Chapter 842: United Front
In the lower deck cabins, restless emotions were slowly spreading.
When everyone was starving, yet happened to discover the parasites who stole their food nearby, the only emotion to describe it was hatred.
“It's all that damn group of stowaways' fault!”
“If it weren’t for them, we could have lived much better.”
“Why would it be now? Starving and still getting beaten up?”
“I wish they had never boarded the ship.”
“Come to think of it, it seemed like that woman surnamed Zhu deliberately let them on.”
“Damn, she’s a despicable woman too! It’s all her fault we’ve suffered so much!”
Although anger burned inside everyone, no one dared to take further action.
After all, Zhang Yi and the armed forces were still controlling things above.
If they dared to start a large-scale brawl, they might really be thrown overboard to feed the sharks.
But was patience the only choice?
They felt stifled and helpless.
In the fishermen’s corner, Lu Dahai, Rong Lei, and Yu Gang sat together in the shadows.
Lu Dahai’s fierce eyes flashed sharply like knives in the dark.
After the apocalypse began, they had already killed people; their ferocious aura kept ordinary people at a distance.
Lu Dahai stared grimly toward the stowaways’ rooms.
“We have to find a way to get rid of those damn dogs. Otherwise, we’ll never get the food we deserve!”
Lu Dahai said coldly.
Rong Lei and Yu Gang looked at him. “Big brother, this isn’t easy! We’re on a ship; if we act recklessly, we might get punished by those above.”
Lu Dahai took a deep breath, pounding the wooden bedboard in anger.
“I know that! No need to remind me!”
His frustration was overflowing.
If he could, he truly wanted to have a brutal fight with that group.
But achieving that goal was extremely difficult.
The other passengers on the ship had mediocre relationships.
Meanwhile, the stowaways seemed to sense their precarious position and had banded together, becoming the strongest force in the lower deck cabins.
They were like tuskless male elephants—seemingly harmless but with the strongest aggression!
Discontent spread throughout the lower deck cabins.
But no one blamed Zhang Yi or the crew.
They had found a better target: the stowaways.
At that moment, inside the stowaways’ locked room, the cabin door was firmly secured and barricaded from the inside with miscellaneous items.
Among this group were people from multiple countries, but most spoke fluent British English, and some were proficient in Mandarin.
There were twenty-two people in total. The atmosphere inside was extremely tense as everyone gathered near a bed in the middle.
At the center were three men.
From their positions, it was clear the leader was sitting on the bed: a man in his fifties with graying long hair.
He was from Malai, a real estate tycoon who had started from gang roots, named Zagu.
Beside him were two others.
One had a buzz cut, dark skin, stood over 1.9 meters tall, and was a sanda athlete named Ailuo De.
The other was about 1.7 meters tall, with wild, untamed hair and brown skin; he was a Muay Thai fighter named Yamate.
These three men were now the leaders of the stowaway gang.
Since their initial boarding, they had quietly formed this force.
Their goal was to have a resistance force should anyone discover them one day.
The room was dimly lit, and Zagu had a blade of grass from a mat in his mouth.
He was heavily addicted to smoking, but before boarding, everyone was strictly inspected; weapons, communication devices, and even tobacco were confiscated.
He could only satisfy his craving this way.
“Mr. Zagu, the atmosphere on this ship is very tense. I see those swine want to start a fight with us. What should we do?”
Ailuo De frowned with worry, asking Zagu.
There were over a hundred people in the lower deck cabins, but they were less than a fifth of that number.
Now that their identity as stowaways was exposed, others definitely resented them for stealing what belonged to them.
If that anger exploded and a fight broke out, they would be heavily outnumbered.
Other stowaways in the cabin also showed worried expressions, fearing they would suffer the same fate as those few Neon Pirates.
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Zagu raised an eyebrow at Ailuo De and chuckled.
“Why, are you scared?”
Zagu asked with a smile, his face calm and confident.
As a well-known gang leader from Malai, he had seen every big scene imaginable.
Before, he kept a low profile to avoid Zhang Yi and others’ attention.
But now that their identity was exposed, and Zhang Yi had made it clear he didn’t want to manage the cabins below,
he was no longer going to hold back.
Seeing this, Ailuo De hurriedly flattered him, “Mr. Zagu, what’s your plan? We’re all listening to you!”
A group of fence-sitters had no ideas of their own and had to follow Zagu’s lead.
“Yes, Mr. Zagu, please tell us what to do!”
“As long as we survive, we’ll obey you!”
Zagu squinted, “Alright, from today on, I’ll make them know who’s the real king of this deck cabin!”
When evening came and it was mealtime, Xie Changming carried the food buckets as usual.
Although the lower deck cabins had the worst living conditions, Zhang Yi did not treat them like animals.
Food was still distributed strictly according to the number of people.
Each room’s food was separated strictly based on their count, more or less.
Xie Changming came down, placing the food buckets one by one, then shouted, “Meal time!”
At this moment, people responsible for collecting food in each room came forward to pick up their respective meals.
But then, everyone heard footsteps from the very back of the cabin.
Everyone in the corridor instinctively looked over.
They saw a dark, dense crowd moving quickly toward them.
Zagu walked at the front with his hands in his pockets, expressionless.
On his sides, Ailuo De and Yamate wore fierce expressions, flanking him.
At this moment, the stowaways completely dropped their disguise, especially Zagu, whose terrifying gang aura made many people shrink back in fear.
Lu Dahai was responsible for collecting food for their room. Seeing Zagu and the others, he felt a bad premonition.
“Why do so many of you come to pick up food?” he asked cautiously.