Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

After a moment of silence inside the FJ Cruiser, Zhang Su turned off the radio and said, ”No wonder the signal is so bad, it’s coming from over in Tang City. What do you guys think about this?”

Wu Lue laughed awkwardly and was the first to speak, ”Haha, this lady’s voice is quite nice...”

His perspective earned a collective eye-roll from the others. Damn, a lovesick view is indeed unique!

”Let’s put the niceness aside; she does have the clear enunciation of a legitimate announcer. Her Mandarin is precise and articulate. It’s quite tough to find a professional announcer these days,”

Chen Hanzhou nodded and said.

”That’s quite a boast, covering hundreds of kilometers; would that include Beijing and Jin City? I don’t believe there aren’t larger survivor camps over there!”

Lu Yubo wasn’t great with geography, but he knew Beijing was right next to Tang City.

”Yes... I’m not sure about Jin City, but isn’t the permanent resident population of Beijing over 20 million? Even if only 1% survived, that’s still 200,000. Plus, it’s at the heart, maybe there’s some emergency plan there. If there’s an official safe haven, it’s most likely in Beijing...”

Wu Lue, trying to recover from his earlier lovesick blunder, started rambling.

Zhang Su shook his head slightly, ”Luezi, a large resident population only means greater density. Did you forget what it was like when the disaster broke out? Getting out of a neighborhood in Beijing is much tougher than it was for us!”

The population of Qin City District was only a twentieth of Beijing’s. In their minds, they quickly imagined what Beijing might be like, and they couldn’t help but shiver...

”Hey, did you guys notice? They have their own new calendar system too, called... the Era of Calamity! I thought we were the only ones who came up with that idea!”

Wang Xin shrugged and said.

”It seems like everyone has their own ideas.”

Zhang Su nodded in agreement. Earlier, he had thought Yuwen’s suggestion to change the calendar was unnecessary, but now he found it increasingly necessary, especially as the population grew. A unique culture was needed to unite people!

Thinking further into the future, if we ever build a great city, in today’s world, that would mean becoming a country of our own...

”Damn!” Wu Lue said with a strange expression, ”If every big camp has its own calendar in the future, wouldn’t it be hard to unify them?”

”What a load of crap. Whoever’s stronger makes the rules,”

Lu Yubo naturally replied.

”Exactly, history is always written by the victors. In the past, only the victors had the power to write, and they could write however they wanted, shaping how they wanted future generations to see them.”

Wang Xin also agreed with Lu Yubo’s view.

”Enough with the pointless stuff. How much do you believe the broadcast message?”

Zhang Su took out a pack of cigarettes and passed them around, asking.

”Complete bullshit, just like the Cyan Dragon Corps. The guy scouting ahead said they had over a thousand people, and they only had just above 300. Based on that ratio, the Righteous Dao Association might only have a thousand people, oh...”

Wu Lue paused, embarrassed, ”If there really are a thousand people, that’s still quite a lot.”

”Did any of you notice a detail?” Chen Hanzhou lightly stroked his mechanical limb and mused, ”When they reported the number of people, they were precise to the last digit, which made them sound credible. Of course, it could also be a tactic to intentionally make people believe them by fabricating these numbers, playing the psychology card!”

”Tang City is a lot bigger than Qin City. Before the disaster, it was a second-tier city domestically, with a resident population of six to seven million, I think. Based on our survivor ratio study, theoretically, there should be about 100,000 survivors in Tang City. Even after these few months, there should be 30,000 to 40,000 left. So, even with 3,000, it’s not exaggerated.”

Zhang Su analyzed rationally, never letting the smaller population of Qin City blind him from imagining a big metropolitan scenario.

Everyone nodded. The other party proclaimed themselves the most complete community within a few hundred kilometers. Broadcasting like this takes confidence, because in today’s world, it’s a Dark Forest. Many survivor camps have turned into resource-hungry hunters. A hunter exposing their location is either immensely stupid or exceptionally strong.

Not only are they unafraid of robbery, they actually hope for it, relishing the chance to counter-attack magnificently...

”Map... forgot the map. Does anyone have offline maps on their phone?”

Zhang Su asked.

”I do. Here you go, Brother Su.”

The tech-savvy Wu Lue took out his phone from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Su.

”Keping District... here it is, on the east side of Tang City, close to our side, Kaiyue Road... I see it, let me check the distance.”

Zhang Su used a distance tool to roughly measure, discovering that the straight-line distance was about 130 kilometers. On the highway, it wouldn’t be more than 160 kilometers!

”This distance... isn’t far!”

”Yeah, even Qing County to Changli is over a hundred kilometers away. Hell, they might expand towards us!”

”Probably not,” Zhang Su shook his head, dismissing Wu Lue’s speculation. ”Nowadays is different; having more land than you can manage is useless. Well, this trip wasn’t wasted; we learned there’s a big force near us.”

”Having so many people may not be a good thing. Look at the Cyan Dragon Corps; just over 300 of them attracted a horde of the dead numbering 100,000. If this Righteous Dao Association has 3,000, wouldn’t it attract a million zombies? Damn, that’s terrifying.”

Wang Xin said, shaking his head at the horrifying thought that even startled himself.

”In the past, 3,000 people seemed like nothing; my neighborhood had more than that. Now, why does it sound so scary...”

Wu Lue shared the sentiment.

Zhang Su didn’t disagree this time. He nodded slightly, ”With a rising number of people, the relevant defense forces must increase proportionately. Ideally, everyone should be a soldier, but as you’ve seen, as the population grows, some survivors with weak combat abilities will join the camp, and there are also some with special abilities, all needing protection.”

”Based on the previous military-civilian ratio concept, as I see it, the minimum should be guaranteeing a three-to-one ratio; i.e., we should have 30 combat-capable members before 10 non-combatants!”

With the camp’s development, Zhang Su needed to consider more issues.

”Damn, a three-to-one military-civilian ratio... that’s quite a challenge.”

Wu Lue rolled his eyes, calculating silently, ”Brother Su, even before the disaster, the highest military-civilian ratio was one-to-six. Isn’t your three-to-one planning too harsh?”

”One-to-six?” Zhang Su was surprised by this ratio, frowning, ”Which country’s military-civilian ratio is that high?”

According to his memory, Ah Jin had the most exaggerated ratio, with about 26 million people and just over a million military personnel, a ratio of one-to-25, the highest in the world. Where did this one-to-six come from?

Wu Lue chuckled with a face full of smugness, ”Didn’t know, did you? Haha, it’s the Vatican, population one thousand...”

”A thousand my ass, scram!”

Before Wu Lue could finish boasting, Zhang Su clapped him on the back of the head. How could he include a religious state with less than half a square kilometer of land in the discussion?

The others all flipped Wu Lue off.

Even Su Xiaoya, who had only studied middle school geography, secretly rolled her eyes, thinking this guy was too full of it!

”Stop with the nonsense. Anyway, when the population is under a thousand, we must ensure the three-to-one military-civilian ratio. We haven’t achieved that yet, but once the Reserve Team is fully operational, it won’t be a problem!”

Zhang Su said slowly. Though feeling some urgency, he wasn’t too rushed. A ”military” isn’t just about picking up a weapon, while their ”military” could become civilians when putting it down. It’s a gradually advancing process that can’t be rushed.