Chapter 117: The House Must Be Demolished Too

However, Lin Mu didn’t give her the slightest chance. “No, no, no. Don’t even think that way, or I won’t be polite to you.”
“Then be impolite to me quickly.”
Lin Mu: “...”
What the hell kind of nonsense was this?
He turned his head away, ignoring her completely. Anna stepped closer.
Lin Mu snapped his fingers, and a powerful electric current surged through Anna’s body.
“Ah!”
Anna screamed in agony, collapsing to the ground, her body convulsing violently.
“Hmph, so it’s not that it doesn’t work; it’s just that the power wasn’t set to maximum.”
For safety’s sake, Lin Mu had limited the collar’s power. Otherwise, someone would have already been electrocuted to a crisp.
“Why did you stop?” Anna’s voice came weakly from the ground.
“...”
Forget it. It really was useless.
Not even at full power.
Truly a prison collar.
It could only imprison.

The plane had now flown out of the cloud-covered region and entered an area of normal weather.
From the sky, many villages and towns were visible on the ground, with cities faintly seen in the distance.
The farther from the mountains they got, the denser the settlements became.
The plane descended slowly, landing near a village not far away.
Ten minutes later, all the passengers stepped out of the vehicles, and Lin Mu retrieved a car from his backpack.
Everyone looked around curiously.
So this was the “inside,” huh? It didn’t seem much different from the outside world.
“Captain, are we just going in like this?” Zhang Qian asked, puzzled.
Wasn’t it supposed to be dangerous?
Why did they feel nothing at all?
“We’re in. That’s a village up ahead. We’ll be going there soon to seize resources.”
Exactly—seize.
Why bother searching for resources when you can simply take what’s already there?
Before long, Anna would witness the rise of a new breed of bandits.
Others would stick to one area, slowly exploring and gathering resources, then clashing with rival factions.
But with Lin Mu, it was the new era of “highway bandits.”

Everyone returned to their vehicles, maintaining formation as they followed Shuyi’s lead out of the area.
The village was about fifty kilometers away.
But since there were no roads here and the terrain was difficult, the convoy was heavily restricted.
Lin Mu had no better solution but to drive slowly.
He thought briefly about establishing a base someday.
Starting from a base, build roads, and eventually pave the entire planet?
He shook his head. That was pure fantasy.

Lin Mu opened the chat channel.
It had been a while since he last checked, and the number of people online had sharply dropped to just 50 million.
This showed just how dangerous this world was.
“We’ve established a village with three convoys. Anyone want to join? We Blue Star natives have to unite if we want to stand against the others.”
“Forget it. My enemies don’t even fear bullets, so what’s the point?”
“Are you idiots? Why waste time searching for magic or martial arts? I can already cast fireball now.”
“Whoa! That’s awesome! But I wonder if you can survive one bullet from me.”
“...”
Someone had actually learned how to cast fireballs?
Was that for real?
Lin Mu still hadn’t figured out how to cultivate that martial energy.
001 had analyzed it for him and explained how it worked, but knowing it was one thing; mastering it was another.
No, he had to start studying it seriously.
Good equipment was one thing, but he also had to grow stronger himself.

Upon arriving at the village, Lin Mu took a quick look around.
“Captain, why do the people here look so dark and grimy?”
“Then they’re not Blue Star natives. Kill them all.”
With dozens of heavy machine guns, the villagers armed only with cold weapons stood no chance.
“Get out of the car. Tear down every house. Don’t leave any useful thing behind!”
Half an hour later, the entire village was reduced to nothing but corpses.
In the following week, Lin Mu destroyed over 30 villages.
Yes, destroyed. Every decomposable item was broken down.
Since the corpses were humanoid, Lin Mu couldn’t bring himself to be utterly ruthless and left them untouched.

...

In a vast open plain, Lin Mu set up a protective formation.
Zhao Jin began preparing the day’s meals.
Lin Mu approached Anna. “You’re not teaching me right. How come I can’t learn?”
He had been practicing with Anna for a week, but there was no progress.
Anna rolled her eyes. “You know, cultivating martial energy requires starting young. How could you possibly master it in a few days? What dream are you living in?”

Lin Mu had expected her to teach him in just a few days—wasn’t that putting her on the spot?
“Are you sure you’re not withholding teaching me because if I learned it and lived longer, you couldn’t escape me?”
He looked at her suspiciously.
With her, anything was possible.
Anna was speechless. “Talent is needed for this. Even if you learn it, how far do you think you can go? Reaching level three or four barely extends your lifespan. Do you think I care about a few extra decades?”
Besides, she didn’t want to leave now. In Anna’s eyes, this convoy seemed very safe.
At least, she had never seen a team sweep through 30 villages in just one week.

Those 30 villages had provided Lin Mu with plenty of supplies, but food was still scarce.
It only replenished what they had consumed during that period.
His goal was to secure vast resources to prepare for what lay ahead.
The team didn’t need to be too large—just a force of over ten thousand would suffice.
Then they could dominate the region. Even if they never returned home, they could at least become local warlords.
“Do you know where the most resources are?”
“Of course, cities. But those cities have existed for ages and are unbeatable. I advise you to give up.”
Lin Mu stroked his chin. Long history didn’t necessarily mean strong defense.
Unfortunately, he had no powerful weapons at the moment. He wished he could find that teleportation gate again—send someone on a mission to gather resources.
If only he could obtain super-powerful blueprints.
His modification skills could only enhance his own vehicles; how he wished he could upgrade others’ too.
Sigh, it was so difficult.

One dish after another was placed on the table—sixteen dishes for ten people.
Anna twitched at the corner of her mouth. If she remembered correctly, just yesterday they were complaining about how scarce the resources were.
And now, sixteen dishes?
“Aren’t you supposed to be saving food?”
“Yes, saving... but today’s the weekend. We deserve to eat well.”
Beer and soft drinks were also served.
“Everyone, eat and drink without worry. There’s a town not far from here with enough resources for us.”
“Long live the captain!”
Everyone was excited—life was far better than before.
Anna quietly asked Shuyi, “Was your captain a bandit before?”