Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 380 - 16 Allocation of Spoils of War

Chapter 380: Chapter 16 Allocation of Spoils of War

Tang Zheng’s cruel words instantly stunned all the survivors. They all stared at him in shock, then looked at the unfortunate team captain, who had already fainted on the ground. Blood constantly flowed from his ruptured wrist, melting a large area of accumulated snow. He seemed on the verge of dying.

"No, aren’t you keeping him for interrogation?" Old Pavel, as if scalded, hurriedly shook his hand in refusal.

"There will be more captives. We won’t miss a few days." Tang Zheng pointed his gun at them and urged, "Hurry up, are you waiting for enemy reinforcements?"

The three wasteland residents were in a dilemma. Little Pavel glanced at his dad, suddenly stepped forward, and drew the dagger stuck in his waistband. Old Pavel pulled him back, but unfortunately was shrugged off.

"Let’s do it, I’ve been wanting to slaughter a Steel Council soldier for a while." Little Pavel knelt down beside Captain Ge’er. His eyes filled with anger, he slapped him awake with two slaps.

"Don’t, you should know the outcome of opposing the Steel Council." As Ge’er woke up, he felt the icy chill of the dagger on his face. Startled, he immediately glared with triangular eyes and roared at little Pavel, "Do you want to die?"

"Ha, tough enough, don’t beg for mercy. Let me see the spirit of a wasteland resident." Lu Fan made a sarcastic comment, continuing to check the corpses. He even found a bottle cap, which little Lolita blew on and immediately smiled.

"This knife is for Kaia’s family." Without any hesitation, Little Pavel plunged his dagger directly into Ge’er’s neck amidst his terrified screams. Unsatisfied, he twisted it, completely shredding his trachea.

"Damn it, leave him some breath edge?" Tang Zheng hadn’t expected the kid to be so decisive and cruel. He hurriedly beckoned to Sholokhov nearby, "Quick, come over and stab him."

"Demon." Sholokhov’s eyelids twitched. He had thought it had nothing to do with him, but he didn’t expect to escape. However, complicated by circumstances, he had no choice but to bow his head.

"Kid, was Kaia your girlfriend?" Tang Zheng looked at the tall and erect little Pavel, indicating him to search Ge’er.

Little Pavel didn’t respond. He skillfully turned over the corpse and quickly stripped Ge’er to his underwear.

Tang Zheng didn’t take it personally, but Old Pavel laughed and nodded his head, "Kaia was his girlfriend, but she’s already dead."

Not interested in listening to such a heart-wrenching story, Tang Zheng looked at the newcomers.

Xu Bi Yun, two soldiers, An Ping brothers, Chu Bai Chuan, and a peddler were all checking the bodies. The others didn’t move at all, especially the female model and the man with a beer belly who had just sobered up, even kept a distance. They not only disliked the corpses but also the filthy clothes caked in dirt from not being washed in years. It seemed as though a stench of body odor was permeating through the air.

A few female models even covered their noses, their faces full of impatience. They wanted to ask Tang Zheng to leave quickly but didn’t dare to.

"Pick it up, you won’t get the slightest lead." The urban management officer glared at the peddler and cursed him. He also wanted to pick things up but after secretly looking at Tang Zheng, he gave up. He didn’t want to do thankless jobs and decided to preserve his strength instead.

"For you." Little Pavel folded the clothes and put Ge’er’s AKM rifle, bayonet, handgun, ammo clip, and other miscellaneous items on top. Holding them with both hands, he walked over to Tang Zheng and handed them to him.

"Does anyone want the protective gear and coat?" Tang Zheng asked back, he had not yet been generous enough to give these things to the wasteland residents, but some newcomers were not so receptive.

Several female models looked at the bloodstained coat and shook their heads, they didn’t want to wear such things, and the others, seeing their reactions, couldn’t bring themselves to ask either.

"Can we just choose the gun?" A brunette woman hesitantly asked, after all, Tang Zheng had just killed ten people, she was still somewhat afraid of him.

"Sorry." Tang Zheng refused and sighed in his heart, women aside from Xu Bi Yun still hadn’t adapted to their surroundings.

"Do you all still think you’re flowers, surrounded by men all day courting you?" Pang Meiqin stripped a soldier’s military coat and threw it at a female model, "Don’t want to wear it? Then freeze to death."

"I want it." An Ning jumped up from his brother’s side, wiped his nose and An Ping pulled him back. Then he looked at Tang Zheng with caution, shook his head, "We don’t need it, but can the coat be given to us? We don’t want the gun or the ammo clip."

Xu Biyun had already gathered the spoils of war and presented them to Tang Zheng. She patted his shoulder and laughed, "Considering my hard work, give me a gun for self-defense?"

Little Du held the guns and clothes and tussled with Old Gao a few times before reluctantly giving them to him. Then he glanced at Tang Zheng.

"Tang Zheng, for you." Gao Wei had no intention of swallowing it, he didn’t even privately keep the bottle caps.

The peddler secretly slipped a bottle cap he found into his pocket when no one was looking, then holding the military coat, walked over and handed it to Tang Zheng.

"Obsequious and fawning." The rotund Zhang Bingcheng grunted and turned his head away, no longer paying them any heed.

"Why give it to me?" Tang Zheng was puzzled.

"Those soldiers were killed by you, of course, you should take these." Chu Baichuan, clad in his military coat and incessantly toying with an AKM, suggested, "How about you let me have a go with one?"

"Whoever picked it up, keeps it. Consider it a gift from me." Tang Zheng didn’t care about these simple things, just treating them as favors he owed. After taking eight nuclear bottle caps from Little Pavel, he proposed, "Choose one between the military coat and the pistol. We’ll give the rest to those brothers."

"Thanks." Little Pavel nodded, naturally tossing the military coat to the An Ping Brothers.

"Would you be interested in working as my bodyguard?" Living in the wasteland era, Little Pavel had no concept of gratitude, but Tang Zheng didn’t care about these niceties. He played with the nuclear bottle caps.

The nuclear bottle cap was the size of a one-yuan coin. On the front, there was a picture of a pretty girl pouring cola on her head, and on the back, there was a production date in black lettering.

It was said that these bottle caps came from the most popular nuclear cola before the nuclear war. At the beginning of the nuclear war, the monetary system collapsed, and no one would be foolish enough to use worthless paper money. Those lucky enough to survive started out by bartering, but as the quantity and complexity of goods increased, a general equivalent inevitably appeared.

Because it was a metal product, difficult to counterfeit, and also very common, durable, lightweight, and easy to carry, nuclear bottle caps gradually came to be accepted as a general equivalent. Of course, there was also an element of black humor and a sense of nostalgia on the part of the wasteland residents.

The bottle cap in Tang Zheng’s hand had a line of text scratched on the back, which, upon careful examination, turned out to be English, saying ’God, please save me!’

"A prayer from a wretch before death, I guess." Tang Zheng didn’t believe in anything like ghosts and spirits. He directly pocketed the bottle cap and asked, "Have you thought about it? Are you afraid of trouble?"

"Tang Zheng, are you joking?" Old Gao asked. Having served at a border guard post, they understood keenly what it meant to be short on supplies.

Seeing Tang Zheng nod, the peddler heaved a sigh of relief, while An Ning ran up to him and said thanks.

"Uncle is not that petty." Lu Fan put the bottle cap away and after removing the ammo clip, pointed at the other items and said, "Let’s give these to the wasteland residents, okay?"

Zhang Bingcheng wanted them, but a city management officer sprang up like a rabbit, catching them in his hand. He licked his lips and grinned, "Can you give me another ammo clip?"

"No problem." Lu Fan took an ammo clip out of her bag for him and put the captures separately. She hadn’t forgotten Trojan’s reminder that none of the items brought out from the room could be exchanged for nuclear bottle caps.

Little Pavel was torn; he could see that this man was not easy to deal with. Following him might lead to a lot of trouble, but he didn’t want to miss such a generous employer.

"I’ll go." Old Pavel volunteered himself, thinking that he had lived enough already and that he should be the one to take on the dangerous tasks.

"Dad." Little Pavel was anxious. "I’ll go."

"Go clean up the corpse, and then take us to the gathering place." Tang Zheng noticed that the newbie who obtained the spoils of war was trying to keep his composure while putting on the military coat and the triple defense mask.

They had wasted ten minutes from the moment Gao Wei was killed, making Tang Zheng quite dissatisfied. Fortunately, no other patrol teams from the Steel Council had shown up, or else they would have made an enemy.

Twenty minutes later, Old Pavel led everyone to a corner on Long Street. After clearing the thick snow, a manhole cover was revealed.

"The subway station entrance is controlled by the Steel Council, and they tax everyone entering and leaving. There are no such problems if we go this way." Old Pavel rubbed his freezing red hands and said, "This is my little secret."

"You won’t be short-changed. Let’s go." Lu Fan took out a tactical flashlight, complaining, "It’s annoying having to deal with these filters."

"There’s no need for it once we reach the gathering place. The subway has five layers, all dug after the nuclear winter. The lower you go, the less radiation there is. Actually, even if you stay on the first floor, it’s fine." Sholokhov showed off a bit, then grabbed the iron ladder embedded in the concrete wall and climbed down. He had two batteries but didn’t want to waste them in such a place.

"There’s nothing threatening down there, right? Like radioactive rats or something?" Pang Meiqin peeked into the sewer, which was pitch black and impossible to see into, so she pulled out her tactical flashlight and shone it downward.

"You guys better be cautious with your batteries. In the gathering place, five fully charged size-five batteries can only be bought per bottle cap. But since we don’t know about the remaining charge, it’s generally not possible to trade." Little Pavel cautioned and began to feel uneasy. These people seemed like they were not from this world. They didn’t know how to conserve supplies; all seven of them had tactical flashlights. One had a miner’s headlamp, and two held large strong-light flashlights. They were all turned on, wasting precious electricity.

"Turn off the lights. Are you trying to attract monsters? Or do you want to be targets in the dark?" Tang Zheng was frustrated. Because of the harsh combat environment, he had chosen the sturdy and durable AK74M, but it was only equipped with a sight and had no other attachments. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to qidian.com to vote and recommend. Your support is my greatest motivation.)