True Apocalypse Game
Chapter 56: I Mean No Harm
From within his Iron Armor, Grey Feather stared into the man’s emotionless eyes. His anger and pride vanished as if doused by a bucket of cold water.
Encased in cold Iron Armor, he was drenched in sweat, feeling nothing but profound terror.
He couldn’t defeat this man, who seemed intent on wiping out the entire Crow Tribe!
"Grey Feather, sir, run! Run! Get back inside!" Scar shouted from the side, already scrambling to escape deeper into the Crow Tribe’s camp.
A few of Grey Feather’s most loyal men immediately grabbed him and began dragging him toward the center of the camp.
Some Crow Hunters tried to escape through the breach behind Shen Feng, but the moment they ran out, they were pierced by bullets from an unknown location.
The metal cabinets revealed their true forms, their gaping, bloody maws opening wide to swallow anyone who couldn’t escape in time, grinding them into pulp on the spot!
Dozens of powerful Barbarians fanned out around the camp, tearing to shreds anyone who dared to resist.
In an instant, the Crow Hunters all began to rally at the center of the camp.
Shen Feng continued his unhurried advance, occasionally reloading his shotgun.
His face had been completely devoid of expression ever since he entered the Crow Tribe’s camp.
His attacks were swift and efficient, like those of an emotionless reaping machine.
Reaping lives.
At first, some Crow Hunters tried to attack him, only to be met with a hail of bullets or torn apart by the Barbarians.
The Crow Tribe, once known for its cruelty and tyranny, had finally met someone more ruthless than themselves.
Now, the members of the Crow Tribe could only flee desperately toward the center of their camp, just like the people from the weaker tribes and towns they themselves had annihilated.
The Crow Tribe numbered over ten thousand in total. Now, under Grey Feather’s command, they were setting up a temporary defensive position in the center of the camp, using iron-framed carts as cover.
Women and children on the inside, warriors on the outside.
And at the very center of it all lay the lifeblood of the Crow Tribe: a small oil refinery and several oil wells.
This refinery and these wells were the very reason the Crow Tribe had been able to rise to power in the wasteland.
It was, in a word, their lifeline—more precious to them than their own lives.
It was for this very reason that the instinctive reaction of most Crow Hunters was to fall back to the center of the camp and protect the refinery and wells.
Beyond their defensive line, dozens of Barbarians roamed and roared, along with those metal cabinets that could grind a man to pulp.
For their cruel and tyrannical methods, the Crow Tribe was sometimes called the Demon Tribe. Now, they were finally meeting a real Demon.
Even more terrifying than the Barbarians were the metal cabinets. The sight of a living person being ground into mincemeat was a visual shock that made many of the Crow Hunters’ legs go weak.
Soon, through the smoke and dust, the outsider—the man who should have been dead—slowly approached, Holy Spear in hand.
Shen Feng topped off his shotgun’s magazine as he walked, then spoke.
"Relax. Don’t be afraid. I mean you no harm. I’m here to negotiate."
Hearing this, the members of the Crow Tribe glanced at the corpses littering the ground, then stared at one another in disbelief.
"You demon...!" a Crow Hunter yelled, but before he could finish, Shen Feng instantly raised his shotgun and blew the man’s head apart.
"Any other questions? Where is your chieftain? I need to speak with them."
Shen Feng finally broke into a smile. It was gentle and refined, but to the crowd before him, it was utterly terrifying.
After a moment, a tall, slender woman in her early thirties stepped out from the crowd. She addressed Shen Feng.
"I am the chieftain of this tribe. My name is Raven. Respected outsider, may I ask why you have done this?"
Shen Feng tilted his head, his expression earnest. "Because you sent a group of people to hunt me down and nearly kill me."
Raven froze, then turned her gaze to Grey Feather.
Though seething with hatred, Grey Feather put on a look of dejection and reverence. He removed his iron helmet and said,
"Respected outsider, I apologize for my actions... I was only thinking of the tribe’s survival. I never meant to harm you. I had no ill will..."
Shen Feng asked, "And is that your reason for slaughtering Nameless Town?"
A pained expression crossed Grey Feather’s face.
"Regarding what happened in Nameless Town... I cannot shirk my responsibility. However, most of it was... collateral damage..."
He remembered Scar’s description of the outsider and had pegged him as an incredibly vain man. ’If I play to his ego,’ he thought, ’he might just let me live.’
"If killing me will quench your hatred, then please, do what you must..."
BLAM! A muffled gunshot rang out. Grey Feather felt a searing heat in his chest. He looked down to see a gaping hole blown through his torso.
"How... could this...?" Grey Feather’s body crashed to the ground. He died with an expression of utter disbelief.
Seeing Grey Feather killed, the members of the Crow Tribe cried out in alarm.
Grey Feather was their strongest warrior, their war chief, and he had been killed just like that!
Killed like a rat!
Looking at the panicked, terrified members of the Crow Tribe, Shen Feng nodded in satisfaction.
He had already learned from Firefly how cruel and warlike the Crow Tribe was.
’When dealing with such savage people, there was only one way to make them listen.’
’Establish dominance.’
’Now, judging by the look in their eyes, he knew he had succeeded.’
He then turned to Raven and said,
"Now we can talk."
At the same time, he made a hand signal behind his back.
Several hundred meters away in the wasteland, Firefly threw off her camouflage, packed up her sniper rifle, and started walking toward the Crow Tribe’s camp.
Cowled by the show of force, and intimidated by the dozens of Barbarians and five farming robots, Raven was now completely cooperative, ready to agree to all of Shen Feng’s demands.
Soon, the gates to the Crow Tribe’s core refinery were opened for Shen Feng.
Leaving Firefly and the Barbarians to stand guard outside, Shen Feng strode into the refinery.
To his disappointment, there was no useful information inside. He found some journals that had been stashed away, but they were all left by the poor souls who had hidden in the refinery during its final days.
Their contents were much the same as Ji Xin’s diary.
The only item of any value was a promotional poster for a Shelter, dating back to the start of the war.
Shelter 67, a "Peach Blossom Spring" deep in the mountains.
The address, however, was blurred and completely illegible.
After searching the entire place and finding nothing else of use, Shen Feng felt a pang of frustration.
’Looks like I’ll have to ask the mayor after all,’ he thought.
Soon, the mayor, wrapped in a blanket, was carried before Shen Feng by seven or eight burly female tribeswomen.
"There’s no more! Really, there’s no more!" The mayor, who was wrapped up tightly, suddenly recognized the man before him and exclaimed in surprise,
"Shen Feng? Are you here to take my place?"