Chapter 288 - 261: I Won’t Stop You
A deep hoofprint was kicked into the Bull Shark’s back.
Two hoofprints the size of millstones sank in, and the Bull Shark’s skin became swollen and bruised.
It whipped its tail violently and fled into the distance without a second glance.
Red Hare, despite starting later, arrived first. It overtook the shark from behind and galloped in front of it.
The Bull Shark’s movements faltered. It froze for a moment, unable to comprehend why this four-legged fish was now in front of it.
The next second, it understood.
An ever-enlarging hoofprint came rushing toward its face.
The seawater shuddered violently, stirring up a large undercurrent.
The Bull Shark’s head caved in directly, becoming a flattened pancake.
A normal adult wild horse’s hind-leg kick can generate several tons of force, enough to severely injure a lion with a single blow.
But this was an Extraordinary Mongolian Horse that had broken through the limits of its species and reached an Eight-star Level of physical constitution.
The kicked Bull Shark froze as if flash-frozen, remaining motionless before slowly sinking. It finally came to rest on the seabed, stiff and straight.
After Red Hare delivered that kick, the expressions on the faces of the others watching from a distance became complicated.
They inexplicably felt a sliver of pity for the Bull Shark.
’That looked painful...’
𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Qin Ziwu was a little numb. This was the same wild horse that used to be afraid of wolves.
’Look what you’ve done now,’
’galloping right into the sea and kicking a shark to death.’
Someone swam over, intending to drag the Bull Shark back.
Qin Ziwen considered that shark meat was probably gamey, and few people would likely eat it if they brought it back.
But then he remembered that with so many people in the Gated Community, even though it seemed like they could find some seafood by foraging the shores each day, there still wasn’t enough food to go around when divided among everyone.
Most people were living off their reserves. The meat might not taste good, but at least it could fill their stomachs.
After dealing with the small interruption of the Bull Shark, the group continued to haul the ship’s bow.
They exhausted all their strength and, working together, finally dragged it to the other side of Home.
Then they had to untie the steel wire cables, take them down to the seabed, and continue tying up other sections.
After another five or six hours of this grueling work, they had finally divided the shipwreck into three large sections, thirteen smaller chunks, and numerous small planks and fragments, which they salvaged and brought back separately.
The repetitive process consumed a huge amount of manpower.
The greatest expenditure was the Deep Sea Oxygen Fruits; a full half of their supply was used up.
Fewer than five hundred Deep Sea Oxygen Fruits remained.
After returning to Home, everyone worked together to move the salvaged shipwreck to the Ghost Ship Dock.
They placed the shipwreck’s remains, still dripping with seawater and covered in barnacles, inside the dock.
Tao Fu came over to take a look, his expression troubled. ’The ship was large when it was intact, but after being submerged for so long, most of it is basically useless.’
"Have those Ghost Boatmen give it a try. And use that black water from the pool," Qin Ziwen suggested.
Tao Fu had a sudden realization.
He immediately ran back to the dock and started experimenting with the Ghost Boatmen.
While Tao Fu was busy with the repair work, Jia Liangcai took some people to distribute wages to everyone who had participated.
Nothing was more suitable than meat.
An operation of this scale was impossible to hide.
Soon, news about the Qin Alliance possessing a mysterious fruit that allowed people to breathe underwater quietly spread throughout the Gated Community.
Some didn’t believe it, but others claimed they had seen members of the Qin Alliance go directly into the sea the day before.
When Zou Jianghe heard about it, he stood by the window, staring blankly at the sea. "He’s quite impressive, then."
"Chairman Zou, shouldn’t we try to trade with them to get some of those fruits?" someone behind him suggested.
"There’s no need. That stuff is definitely precious, and there can’t be many." Zou Jianghe shook his head. "If he had them in abundance, he would have come to us for a trade. Since Chairman Qin hasn’t approached us, it means they’re very rare."
In fact, after hearing that Qin Ziwen had led the Qin Alliance’s elites on a direct decapitation strike against the Gated Community across the way, Zou Jianghe had already extinguished any thought of competing with him.
Because there was no point.
When faced with an opponent who only gets further and further ahead no matter how hard you try, a sense of powerlessness is inevitable.
"But if we don’t trade, many of the ordinary members in our Alliance have been secretly contacting the other side recently," a high-ranking member of the Alliance Association said worriedly.
"Then let them go." Zou Jianghe’s tone was calm. "Can I stop them from going to a better place? The founding principle of our Alliance Association was mutual aid and unity, to help everyone survive better. Since the Qin Alliance can do a better job than us, what reason do I have to stop them from seeking a better life?"
Hearing Zou Jianghe’s words, Zhang Bo was stunned.
’Wait, how can you surrender before we’ve even fought?’
’If you’re giving up, then what’s the point of me infiltrating this place?’
Zhang Bo felt aggrieved.
Zou Jianghe suddenly turned his head and glanced at him.
A chill ran down Zhang Bo’s spine, and he averted his gaze.
Zou Jianghe’s gaze swept past Zhang Bo, then moved across the other five high-ranking members of the Alliance Association in the room.
"It’s not just the ordinary members. This includes members of the Hunting Teams, and all of you present here. If you want to go, you can. I won’t stop you, nor do I have any reason to. Everyone is free," Zou Jianghe said calmly.
Huang Tao, still seated, narrowed his eyes. After a moment of thought, he suddenly understood Zou Jianghe’s reasoning.
’Having more people isn’t necessarily a good thing, and having fewer isn’t necessarily a disadvantage.’
’Fewer people allows for a more refined team, a purer core, and a concentration of strength to get things done. Though the numbers are smaller, so are the burdens.’
’Just like the Qin Alliance, which had fewer people than us at the beginning.’
’Yet they gradually surpassed us and have been continuously growing stronger.’
’On the other hand, more people means more voices and more demands.’
’People are the hardest to satisfy.’
’But... the Qin Alliance is different from us.’
Huang Tao understood in his heart. The reason their Alliance Association felt bloated was that they couldn’t make full use of so many people, especially since the environment of this map was unsuitable for ordinary people to hunt alone.
But the Qin Alliance could. The Qin Alliance had professional "factories," a shipyard, training grounds, more advanced weapons, and even an Extraordinary existence that defied all limits. Now, they were even building a large ship.
They could fully utilize these people, using them as fuel to infuse fresh blood into the great vessel that was the Qin Alliance.
The core issue was still the difference in their buildings.
To catch up to the Qin Alliance, their only option was to optimize their buildings, concentrate on strengthening their advantages, create unique buildings within their Gated Community, and then cooperate with the Qin Alliance. Although the Qin Alliance was large, it surely couldn’t excel in every single aspect or have every possible building. They must have needs of their own.
As long as they could play to their own unique strengths, it wasn’t impossible to survive in the Gated Community.
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