Giving half of the desperately recovered supplies to the Lucky was indeed an excessive demand, but everyone abided by this rule.
You could choose not to give, but then you’d have to leave the Lucky and find a shelter outside to stay in properly.
The strong man was picking, "Why is it all instant noodles, bread?"
"No choice, could only find these. Oh, right, bro, this is the survivor we brought back. We should get some extra points for this."
The strong man was somewhat dissatisfied, how nice it would be if there were cigarettes and alcohol, those items were hard currency on the cruise ship, no choice, could only pick half, waved his hand, letting them leave.
Lin Fan followed Brother Zhao and others, the survivors on the deck gathered around, some women were peddling themselves, others begged them for some food.
"Scram, all of you, scram."
Brother Zhao and his group bellowed angrily, completely ignoring these folks. If you wanted to have a good life here, then go out and find supplies, as long as you had supplies, life was good.
As for whether you could return or not depended on fate, anyway, not a few died at the hands of zombies.
Lin Fan watched all this with a calm expression.
Every face was seared into his heart.
Leaving the deck, he headed towards the living area.
"Why are you following us?" Brother Zhao, holding the supplies, turned and looked at Lin Fan, "Didn’t I tell you earlier that we were only responsible for bringing you to the Lucky, we never said we would take you with us. If you want to live well here, you have to go out and find supplies. As long as you have supplies, you can live well here. If not, just go beg on that deck, maybe you’ll meet some kind-hearted person who will give you some food."
Lin Fan smiled, "I’ve just arrived here and don’t quite understand the situation yet. I just wanted to look around."
"Don’t, don’t . If you want to get familiar with the place, find someone else." Brother Zhao pointed at Lin Fan, warning him, even though the other party was carrying a sword on his back, um, that was Frostmourne, he never took it to heart.
A nearby survivor said, "Brother Zhao, why even talk to him about this, just give me a bag of bread quickly, I need to find a girl to have a good time with, hehe."
Brother Zhao looked at him, "Just don’t get sick."
"Don’t worry, I’ve stealthily hidden a box of balloons."
Listening to their conversation.
Lin Fan felt this place was probably much more complicated than he’d imagined. Although there was a semblance of order, this order was quite merciless.
Here, if you wanted to survive, you had to find supplies yourself or leverage your advantages, like women; if you dared not go out to find supplies, then you could only sell your body for food.
Of course, there were some who could earn supplies from other survivors, like doctors.
Watching them leave, Lin Fan walked casually around the ship, the survivors here formed two contrasts, one being those who looked vibrant and spirited, and the other, the tired ones, filled with despair about the future.
"What are you doing?"
Lin Fan saw a survivor lifting a child, looking as if he was about to throw the child into the water, and quickly spoke up to stop him.
The survivor looked puzzled, "Who are you?"
"What are you doing?"
Lin Fan approached, looked at the child, and found that the child had already stopped breathing, was emaciated, with sunken cheeks, clearly starved to death.
The survivor ignored Lin Fan, threw the dead child into the water, then gave Lin Fan a sideways glance, as if to convey, "Stop nagging, or I’ll throw you down too."
He watched the child floating on the water, feeling slightly heavy-hearted; life on the Lucky was cruder than he had imagined.
Seeing those survivors moving like zombies, for them, it was already good enough to be alive in such an apocalyptic world; what else could they possibly hope for.
At that moment, he walked down the hallway, beside it were small cabins, a door was ajar, and through the crack, he saw two survivors inside, a woman and a child.
The child was eating something.
The woman, sensing someone outside, opened the door and seeing Lin Fan standing there, gave him a seductive smile, "Hey, handsome, care to relax a bit? It just costs two bags of bread."
Lin Fan looked into the woman’s eyes, he felt that she seemed carefree and lived comfortably, but there was no light in her eyes.
Desperation, helplessness.
He understood, only aiming to keep her child alive by demeaning her own body.
"Is that your child?"
The woman, thinking he was worried about the child being around, quickly said, "It’s okay, he’s very obedient. I’ll let him go out and play for a while. It definitely won’t affect your mood."
Lin Fan said softly, "Do you believe there is hope for the future?"
The woman looked shocked, hope? She gave a bitter smile and glanced at the child eating the bread, "Handsome, you’ve seen it for yourself, what’s the use of asking me, I just hope the child can survive."
When despair, like darkness, completely envelops the world.
Hope for the living becomes a luxury, lacking even the courage to speak it out loud.
On the top deck of the cruise, a middle-aged man sat at a dining table, enjoying a steak while watching the situation below; he was He Qing, the leader of the cruise ship Lucky.
He was the emperor, and those survivors below were his slaves, using the cruise ship as a shelter, he established a simple yet brutal order.