CHAPTER 347: CHAPTER 8: SURVEILLANCE (PART 2)

"I plan to actively strike within the town in the coming days to eliminate those unstable individuals, lest they become a troublesome hidden danger to the camp."

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Zhou Qingfeng’s email was filled with murderous intent.

The external environment of the camp was indeed as he described, with undercurrents surging and danger lurking.

As his fingertips tapped the keyboard and sent an email to Xiao Jinlang, two furtive figures quietly closed in on the outskirts of Avoni Town.

One of them was Scott, who had shown up at the last "gathering", and the other was Lynch, from another nearby town.

Like lurking beasts, the two crouched and climbed the gentle slope outside the town, raising their binoculars to cautiously spy on the camp’s activity.

"Damn it!" Scott cursed seeing the newly erected towering equipment in the camp through the lens, "I didn’t see this thing when I left last time!"

It was a ten-kilowatt wind turbine, about ten meters high, with three six-meter-long blades gently rotating in the breeze, providing about sixty to eighty kilowatt-hours of electricity daily.

Despite the small power generation capacity of these units, combined with simple power conversion and storage devices, they are enough to maintain basic electrical equipment in the camp.

The first unit is operating well, and the second is under construction.

"Installing such things isn’t easy, requires professional equipment and personnel, hard to find indeed."

Lynch lowered his voice, having specially come from a neighboring town. Through Scott’s introduction, he had already made contact with Sani in the camp and was pondering how to make a substantial profit.

However, today’s preliminary probe made Lynch feel that the "Holy Light" camp was far more challenging than imagined.

In just over half a month, Zhou Qingfeng’s group not only solved ’refining oil’ and ’power generation’, but also built a rough yet sturdy metal wall.

Using trailers and cranes in the town, they organized dozens of ’basic laborers’, stacking hundreds of abandoned vehicles in layers to construct it.

The wall encloses an area about 150 meters square, covering the most valuable parts of the town. Including the water tower, supermarket, and clinic.

The water tower ceased operation when the power was cut.

Now, with electricity provided by the wind turbine, the pump could occasionally run, providing basic water for the less than one hundred people in the camp.

As for the supermarket, its shelves had long been depleted, but its spacious interior was very practical, whether for living or stockpiling supplies.

The clinic’s situation was slightly better; though its medicines were looted, the basic medical beds, operating tables, and some instruments remained, and could still serve a role if staffed appropriately.

All in all, this camp was tenaciously operating amidst the world’s ruins, already becoming a coveted haven.

Lynch gazed at this orderly camp, his eyes filled with greed and envy, thinking it was far superior to the haphazard "stronghold" he built in another nearby town.

It’s worth noting that he and Scott arrived on motorcycles, and filling up the motorcycle’s gas tank alone cost them a great deal of effort.

Yet, this "Holy Light" camp could refine oil themselves, which made him extremely jealous.

"Don’t just focus on the camp’s benefits; the yellow-skinned monkeys controlling this place aren’t easy to deal with," Scott advised with an experienced tone,

"I had several companions infiltrate, only to be expelled for a minor conflict. Then, they disappeared as if into thin air, with no trace."

"A fight?" Lynch sneered, a trick he’d seen plenty of before the apocalypse, asking, "Were you trying to test the camp’s reaction?"

Like prisoners in jail purposely causing trouble, they may aim to distract guards’ attention, cover actions in other directions, or simply to provoke and gauge guards’ limits.

"The ’Holy Light’ camp isn’t a prison..." Scott’s expression became grave, his tone low, "It’s scarier than a prison.

Once absorbed by them, you must obediently work; if you dare cause trouble, you’ll be ’expelled’...and so-called expulsion is actually executing in secret, completely erased."

He pointed towards several buildings in the town, "Notice those surveillance cameras installed on the rooftops.

Dogs patrol the ground mechanically, tirelessly pacing fixed routes. These are their fixed outposts and mobile sentries."

"Moreover, drones hover above, looking down, with a broad and clear view. We must remain five kilometers away to be relatively safe, or we’ll surely be detected."

Scott’s tone carried deep apprehension, "Every entrance to the camp is marked with conspicuous warning signs.

Any outsider daring to intrude may suffer unannounced attacks often coming from those hidden remote weapon stations.

That thing’s rumored to automatically recognize human faces and shapes, aiming faster and more accurately than humans, and once it strikes, it’s nearly impossible to survive."

Hearing this, Lynch’s expression darkened too, retracting his binoculars, frowning tightly as he asked, "Looks like it’s really tough to deal with. What should we do next?"