A huge thank you to Desirae_J, Logan_Thompson_2940, tracy1501, Phiak_Yu, colby_Anderson, David_Carpenter_6713, Jose_Douvani_Nuevo, and Charles_Butrim for the Golden Tickets!
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Lucian, on this side, was still hoping to hear some words of praise from Lara, not noticing that the sounds of fighting had long since ceased behind him.
And Vikram had already arrived behind him with silent steps.
He wasnāt in a hurry to act, but instead listened with a smile to Lucianās fawning words.
At the same time, he glared at the other three, who had already noticed Vikramās arrival, warning them not to make a sound.
"After those guys are dealt with by the Mutated Zombies, weāll go loot their bodies. Any good stuff we find in the corpses will be given to you first."
Seeing Lara staring at him blankly, he thought she was attracted by his handsomeness, and his tone became even more exuberant.
"And that arrogant brat who was walking at the very front just now? Hmph, I offered him a face by inviting him to collect supplies with us, but he didnāt know what was good for him. When heās been gnawed clean by the zombies later, Iāll scatter his ashes, no doubt."
Lucian was beaming, speaking with increasing enthusiasm, completely oblivious to the fact that the other three almost wanted to devour him with their eyes.
"Oh! Thereās no more movement behind us, they must all be dead."
He turned his head happily, only to see the scene he least wanted to see in his life.
A human face was looking down at him, scrutinizing him.
He could see the amusement in the other personās face.
"Didnāt you want to scatter my ashes? Iām standing right in front of you, why arenāt you moving?"
The sound Vikram made combined with the echoes from the confined space, it pounded on Lucianās chest like a death knell.
The immense pressure made him instantly collapse to the ground, and his inner fear caused him to keep pointing at Vikram, but he couldnāt utter a single word.
He truly couldnāt understand how, even though he had deliberately kept such a long distance from Vikram and his group and spoken in a suppressed voice, the other party had still managed to discover their location.
Seeing that the other party had lost the ability to resist, Vikram was about to finish off this clown directly.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, he frowned and quickly stepped back.
At some point, a puddle of almost frozen liquid had appeared by his feet, nearly touching the tip of Vikramās shoe.
"Hahahahaha, Iām dying of laughter! How can this man be more timid than a woman? He just peed himself."
Anjaliās untimely laughter rang out behind him.
Having just finished dealing with the corpses and arriving here, she witnessed Lucian wetting his pants and immediately burst out laughing, clutching her stomach.
Lucian, slumped on the ground, was already scared out of his wits.
The corpses of Mutated Zombies scattered in the distance immediately made him realize that this group of people might be much more terrifying than he had imagined.
Now, he didnāt even have the energy to care about Anjaliās merciless mockery from behind Vikram.
Enduring the bone-chilling cold from the gradually freezing urine in his crotch to survive, he could only wave his hands while speaking, "Bro...brother, I can explain, please donāt kill me yet."
However, before he could finish his sentence, "Swish!"
A cold glint flashed, followed by the soft thud of an object hitting the ground.
"Ah!"
A shrill scream erupted from Lucianās mouth; his left arm was already gone.
Having lost an arm, he was sweating profusely from the pain, and he kept dragging himself backward with his two remaining legs.
It was as if doing so could help him escape Vikramās grasp.
"Donāt... donāt kill me, whatever you want, Iāll give it to you. Iāll give you all the supplies for me."
"Oh?" Vikram, who had originally intended to finish him with a single stab, suddenly became interested when he heard this.
"What if I want the woman behind you?" He had no other intentions; he just wanted to see what kind of interesting reaction this simp would have towards the object of his fawning at the moment of life and death.
"Give... Iāll give her to you, as long as you spare me, Big Brother, you can take this woman away."
Having lost both arms, Lucianās face quickly turned pale, but to survive, he still nodded desperately.
"Lucian! You bastard, what do you take me for? A whore?"
"Iām still a virgin, and youāre selling me off just like that?!" Lara glared at Lucian, her eyes filled with fury, and cursed.
Strangely, although she looked angry, her tone didnāt sound quite so enraged.
Even when she was cursing Lucian as a coward, her eyes occasionally drifted towards Vikram.
Vikram himself didnāt react much, but Anjali, witnessing this scene, was so annoyed her teeth ached, and she frowned tightly.
"This vixen, be angry if youāre angry, but she even specifically mentioned sheās a virgin. Is she trying to promote herself here?" Thinking this internally, she gave Lara a fierce glare.
She could only think these words to herself, because if Vikram really liked that type, she couldnāt stop him, and they might even have to live in the same room in the future.
Thinking of this, Anjali pouted aggrievedly.
Vikram, of course, didnāt know Anjali had so much drama going on in her mind; the current drama in front of him was already enough.
The two, who were just recently in a simp relationship, were now wrestling with each other.
To his surprise, Laraās physique was actually higher than Lucianās.
When they fought, Lucianās surprised expression clearly showed he had just realized this as well.
Lucian, who had already lost an arm, was no match for Lara and was quickly thrown down in a few moves.
Not long after, he lost his breath and became a cold corpse.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, a simp truly ends up with nothing in the end."
Just as he was still secretly clicking his tongue, the victor, Lara, had already changed her expression and said, "Big Brother, Iām not with these people at all. I was only held captive by them when I went out to collect supplies."
"I was forced to be with them. Earlier, when Lucian tried to harm you, I also tried to stop him, but alas, how could a little girl like me possibly fight against three big men?"
Lara spoke tearfully, looking at Vikram with a wronged expression.
The two trembling male Survivors behind her dared not speak their anger, fearing that Vikram might take a liking to this bitch and take it out on them.
If Vikram hadnāt been able to see that Lara had the highest physique among the four, he almost would have believed her.
"Now I canāt even find my way back to my shelter. If Big Brother can take me in, I... Iām willing to serve you well."
As Lara spoke, her hands kept moving, pretending to inadvertently pull open the clothing on her chest, and a bit of pale flesh immediately peeked out.
Noticing Vikramās gaze, Laraās lowered head secretly curled into a triumphant smile.
"Big Brother, what do you think..."
"Pfft!"
As a sharp pain struck, when she looked up again, only disbelief remained in her eyes.
A long blade had mercilessly pierced her chest, and Vikram, who had wielded it, didnāt even bother to spare her another glance.
Only when Laraās eyes gradually lost their light did he slowly withdraw the blade from her corpse.
Seeing this scene, Anjali, who had been sulking, immediately brightened up.
Her two lively eyes curved into crescent moons, and she trotted happily to Vikramās side, re-linking her arm with his.
"Hehe~" Looking at Anjaliās inexplicable silly grin, Vikram shrugged.
After killing the remaining two, Vikram checked the supplies they had dropped.
Aside from some worthless dry rations and a few common weapons, only an alloy standard slingshot was somewhat useful.
He put it into his bag and turned back to where they had killed the zombies earlier.
He hadnāt forgotten that they hadnāt finished exploring this factory yet.
At least, they hadnāt yet collected the most important processed food.
"Vik, it seems weāve already gone through all the processing areas here. Behind this door should be the factoryās warehouse." Phanty scanned the surroundings, confirming that no more foolish zombies would rush out to cause trouble, and led Vikram to a metal gate inside the factory.
This location was basically the deepest part of the factory, and it seemed even the four survivors hadnāt explored here.
Vikram noticed that the iron gate was still locked.
Without hesitation, he took out his pistol and pulled the trigger at the lock cylinder.
"Bang!"
A loud noise rang out, a wisp of gray smoke rose from the locked gateās cylinder, and it slowly fell to the ground.
Vikram wasnāt worried that the sound of the gunshot would attract zombies from the factory.
After all, the sound of Lucian, that beast, shooting with a slingshot earlier had been loud enough; if there were any other monsters, they should have appeared by now.
The rolling shutter door was lifted by the tall Ron with his bare hands, revealing the pitch-black environment inside.
After a quick biological scan beforehand, no living creatures were found.
Vikram and the others exchanged glances and stepped inside together...
"This..."
"This warehouse is simply too big!"
The moment they stepped into the warehouse, the surprise on everyoneās faces was impossible to hide.
Even Vikram, who had seen quite a lot due to the System, couldnāt help but be surprised by the scene before him.
It was called a warehouse, but it should actually be a cold storage facility.
This could be seen from the several fanned pipes overhead.
However, the refrigeration machines inside had long since stopped running.
But given the current -20 degree Celsius temperature in the Wasteland, it probably wasnāt much different from a freezer.
Seeing this scene, Vikramās eyes lit up instead.
Because obviously, these processing plants wouldnāt be foolish enough to store food in ordinary warehouses.
This kind of refrigerated warehouse indicated that there was a high possibility of food inside.
The cold storage area was quite large, and as the few of them stepped inside, their clear footsteps immediately echoed in the enclosed space.
With the Light Mageās light, rows of shelves appeared before Vikramās eyes.
Even though the factory building was six or seven meters high, these metal shelves occupied three-quarters of its height.
In the open space of the cold storage, several forklifts for loading goods could occasionally be seen.
He wondered if they were still usable.
Most importantly, the majority of the shelves were filled with various cardboard and foam boxes.
Phanty and the others kept Vikram and Anjali in the middle, guarding against zombies that might rush out of the surrounding darkness, while following Vikramās footsteps.
Through the faint green glow of the Night Vision device, the group slowly approached the shelves piled high with cardboard and foam boxes.
The āMel Donte Foodsā logo on the boxes was dimly visible in the gloom, its emblem an asymmetrical shield with unique gothic-style wing curves at the top.
The others showed no reaction to this logo, but Anjali seemed to recognize it and immediately spoke up, "Oh my, look, Vikram, isnāt this brand familiar? Isnāt it the one from Earth before?"
Anjali took a box of goods from the shelf and showed it to Vikram.
Taking the cardboard box from her hands, its heavy feel stirred something in his heart.
Without rushing to open it, Vikram glanced at the brand and asked Anjali, "Are you sure you havenāt mistaken it?"
"Of course, Divya and I used to eat a few of this brandās self-heating rice when we were on Earth, and it tasted pretty good."
"But the homemade foods were better than this, so we didnāt like the canned food."
Upon hearing this, Vikram looked at the Anjaliā certain gaze and nodded thoughtfully.
He had long wondered where these resource points came from.
He had also considered that these resources were products from Earth that were transferred to the Wasteland World, but he had never found evidence.