CHAPTER 342: CHAPTER 6: THE MOLE (PART 2)

There are quite a few furniture appliances and vehicles, but the shelter is not lacking in this regard, mainly stored for emergencies.

The seized firearms and ammunition can be described as a "mixed bag."

A small town, with only about a hundred and eighty residents left, yet over a thousand firearms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition were found.

But these firearms are of various models, calibers differ, pistols, rifles, hunting guns, shotguns, it’s a bunch of tasteless "chicken ribs" that are a pity to discard.

The exploration team is not interested in these weapons, but they can’t be left unattended, so they can only be temporarily confiscated and transported back to the shelter’s warehouse by the "Warthog" transport aircraft.

The confiscation of firearms also caused a stir, with survivors repeatedly insisting on retaining weapons, at least keeping pistols as self-defense tools.

But after careful consideration, Zhou Qingfeng and Xiao Jinlang firmly refused—already distrustful of these ’basic labor force’, giving them weapons would only be asking for trouble.

In short, those who want to join the ’Holy Light’ team and get a secure job with food and accommodations cannot have weapons.

Yet Zhou and Xiao both understood that this only prevents survivors from openly possessing weapons; secretly hiding them is inevitable since there are so many illegal guns in the apocalypse.

Thus, gun control will be a long-term measure, not to be taken lightly.

-----------------

On the third day of the exploration team’s outing, Xiao Jinlang transported an entire set of simple "improvised oil refining" equipment with several heavy trucks to the shelter.

In simple terms, it consists of three major components: a refining pot, a heating furnace, and a condenser. Visually, it looks like a pile of oddly shaped pipes and pressure tanks, along with fasteners of various sizes.

Installing this equipment requires a certain level of technical skill. The person in charge was Guo Yi, whom Zhou Qingfeng had "persuaded" from domestic, along with four or five other engineers—they are the technical staff from the company that manufactures this improvised oil refining equipment.

These individuals are rare talents in the team who understand refining and machinery. Ever since Zhou Qingfeng kept them with a high salary, they have stayed for several months, naturally becoming brothers in hardship within the shelter.

Improvised oil refining is crucial for the shelter team’s growth, but the pollution is enormous, so it definitely cannot be installed inside the shelter.

After receiving the exploration team’s report that the situation in the town of "Avoni" was relatively stable, Xiao Jinlang agreed to let Guo Yi bring people there to set up a "small refinery" to produce some low-quality fuel.

With an ample supply of fuel, Xiao Jinlang dared to send a few long-range aircraft from the shelter to contact personnel from other shelters—the "Warthog" performance is decent, but its range and load are truly limited.

Nedved, who has a basic understanding of machinery, was assigned under Guo Yi as a mechanic, responsible for assembling and testing the refining equipment.

Upon seeing the equipment delivered by the electric heavy truck, he became more convinced that Zhou Qingfeng, this wealthy pre-apocalyptic magnate, had long been prepared, after all, normal people wouldn’t mess with this improvised oil refining stuff.

Omar, on the other hand, because of "speaking out of turn," was assigned by Kongges to the equipment installation team to haul those heavy refining components.

Lacking professional loading and unloading tools, the job is not only laborious but also somewhat risky. Although there was extra food provided for heavy labor, the black man was grumbling after just a day of work.

Upon seeing Nedved, the former "stubborn holdout," managed to become a mechanic, he was even more resentful, believing the exploration team was deliberately discriminating against him.

"I finally see it clearly, this is a team dominated by Asians, or rather Chinese, the ’Holy Light’ president is their leader.

Originally, I thought Kongges would be a leader, but now it seems he is just a lackey. We are clearly all white, why work for yellow-skinned monkeys?"

Omar, sweating profusely while working, felt his discontent growing like weeds.

Long-term malnutrition had left him physically weak, always trying to slack off at work, earning him many scoldings.

Not even three days in, he felt continuing was not an option. During the lunch break, when no one was watching, he took the chance to escape without hesitation.

At present, more than half of the town’s survivors have attached themselves to the "Holy Light" team.

The rest, unwilling to become "basic labor force," were secretly considering whether to band together to resist the outside "invaders."

This group of people urgently needed an insider’s perspective. Omar, having escaped from the exploration team’s workforce, filled this gap perfectly, quickly found and questioned by the gathered survivors.

This inquiry turned out to be directed at the right person.

"That guy named Victor, the Chinese, is their leader. I recall he was a wealthy magnate before, with assets of over a billion US Dollars." Omar narrated vividly.

"Such wealthy people surely have stockpiled supplies to deal with disasters, if we can get him under control, we’ll have no worries about food and drink!" Someone instantly thought of something, eyes gleaming with greed.

Omar nodded, proudly continuing, "This is a prime opportunity, Victor only has about a dozen people with him, their numbers and weapons don’t seem strong.

Of course, the people around Victor aren’t easy to deal with, they have armed pickups, drones, and mechanical dogs. If we want to capture him, we must think carefully."

"And I happen to have an idea," Omar lowered his voice, "we can send some people to infiltrate Victor’s team, posing as the ’basic labor force’ they are recruiting now.

They’re lacking people, whoever goes will be accepted. As long as we can get close to them, there will definitely be a chance to make a move, the odds of a successful sneak attack are very high."

"There is one trouble, those who go to join will be searched, weapons can’t be taken. But this can be resolved."

Omar paused, continuing, "Those Chinese are hiring people to collect waste materials like plastic, we can hide weapons in a house that will be searched beforehand and go there unarmed.

When the time is right, we can retrieve the weapons. After all, they only have twelve people in total, they can’t watch all of us at all times.

Just like me, it was easy to slip out during lunch break."

The survivors unwilling to join "Holy Light" numbered forty or fifty, at least half were gathered now, a considerable number indeed.

These people usually have serious conflicts, meeting each other with a desire to kill, but faced with greater interests and crises, they grudgingly united.

Omar kept eloquently recounting his experiences in the exploration team, faintly showing a tendency to see himself as a leader.

The others were fence-sitters, swayed by the wind, listening to his well-reasoned analysis, that the ’Holy Light’ team management was very lax, it seemed there was indeed some chance of success, immediately very tempted.

"Omar, have you considered whether those who have joined ’Holy Light’ would stop us?" a man named "Scott" among the fence-sitters spoke up.

"How could they?" Omar was puzzled, "When we kidnap that guy Victor, there will definitely be plenty of wealth to distribute. At worst, give some to those spineless guys.

For example, Nedved, he was bombed by ’Holy Light’ people with explosives, wife and daughter were abducted, he must bear a grudge. I can go recruit him."

Scott shook his head, took out an identity card from his pocket, threw it in front of the group, "I also infiltrated, was a ’basic labor force,’ but I left earlier than you.

Not everyone wants to rebel, especially those appointed as leaders, they have better treatment, finally having a stable life, unwilling to see it disrupted.

So, we don’t just face the twelve core members of ’Holy Light,’ but also their dependent lackeys.

In terms of numbers, we are not in an advantageous position, and equipment-wise, we are at an absolute disadvantage. Your so-called ’infiltration ambush’ plan doesn’t have a high success rate."

Omar thought it over, it seemed true—Nedved had been working diligently the past two or three days, his treatment far better than his own "basic labor force" status, did not seem at all resentful.

But he was still dissatisfied, snorting coldly: "If you think my idea is bad, what’s your plan?"

Scott replied seriously: "To succeed, we need more people to join us."