The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 222 - 218: The Collapse of Order

Chapter 222: Chapter 218: The Collapse of Order

We need to understand one thing, the arrival of the Serpent People truly signaled the apocalypse. Therefore, Shenzhou was an exception among all the nations in the world, still maintaining organized government bodies, armed forces, and shelters for the survivors.

What Shenzhou could achieve, other countries certainly could not.

Thus, after the initial brief period of chaos at the onset of the apocalypse, once everyone realized the end had truly come, chaos, killing, and looting became the mainstream of the post-apocalyptic world.

Shenzhou too had its share of ’apocalyptic syndrome’, and there were psychopaths committing heinous crimes, but these were sporadic and insignificant. As long as the shelters existed and the vast majority still harbored hope, people would not default to pillaging others for survival.

But here, it was different. When the Government became ineffective and the military lost supervision, the first ones to pick up their guns and rob others for survival were likely disabled soldiers who no longer engaged in production.

The organized military had been defeated by the virus, turning into disbanded soldiers. These soldiers, who had undergone long-term training and were supposed to protect civilians, turned their guns on those very civilians in order to survive. This was a disaster for all survivors because no one could stand against these disbanded soldiers.

And very likely, that’s precisely what happened to this gas station.

The car had already stopped, and everyone hurriedly grabbed a bite to eat before finding places to sleep.

After a long time spent eating and sleeping in the vehicle, everyone was at their limits. Now that they had wooden plank beds to stretch out on and sleep, it felt like an immense luxury.

After coaxing Xinghe into the sleeping bag, Gao Yuan secretly crawled out again and went outside to the rooftop to find Zhao Qiang and Panxin.

Zhao Qiang, hearing the noise, turned and asked, "Why aren’t you sleeping?"

"I have something on my mind, can’t sleep. I came up to ask for your advice," Gao Yuan replied.

Gao Yuan had brought a folding chair from the vehicle and brought it up with him. He opened the chair and sat next to Zhao Qiang, asking, "Boss Zhao, bandits are not what I’m afraid of, but I’m curious as to why you decided to camp here. Is there a particular reason?"

Zhao Qiang thought for a moment before responding, "Are you questioning or...?"

"Oh no, I’m just purely curious. I want to learn. If I were questioning, I wouldn’t have waited until now to speak. Since I have no experience at all, I truly want to learn from you."

Zhao Qiang smiled and said softly, "Alright, I’ll tell you my reasons. First, I’m certain that a murder and robbery took place here, and it was likely done by soldiers. That means this country has already fallen into chaos. Since it’s already chaotic, I can’t determine which places are safe and which are dangerous. In other words, any place could be dangerous."

"So, start by assuming a hostile situation on all fronts?"

"Yes, that’s a professional hazard of mine, having served as the chief of security for the highest leader for a long time. My habits and thoughts might not suit the rest of you."

"No, no, please continue."

Zhao Qiang continued, "Pansin and his group are of the offensive nature, while I’m of the defensive nature. When I choose a place to stay, the first thing I judge is whether there are better options than this one. If there are, then we must change locations because safety is always my top priority. If there are no better options than this place, then I decisively choose a campsite and hurry to rest."

Gao Yuan asked curiously, "Why don’t we camp in the wilderness? For example, in a mountain hollow, at least we wouldn’t have to worry about sizable bandits nearby."

"In the name of comfort, I make a trade-off between safety and comfort. Why do we, in the safety of our own country, eat and sleep in vehicles, yet here, where the security situation has worsened, we instead choose to stop and rest? Have you thought about the reason?"

Gao Yuan shook his head, and Panxin interjected, "Right, why is that?"

Zhao Qiang spoke softly, "Because back home the environment is safer, we can focus our energy on traveling. But here, as our safety situation has become dire, I must ensure that everyone is in the best physical and mental state to cope with any threat at any time."

Pansin asked in a low voice, "What dangers are there?"

"This is the border. As far as I know, only a small number of Kazakhstan’s border troops are here, but further ahead, especially near Almaty, is where the Kazakh military is heavily deployed. So today, here is relatively the safest place for us. Tomorrow will be the real test."

Pansin let out a sigh and said, "Exactly, just as we assessed. If this country truly falls into complete chaos, then any agreement with the Blue Star Alliance is meaningless. Without a country, who cares about international treaties?"

Zhao Qiang said, "So I think it’s necessary to rest well here. Actually, we should have rested in our country, but I underestimated the level of chaos in this country. When the military began to organize looting of civilians, that meant the country no longer had any order."

Gao Yuan asked, "You keep saying that soldiers looted this gas station, but how do you know they were soldiers?"

Zhao Qiang thought for a moment and said, "I can’t be certain, but I can basically surmise it was done by soldiers. The reason is simple. We just passed through the border crossing where there are stationed troops. How far is that from here? It was impossible for sizable armed bandits to exist before the apocalypse. If you were an armed bandit with a sizeable force, would you run towards the border areas or from the borders to the inland?"

Gao Yuan replied without hesitation, "They’d definitely head towards the places with more people and more resources."

Zhao Qiang sighed and said, "Exactly, so think about it. What kind of people would have the guns to calmly loot this place clean, not sparing anything useful, and then even take away and deal with the bodies? I’ve said so much to give you a comprehensive explanation, but in fact, just by looking at how the bodies were treated, you’d know it was the work of soldiers."

Pansin said softly, "Gao Yuan, the simplest clue is the bodies, actually. If it were bandits, they wouldn’t care about the bodies after killing people. But soldiers are different; they would attempt to cover up their crimes."

Zhao Qiang said, "Looking at the time, initially, soldiers would do a lot out of habit, but later on, when they were utterly desperate, it wouldn’t matter if they were soldiers or bandits; they would all become brazen."

Gao Yuan truly understood now and whispered, "Thank you, Boss Zhao, thank you, Brother Pan. I understand. So Boss Zhao, do you think there are bandits nearby who might attack us?"

Zhao Qiang whispered, "It’s hard to make an accurate judgment. I believe there are no large bands of bandits entrenched here because they lack sufficient survival resources. They would have to move towards places with denser populations unless the bandits here are in a very small group, which would allow them—even with scarce resources—to hold out for a long time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Panxin whispered, "You just called it. To the north, six people, 2,400 meters away, are heading our way."