Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 370: Chapter 360: Do You Dare?

”Isn’t three minutes a bit too short?”

Tang Mo voiced her doubt as she looked at the tiny pellet.

”If it were just one or two people passing through, three minutes would be just enough. But with over fifty people, three minutes is going to be tough.”

”If anyone is even a little slow, the people at the back will be in trouble. It’s still quite dangerous.”

”It is a bit short, but there’s nothing to be done.”

The fee Zhao Huan and his group charged to join the team wasn’t very high. After all, the journey was long, and their food supply was limited. These people were clearly at the end of their rope. It would be even worse if they used up all this bait before reaching their destination.

What Zhao Huan said made a lot of sense. Tang Mo blinked.

Their process for making the bait had given her an idea.

”I actually have an idea that could make the bait last longer. I just don’t know if you’d dare to try it.”

Zhao Huan looked at Tang Mo. The girl in front of him didn’t seem very old, but her serious expression made it clear she wasn’t joking.

”At this point, what’s there to be afraid of?”

Before Zhao Huan could even speak, the look in Zhao Tian and Zhao Yu’s eyes grew resolute. Since these brothers dared to take on missions to survive in this world, not a single one of them was a coward.

”Just say what’s on your mind.”

Zhao Huan was curious to hear what this young girl wanted to say.

”Have you... ever killed anyone?”

* * *

Tang Mo knew, of course, that Zhao Huan and his brothers had been bodyguards, which was why she’d asked the question.

After all, some bodyguards who protected important, mysterious figures were armed. She could tell Zhao Huan and his brothers weren’t ordinary men, not like some common security guard.

As for killing... Zhao Tian and Zhao Yu never had. But Zhao Huan actually had killed a man once.

It had been an accident, though, and the man he killed was a criminal, so he felt no guilt over it.

But having killed once didn’t make him a homicidal maniac who could kill without a second thought.

”What are you planning?”

Zhao Huan’s gaze sharpened. At their core, he and his brothers were decent men. Hearing such words come out of a young girl’s mouth, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of revulsion.

’Could this frail-looking girl really be harboring such a terrifying idea?’

The apocalypse had been raging for several months now, and most people had run out of food and supplies. To avoid starvation, people were truly capable of anything, including the heinous act of murdering their fellow survivors.

Zhao Huan had seen his fair share of such things on his journey. He was in no position to meddle in other people’s business, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a deep, gut-wrenching disgust for it.

’Once you do something like that—eat something like that—can you even be called human anymore?’

’How are they any different from the red-eyed mutant beasts outside?’

”Hey, don’t get the wrong idea! That’s not what I meant!”

Seeing the look in their eyes, Tang Mo immediately knew what they were thinking and hurried to explain.

She wasn’t depraved enough to suggest a plan that involved humans killing one another.

”What I mean is...”

Tang Mo then quietly explained her idea to the three brothers.

After all, they were in a large hall with other people. Even if these three could accept it, not everyone else would, so it was better to keep things quiet.

As Zhao Huan and his brothers listened to Tang Mo, the expressions on their faces shifted constantly.

At first, they found it unbelievable, but the more they listened, the more plausible it sounded. By the end, their faces were frozen in expressions of anticipation.

”You guys probably already know that some people in the world have developed superpowers and physical enhancements, right?”

Tang Mo asked this after she finished laying out her idea.

She had noticed long ago that the two brothers, Zhao Tian and Zhao Yu, possessed extraordinary Strength. They had to be Power Attribute Superpower Users, just like Qi Jiaming.

As for Zhao Huan, she hadn’t yet figured out what his attribute was, but she was sure he wasn’t an ordinary person either.

The brothers all nodded.

Never mind all the people and things they had encountered on their journey; the brothers themselves had abilities of their own, so they weren’t surprised by Tang Mo’s words.

”I’m extremely fast and agile. I’ll go out with you tonight.”

This was Tang Mo’s way of revealing her superpower, because she had to be part of what came next.

”You’re going too? Aren’t you afraid?”

Zhao Tian stared at the skinny young girl in disbelief. The women in his group were scared stiff by a single glance at a Red-eyed Meat Dragon, let alone going out with them in the middle of the night.

”What’s there to be afraid of? We’re about to starve to death; what’s scarier than that? But if I’m a big help, you have to agree to one condition. I want a share of whatever we make.”

Of course, Tang Mo wasn’t going out just to be charitable. There was something she wanted.

Zhao Huan sized up the girl before him. ’To come up with an idea like that and have this kind of guts, she must have a few tricks up her sleeve.’

”Alright. It’s a deal. We’ll divide it based on contribution—the more you do, the more you get. But let’s be clear: no one’s going to protect you out there. If you die, don’t expect anyone to retrieve your body.”

Zhao Huan laid out the ugly truth first. In these times, it was every man for himself. When danger struck, you were on your own. If this young girl was serious about going out with them, she needed to be fully aware of the risks.

”Deal!”

Tang Mo agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Although they had important business to attend to that night, there were still over fifty other people in the hall. It wouldn’t be right to leave them without a guard.

So, in the end, it was decided that Zhao Yu would stay here on guard, while Zhao Huan, Zhao Tian, and Tang Mo would go out together.

Tang Mo’s idea for the bait was actually quite simple. She thought, ’If even wall plaster can be used, why not use something with a bit more... substance?’

Like the flesh of the corpses on the side of the road.

Everyone knew that tossing the Red-eyed Meat Dragons a small amount of food would keep them quiet. Yet, there were always those who couldn’t spare even that much. They would try to slip through the streets, hoping to get lucky, only to become food for the Red-eyed Meat Dragons themselves.

This led to a peculiar phenomenon. Normally, every part of a human body, aside from the bones, was a delicacy for the Meat Dragons. And yet, the streets were littered with corpses that were only half-eaten, or even less.

This was because after a Red-eyed Meat Dragon killed and began to feed on a person, it would quickly become satiated after just a few bites. It would then revert to its dazed state and start wandering about unconsciously.

By the time they digested their meal and became hungry again, they had already wandered far from the original corpse.

These creatures had no intelligence or memory, so they simply wandered off to wait for new prey.