng Yáng revealed a slightly cruel smile, “Compared to a Safe Zone, Phoenix Village is a paradise. It’s not crowded, there will be plenty of facilities soon, and being a Citizen will make you a dragon among men compared to Players from the Safe Zone. If someone is really still tempted to risk being thrown out, I can directly strip them of their power. Since they became a Player here in Phoenix Village, as the Lord of Phoenix Village I can turn them back into a normal person. Unless their plot runs so deep that they’re able to dethrone me before I find out about it, its impossible for an internal revolt to succeed.”

The room was silent for a moment as the others processed that information.

“I’m considering telling everyone after we break through to Xiāngyáng, but I’m not sure if its better to keep that blade hidden, or leave it out in the open as deterrence.”

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[1] In China it is considered rude for close friends to be overly polite to each other as it is seen as creating distance between them