Chapter 24: The Request

A group of starving people!

What morality, what law—all of these are completely beneath their notice.

Hunger had robbed them of their sanity, leaving only the primal desire—to eat.

They are nothing more than a pack of beasts now.

Even if there was some food in the stomach, it was still not enough to feel full.

Therefore, as long as there’s any living creature passing by, if you can eat, you must eat!

They had food in their stomachs, but it had not yet been digested; the slight flush on their faces was merely the result of blood being processed slightly earlier in the digestive process.

Although their speed was fast, they still had not fully recovered.

It was as if a group of elderly people, struggling to walk, were rushing toward Lu Yu.

At the moment the two sides made contact, Lu Yu’s right hand had already smashed through the chest of the person protected by the blood shield.

Blood splattered down, and then the person collapsed to the ground.

Bang!

Lu Yu turned his body, and his left leg swept out like a whip.

His left leg first swept across a person’s head, smashing through the skull and sending the person flying sideways.

A headless corpse crashed into the people nearby, knocking down even the frail companions along with them.

“Waaah!”

A teenager squeezed through the crowd and lunged toward Lu Yu’s legs.

Lu Yu knelt down, showing no mercy at all. His knee harshly slammed into the child’s chin.

The child cried out, only to end up biting through his tongue. The teeth clashed against each other, like two of the sharpest blades striking together, shattering the teeth. Then, the lower jaw collided with the upper jaw, and the skull cracked.

The young man flew into the air, spitting out a large amount of blood as he fell behind the crowd, struggling desperately.

Behind Lu Yu, someone still managed to approach.

Embracing him tightly, she slammed Lu Yu’s head backward, shattering his nose and cracking his skull.

Several people grabbed his legs and arms, stabbing Lu Yu with knives and biting his body.

Several large chunks of flesh were torn away.

Lu Yu inhaled sharply.

This isn’t just making a few cuts on the body; it’s literally tearing flesh away.

Pulling at the nerves, connected to the tendons, the sensation of slowly tearing downwards bit by bit was even more painful than being cut by a knife.

After tearing off the flesh, these people immediately ran backward, spitting out the chunks of meat from their mouths with their hands, then tore open more flesh and stuffed it into their mouths.

“Fuck, you want to eat my flesh and then run away?” Although Lu Yu knew that staying here meant a high chance of death.

However, he didn’t want a few dying men to just eat his flesh.

Lu Yu dashed out of the encirclement before the people behind could close in.

Then he swiftly killed the three people who had just bitten the flesh from his body, before striding back quickly.

Lu Yu’s right hand slightly spread his five fingers, and the eagle hook shone with a glimmer.

As long as he could create some distance, he could outmaneuver and exhaust these people in such open space.

Just when Lu Yu thought a major battle was about to erupt, these people suddenly stopped.

They looked at Lu Yu, then at the dead and the struggling people on the ground.

Everyone suddenly surged forward like a tidal wave toward the severely injured and the dead.

Lu Yu was taken aback, then turned around and left.

After all, they are human beings and understand the relationship between benefits and harms.

To go kill someone who cannot be killed, or to eat the already dead to regain strength, a beast will forever choose the latter.

Lu Yu turned the street corner and could already see the distant stadium building’s sign and directional markers.

He saw hundreds of magical apes and thousands of humans entangled on a street.

A flood-like crowd, armed only with ordinary kitchen knives and fruit knives, managed to dismember hundreds of demonic apes.

As he was about to approach the stadium, he saw the most astonishing sight!

Hundreds of people surrounded a Black Demon Wolf, relying solely on their tattered weapons and repeated basic damage of ten points each time. They managed to wear down and eventually kill the beast. Along with their fallen comrades, they dismembered the Black Demon Wolf. Lu Yu, who had encountered the Black Demon Wolf twice before, naturally understood its terror.

But such a powerful life was gradually drained away like this; it’s likely that even at the moment of collapse, it would not accept it willingly.

While approaching the stadium, Lu Yu also saw other survivors.

Some people were missing a lot of flesh on their bodies and faces, looking terrified.

In his eyes, the city had truly gone mad.

Originally intended to go out and hunt monsters, but now nearly got hunted by his own kind instead.

At this moment, three of the stadium’s four exits had already been blocked by various tables and chairs. The remaining exit had more than a dozen people hiding around the entrance corridor, and the entrance itself was also piled with tables, chairs, and abandoned cars.

When Lu Yu entered the stadium, he found that there were nearly three hundred people crowded inside.

On the grass, the congealed bloodstains and bits of flesh had not yet been cleaned away.

A woman was hugging her child in a corner, staring in terror at the entrance.

A powerful warrior sat on a chair, glaring angrily at the ground.

No one was restraining them, yet the surroundings were quiet, and no one spoke.

Everything that happened outside has already reached here.

But it didn’t seem as if it had been stormed by frenzied people either; the bloody smell here was mixed with a foul, fishy odor.

Lu Yu saw the corpses of more than a dozen wolf demons and one black wolf demon piled up in the corner, and he immediately understood.

Last night, this place was probably attacked by a monster.

Before there was time to calm down, people had already started to go crazy.

Lu Yu looked towards the center of the stadium and saw several large pots set up. However, the water had already cooled down, and the oil inside had solidified.

However, from time to time, someone would still walk over and pick up one or two pieces of meat to eat.

A little girl about ten years old stepped forward and scooped up a bowl of cold soup. She carried it carefully and then brought it to the lips of a middle-aged man who had lost an arm and was still bleeding from his chest.

“What kind of meat is this?” Lu Yu walked up to the pot, smelled the meat inside, and detected a beef-like aroma, yet it wasn’t quite like beef.

“Whatever food could be found has already been eaten. This is the magic ape meat I cooked last night…” A person sitting by the pot saw Lu Yu and smiled: “If you had come earlier this morning, you could have tasted it while it was still hot. But now we can’t risk reheating it. If the aroma of the meat spreads outside, the people here probably wouldn’t be enough to serve as toothpicks for those outside.”

Lu Yu visited the camp the day before yesterday, and many people noticed the young man with a star soldier at that time.

Therefore, this person was not unfamiliar with Lu Yu. However, at this moment, he noticed that Lu Yu was not holding his usual massive stone club, but instead had changed to a bronze knuckle guard.

His complexion changed slightly.

Where exactly did he manage to strike the Star Spirit Stone to forge another Star Weapon?

Lu Yu thought about the appearance of the demon ape and the taste of its brain, and he almost vomited.

Lu Yu hesitated for a moment, then clenched his teeth, reached inside, and pulled out a piece of meat. He tore off a large bite and began chewing vigorously.

Lu Yu added no condiments other than some salt.

It smells a bit fishy and is also quite tough.

This is simply impossible to bite into.

However, Lu Yu knew he couldn’t skip meals.

From then on, food in this city became increasingly scarce. And once those outside finally ceased their madness, wars might even break out over something as basic as food.

To survive, one must eat everything.

Even if something tastes terrible, you should eat it as long as it can replenish your energy.

Without food, he didn’t even know if there would ever come a day when he, like the people outside, would go mad.

Lu Yu finished eating a piece of meat and already felt somewhat full.

The metallic taste in his mouth was still unbearable.

Lu Yu picked up another piece of meat and started eating again.

He must be ready.

In case those madmen stormed in, he needed to make sure he had the strength to fight.

After finishing his meal, Lu Yu found a corner to sit down and closed his eyes to rest.

Someone at a high vantage point kept observing the city’s situation through a telescope without cease.

For a period of time, even creatures like the Demon Ape and the Black Magic Wolf began to avoid the madman.

After the frenzy, many people had their stomachs full and gradually sobered up.

When they looked at the human bones in their hands again and smelled the blood in their mouths, they couldn’t help but vomit.

Having regained their senses, they began to recall everything that had happened, struggling to believe it even themselves.

They knew that what they had done was already unacceptable to others.

Many people gathered together, then searching for the place that belonged to them.

To outsiders, they are ogres, they are madmen.

Only among its own kind can a trace of balance be found.

When these people were no longer frenzied, the camp regained a bit more vitality.

People began to talk about the thrills of the day and the changes that had occurred the day before.

Lu Yu checked the time. It was still a few hours before nightfall, so there was no need to rush.

At this moment, Lin Ting stepped in front of Lu Yu. She was holding two cups of water, from which a faint aroma of coffee drifted.

“What, are you going to arrest me too?” Lu Yu looked at Lin Ting and laughed.

“Given the current situation in the city, it’s not realistic to go after you,” Lin Ting said, handing a cup of water to Lu Yu. “Now all supplies are starting to become scarce. This is the last bit of coffee I have left.”

Lu Yu took the cup, smelled it, and was about to drink when he looked up and saw Lin Ting.

“When did you become so cautious?” Lin Ting smiled lightly, switching her water cup with Lu Yu’s, and said, “You weren’t like this before.”

Lin Ting took a sip of her coffee as she spoke.

Lu Yu watched Lin Ting swallow her coffee before he picked up his cup to take a sip. He said, “Some people want to kill me. Before, they dared not make a move. Now, they don’t even fear taking action. Besides—”

Lu Yu patted the Soul-Gathering Hand resting beside him and said, “Many eyes are watching me. I think if I die, there will be people who would be more than happy to gain something from me. Or, if I stay alive, there are certainly things they’d desperately want to know.”

As Lu Yu spoke, his eyes scanned the surroundings. The greedy gazes around him quickly disappeared, and everyone promptly sat properly, engaging in serious conversation with their companions.

Lin Ting smiled, unimpressed.

Because she is also very tired now. Sometimes she really wishes to fall asleep and never wake up, just let her whole life pass by like this.

Lin Ting sat across from Lu Yu, her index finger gently and continuously rubbing the rim of her cup. After a brief silence, she said, “Yesterday, we received radio waves from other cities. Now, every city we can get in touch with—Shanghai, Nanjing… many of them—are just like Fanggang. The world has changed. No one is coming to save us.”

“Oh,” Lu Yu looked at Lin Ting; he had been prepared for this news long ago.

If someone has them in mind, troops will come to their rescue the very next day after the incident in Fanggang. If they do not come, then the situation might be far more complicated than expected.

The worst outcome would be if all of China became like Fanggang.

“Someone discovered a food warehouse in the southeast of Fanggang, containing about two tons of food. However, there’s a monster that has claimed the area outside the warehouse as its territory. Out of ten people who approached, only one survived and returned. We want to organize a group to kill the monster and bring back the food. But importantly, we have no information about the monster and don’t know its strength or weaknesses.”

“You want me to gather information about the monsters?” Lu Yu immediately understood.

Lin Ting nodded and said, “You know it too. If you can’t inflict damage on the monster, you won’t obtain its data. Those ten people couldn’t even get close, so they couldn’t get any information at all. If you’re willing to go, I can bring some people to accompany you there.”

“Taking others along is out of the question,” Lu Yu said, glancing at the camp. “Give me the coordinates; I’ll go alone if I want to think. I don’t want to have to watch my back against both monsters and people. Just tell me how the payment will be calculated. And—”

Lu Yu said seriously, “I don’t want anyone following me.”