Chapter 75: with translation of chapter title

v Linjiang College, basement level two of the sports institute.

In the lightless miscellaneous storage room, the fitness equipment used for training was cleared to a corner at the side.

In the center of the room, a dark blue sphere floated suspended, its emitted rays filling and circulating throughout the entire room.

A youth with dark skin and messy, dull hair faced the light sphere; his face appeared somewhat gloomy under the dark blue light.

The youth was named Li Hua; just as his appearance was ordinary, his name was also very ordinary.

His chest rose and fell as he strained to breathe the air before him.

From time to time, wispy gas like smoke seeped from within the light sphere, carrying a hint of coolness that was inhaled into his lungs.

With each breath, his body faintly seemed to grow a bit stronger.

「Spiritual energy node... 」

Li Hua muttered to himself, gazing obsessively at the light sphere before him; the desire revealed in his eyes seemed as if nothing in the world compared to even half of that light sphere.

「Thud-thud-thud」

The iron door on the first floor clanged loudly; even though it became extremely faint when transmitted to the basement second floor, in his ears it was as clear as right beside his ear.

A hint of gloom flashed across his face; he was somewhat impatient.

「Whoosh」

Iron chains wound around the storage room's iron door.

Li Hua took a few steps to the storage room doorway, carefully locked the iron door from the inside before going upstairs to open the door.

Outside the first-floor door, several youths resembling athletes looked somewhat anxious.

「I don't know what Li Hua is doing in there; every time he's mysterious. 」

「Who knows; last time someone delivering food went a few steps too far inside, saw him come out of the basement, and ended up getting beaten half to death by him. 」

「You mean Gao Tian? I heard that if it weren't for Teacher Liang happening to intercept him, Li Hua would have almost killed him on the spot! 」

「Stop calling him Li Hua Li Hua! Can you scum even call him Li Hua? Call him Chairman Li! 」

Among the five, a female with a somewhat aged appearance wore heavy makeup; she glared, her tone haughty, rebuking the male who was much more robust than her.

「You…! 」

The athlete who had just spoken felt displeased after being snapped at by her, but was quickly pulled back by his companion beside him.

「What? You still dare to lay hands on me? You believe it or not, once Chairman Li arrives, you'll regret it! 」

The four suppressed their anger, exchanged a glance, and in unison closed their mouths, daring not to discuss further.

What nonsense Chairman Li; clearly just ten days ago he was still an impoverished student, yet he insists on giving himself a title.

Since the sports institute area was cleaned up, Li Hua has relied on being an Awakened One to throw his weight around, speaking in the manner of those school officials, putting on an official tone.

Nevertheless, none of them dared to say it out loud; before, many students who disliked Li Hua's behavior had been severely punished.

Li Hua moved with extreme speed; at about 1.6 meters tall, he was short and stocky, and he walked to the door with a face full of impatience.

「What else is there!? 」

「I've said it before; if there's nothing, don't come looking for me! 」

His Mandarin was a bit awkward, carrying a heavy dialect accent.

「Li… Chairman Li, the school leadership is calling you over for a meeting. 」

「It seems related to the matter behind the college's rear hill. 」

The iron door opened; hearing the words 'chairman' and 'meeting', Li Hua's expression softened somewhat, appearing quite pleased.

The heavily made-up girl hurriedly came to his side, wrapping her arms around him,

「Chairman Li, I still have many things I want to ask you about. 」

Speaking as if pinching her throat, she intentionally or unintentionally rubbed her chest against Li Hua's arm, her face full of allure.

「Good! Wait for me to finish the meeting and come find you. 」

Li Hua glanced at the heavily made-up girl; his heart heated with arousal, and the right hand being held couldn't help but sneak behind her to grope inside her pants.

Linjiang College Road, off-road vehicle.

「Brother Lin, you mean those survivors in the college; they might not accept us? 」

In the car, An Jing Tian spoke somewhat hesitantly to Lin An; Lin An's earlier words had somewhat startled him.

Lin An wants to kill to establish authority, killing until everyone is terrified!

Lin An nodded, pondering for a moment.

In his previous life, Linjiang College, having a relatively large number of Awakened Ones, was among the first to complete the mission and obtain the Safety Token, naturally also the earliest place in the entire war zone to establish a Safe Zone.

But precisely because the number of Awakened Ones was large, they split into two factions early on due to power struggles.

One side was a clique of students represented by the student body; the other side was a group composed of college leadership, teachers, and some students.

It's laughable; clearly just a school, yet they actually formed departments imitating a regime.

One must say, power is like a poison p, impossible for anyone to resist.

After organizing his thoughts, Lin An slowly spoke:

「Although the Apocalypse hasn't been long since its outbreak, you actually can feel it. When social order is destroyed, the value of power is infinitely amplified. 」

「As long as you are strong enough, you can obtain everything you desire. 」

「Women, status, money, power, and even the arbitrary authority over the life and death of the weak. 」

「Originally you were just an ordinary person, but once you become an Awakened One, as long as you crook your finger, ordinary people will kneel at your feet to fawn over you, letting you do as you please. 」

「Want to kill? Kill. Want someone dead? Make them die. 」

「Who could resist this pleasure? 」

「So, no one would be willing to give up their existing power and become another's subordinate. 」

「Then, the best and also simplest way to subdue that group of Awakened Ones at the school is. 」

That's for sure.

Kill to stop killing! Directly use military force to intimidate, kill until they fear and submit.

Only by making them realize that resistance means death can we quickly mobilize all manpower and material resources to establish a safe zone.

We only have one month; we must implement militarized management, high-pressure policies!

Everyone must obey my orders; the entire force can have only one voice!

Otherwise, just scheming against each other and wrangling will waste a lot of time.

Once too much time is wasted, in a rush we'll face a zombie tide, and only more people will die.

Lin An, who usually speaks little, this time decided to lay out his entire thought process and inner feelings to the team members.

Without concealment, he fully informed them of the challenges after establishing the safe zone—from facing the zombie tide to the zombie riot half a year later.

There's nothing to hide; these crises will eventually be known.

Only the pressure of constant death threats will generate motivation.

People will have their own thoughts; expecting blind obedience from subordinates just because of a domineering attitude is unrealistic.

After hearing this, An Jing Tian fell somewhat silent; he could not refute Lin An's words.

"Then, Lin Dui, can't we just tell them directly that there will be a zombie riot in half a year?"

"If we can't work together to build the safe zone and instead each fight on our own, there's only a dead end."

Zhang Tie, after rarely thinking for a long time, voiced his opinion; his brutal killings only target those he dislikes.

Basically, he is not accustomed to initiating wanton slaughter.

Lin An shook his head and directly countered.

"First, why should they believe you? Now, the awakened ones in the academy have likely already cleared out a safe zone. At this stage, as long as the awakened ones' military force doesn't encounter a large-scale zombie tide, they can defend themselves. Moreover, the academy is in the suburbs, so there aren't any powerful mutants here."

"Combined, they'll only think the so-called apocalypse is nothing much. Their focus will surely be on power struggles for profit, not survival."

"Second, even if you convince them or subdue them with force, what guarantees they won't have ulterior motives? Who will be the leader? Who would give up their power and privileges?"

"If someone interferes and holds a grudge, our efficiency will greatly drop."

"Therefore we must implement extreme wartime high-pressure measures, rather than a one-person-one-vote democracy."

This time it was Zhang Tie's turn to be speechless; Lin An's every sentence refuted his ideas cleanly.

The atmosphere in the car grew heavy; everyone could anticipate what was coming.

If it really is as Lin An said, then from the moment we reach the school, it will likely be a bloody massacre.

Looking around, everyone except Mo Ling had a heavy expression.

Lin An let out a light sigh; he actually didn't want to cause too much slaughter.

Having survived three years of the apocalypse in his past life, he had long seen through the so-called human nature.

All right, he wasn't unwilling to give any chance to fellow human survivors.

Lin An pondered for a moment, then spoke:

"What I said is just the worst-case plan. I don't necessarily intend to purge the entire academy."

"You can first try to show your strength, tell them we want to unite everyone to build a safe zone. You can even tell them about the zombie tide and zombie riot we'll face next."

"If most of them are a bit smarter, they might accept our plan."

"After all, awakened ones are few; I also don't want to kill too many."

Given Zhang Tie and Jing Tian's current strength, they might be able to directly intimidate the academy's awakened ones.

If we can suppress with force, we should do so; people tend to respect the strong and look down on the weak, and only great strength can earn others' trust.

"One day's time—if one day can convince everyone to agree to our plan, I can choose to gradually absorb them into our team."

Everyone in the car listened intently to Lin An's words, and felt relieved.

Perhaps by appealing to emotion and reason, then showing strength, perhaps my hands could be less stained with survivors' blood.

However, Lin An then suddenly added coldly:

"But."

"As long as time exceeds one day, there will still be other opposing voices or dissatisfaction within the academy!"

"Then I will personally act, purging until only one voice remains!"