Abraham froze in the seat for a few seconds. Then uncontrollable rage surged up behind those eyes, and Abraham's face twisted into something ugly.

"Say that again?!"

Eugene stumbled back a few paces, too scared to speak. The silence hurt more than any answer could have.

Abraham was out of the vehicle in one clean motion, the door slamming shut with a bang. Moving like an enraged grizzly, Abraham charged straight at Eugene, seized the collar with both hands, eyes gone completely bloodshot.

"You mean to tell me you fucking lied to me? You never had any virus serum? You're not some research expert? You're just a goddamn fraud?!"

"..."

"Fuck! People died escorting you. So many of our people, dead on the road just to get you here, and now you're standing there telling me you're a fraud?! How do you live with that?! HUH?!"

The words barely landed before Abraham let go of the collar and drove a right fist straight into Eugene's face.

BOOM!

Eugene's eyes rolled back. The body dropped straight backward like a felled tree.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

"No!"

"Stop!"

The sudden violence sent the camp into a scramble. Women pulled children back and retreated. Shane and Rick shoved through the crowd toward Abraham.

"Stop! Abraham!"

Abraham wasn't hearing any of it. Already lunging forward and bending down, that right hand came up again, fingers clenching into a fist, cocked and ready to come down hard.

Then a hand closed around Abraham's wrist like an iron vise.

Abraham wrenched instinctively. Nothing gave.

It was Lin Feng.

"I'm not saying you were wrong to teach the guy a lesson," Lin Feng said, voice level. "But one more punch from you and the lesson becomes a funeral."

"And even if you kill him — all you get is five seconds of satisfaction. Nothing changes. So." He held Abraham's gaze. "Give him a chance to make it right. What do you say?"

The force in Abraham's arm slowly bled out. Lin Feng hauled Abraham upright with one pull and let go.

The red behind Abraham's eyes faded. What replaced it was something worse: blank, hollow, lost. Abraham turned and walked toward the tents without another word.

Lin Feng scanned the crowd.

"Marcus, check Eugene's injuries. Glenn, take the SUV back and grab a bottle of liquor for Abraham while you're at it. Everyone else, back to rest — don't wander off. Men, stay behind and get ready to move the bodies."

Marcus and Glenn stepped out from the group. Marcus crouched down beside Eugene and got to work. Glenn pulled open the SUV door, swung in, and drove the vehicle back to its spot.

Daryl's figure appeared across the lawn in the distance, jogging back toward camp. Daryl looked at Lin Feng and shook his head.

"Lin. No signs of anyone in that direction. Nothing."

Lin Feng nodded. "Alright. Leave it for now." He raised his voice. "Come on, people — move. Clear out these things, then get back to whatever you're supposed to be doing."

Otis and Jimmy rolled two trailers out from Hershel's backyard. The others pulled on gloves and threw on their heavy-duty clothing, and everyone got to work hauling bodies.

They were at it until noon before the last corpse was cleared. The bodies went into an abandoned field, soaked in gasoline and set alight. Flames climbed. Black smoke rose in a thick column against the sky.

Lin Feng watched it curl upward and clicked his tongue. "What a waste. One of these days when we have the time, we need to build a walker shredder. Great fertilizer, honestly."

"..."

"..."

The men hauling bodies said nothing. They just looked at Lin Feng like he'd grown a second head.

They'd known for a long time that this guy was ruthless. But they hadn't quite expected him to look at a pile of corpses and see composting potential.

Andrew, however, was quietly turning the idea over. Technically speaking, it wasn't that difficult...

By afternoon, Eugene was awake. Marcus had looked the injuries over: mild concussion, nothing critical. A few days of rest and it would sort itself out.

That didn't help the mood any. Eugene had gone completely quiet, tucked away inside the tent just like Abraham, with no apparent interest in rejoining the world.

Eugene had, however, badly misjudged where Lin Feng's patience ended.

Merle and Daryl hauled Eugene out and loaded Eugene into a vehicle. Destination: the nearby town, to hunt down parts for modifying a two-way radio.

Andrew and Glenn rode along too, though their mission was different: sourcing materials to build UV lamps.

Marcus took a few of the women and got started on a disinfection sweep around the camp perimeter. With that many walker bodies having been dragged across the grounds, the risk of disease needed to be addressed before it became a problem.

Maggie, Rosita, and Andrea got their own assignment: a full systematic sweep of the surrounding wheat fields to assess and map out the order of harvest.

Lin Feng did a walk-through of the armory and came out scratching his head.

The situation wasn't bad, exactly. Rifles, shotguns, handguns, all accounted for. Ammo was holding at a reasonable level. But heavy firepower was essentially nonexistent, and the explosives situation was grim.

The only grenades on hand were the ones scavenged from that gang hideout way back when. Two left.

He needed to fix that.

As Lin Feng turned it over in his mind, something else surfaced: Molotov cocktails.

Not the most devastating weapon in the arsenal. But they had one advantage that mattered, they threw light. In the dark, that was worth a lot.

Worth putting together a supply. And the materials weren't hard to source: glass bottles, gasoline, diesel, and a thickening agent.

Plenty of options for the thickener. Motor oil, styrofoam, shredded rubber tubing...

Working with what the camp already had on hand, Lin Feng handed the job to the sisters Nancy and Emma. He walked them through the safety precautions, explained what to watch for, and gave each of them a pair of cut-resistant gloves.

They were the camp's own people. Getting them hurt over a craft project was not acceptable.

Nancy took it in stride, not much different from chopping vegetables, really. Already used to it.

Emma, on the other hand, lit up. Cheeks flushed, practically vibrating with the weight of the assignment, Emma squared the shoulders, lifted the chin, and marched off to get started alongside the older sibling.

With everyone dispatched to their tasks, Lin Feng finally had a rare stretch of downtime. And immediately didn't know what to do with himself. His mind had gone oddly blank.

Maybe head into town, grind some levels, pick up ammunition and whatever else he could scavenge while he was at it?

That was enough for Lin Feng. He found Rick, said a few words, walked to the pickup, started the engine, and was gone.

Rick stood there frowning, scratching the back of his head. After a long moment, Rick let out a sigh.

It was exactly the look of a worker whose boss had just left him holding the whole operation.

➤ Next: Successfully Contacting Crane

Chapter 88 - Successfully Contacting Crane

Lin Feng made it back just before the sun dropped below the horizon, covered in grime, not a trace of exhaustion on his face.

The run had nearly wiped out all the 5.56 rounds in his storage. He'd scavenged some replacements along the way, but the total only came to around three hundred rounds.

Still, he'd successfully gained two attribute points, and progress toward the next level was sitting at the halfway mark: [263/500].

He had no idea why the experience cap was stuck there. The outcome was good, though, so he couldn't be bothered to dig into it.

Honestly, he'd stopped expecting this system to make sense a long time ago.

From the moment he'd arrived to right now, no notifications, no quests, no shop. The only thing it ever did was pop up when he killed walkers, and after hitting a specific tally, it handed out a Space Expansion Voucher. That was it.

As for the new attribute points, Lin Feng put every last one into Agility: [Agility 7 → 9].

The boost wasn't just speed. Neural transmission, muscular coordination, explosive power, everything had jumped several rungs at once.

If he ran into a Volatile now, even at night, he'd have a real shot.

Lin Feng dropped down from the pickup and looked at Rick. "Brought back another batch of weapons. A bit old, but they'll do."

Rick glanced at the packed bed, raised an eyebrow, and nodded. "Alright. I'll get someone to move them into storage."

Lin Feng clapped Rick on the shoulder. "How's the camp holding up?"

"Eugene's almost done on his end. We can actually sync frequencies now, and the range on our walkie-talkies has expanded by a decent margin. That kid really is something."

"Andrew finished too, but we still don't have a generator, so car batteries are the only power source. Not enough to run through a whole night, but Andrew says that problem gets solved tomorrow."

"Maggie hand-drew a map. When we're ready, we split into teams and sweep."

"...Abraham's still in his tent. But seems to like Carl well enough — at least tolerates the little brat hanging around outside."

"Oh — Beth came looking for you twice. Heard you were out, went back. And..." Rick paused. "Do yourself a favor and brace for it?"

Lin Feng frowned. "Brace for what? Is Beth mad?"

"Brace for Hershel shooting you~" Rick said with a grin, gave Lin Feng a pat on the shoulder, and turned away. "Glenn, Jim, come give us a hand!"

Two figures jogged over from across the camp. Glenn took one look at the loaded pickup and shook his head. "Lin, the efficiency on you is unreal. Any chance you could teach me sometime?"

"It's not that hard. Just put in the work," Lin Feng said, completely earnest.

Glenn gave him a rare eye-roll and went to help Rick.

Lin Feng smiled, crossed the camp in a few long strides, and stopped beside Eugene. He watched Eugene pick through a tangle of electronic components and winced.

Yeah, no idea what any of that is.

Eugene worked as if Lin Feng wasn't there, muttering to himself, nimble hands threading one wire after another into place. A small booklet sat open beside the rig, some kind of repair manual by the look of it.

Lin Feng didn't interrupt. He just watched. Eugene connected the final wire, made a test call, and when the voice came back through the radio clean and clear, Eugene sagged and let out a long, slow breath.

Only then did Eugene notice Lin Feng standing next to him. Eugene flinched back slightly. "...Need something?"

"Nothing. Just came to check on you." Lin Feng smiled. "Turns out you're even better than I thought. No, you're actually a genius."

The tension bled out of Eugene's face. "It's passable. But this is a modified rig, so the transmission power isn't stable and the failure rate is high. You should keep your expectations calibrated."

"I know. Given what we're working with, getting it this far is already remarkable. I'll throw in a chicken leg tomorrow."

Eugene's expression went fully calm. This guy isn't bad at all.

"...Thank you."

"Don't thank me. You earned it." Lin Feng said it and then, for a moment, felt uncomfortably like an exploitative capitalist.

Across the camp, a purple light bloomed in the darkness beyond the perimeter.

Andrew had wired car batteries together in series as a backup power supply, and the UV lamps came on.

The instant the lights flared, Andrew whooped, pure relief, then broke into a loud, satisfied laugh.

A moment later the lights cut out. Not a malfunction. The camp's power situation wasn't solved yet, and there was nothing to waste.

Andrew looked toward the tallest figure in the camp and shouted, "Lin! UV lamps are good to go!"

The last knot in Lin Feng's chest came loose. He gave Andrew a thumbs-up. "Outstanding work, Andrew. Tomorrow you get an extra... uh, an extra whole chicken!"

The corner of Eugene's mouth twitched. Some people really don't fear comparison.

Over by the fire, Daryl paused mid-stroke on the compound crossbow and looked up at Lin Feng.

...Right. Tomorrow, swing by the wheat field. Might be some wild pheasants out that way.

Lin Feng sent Eugene off to get dinner, then settled in alone to keep watch.

Minutes crawled by. The radio hissed white noise.

Then a voice cut through it:

"Krrzt... anyone there... krrzt... this is... rran... we krrzt... need backup... anyone willing... krrzt... please switch to channel... krrzt... 6.3... krrzt... 56.3."

Lin Feng turned the dial fast, locked onto 56.3, and said, "Hello?"

Dead silence for a few seconds. Then heavy breathing came through, and then an outright cheer:

"Oh, holy shit! Someone actually answered! I'm Kyle Crane. Who are you? Where are you?"

The questions came rapid-fire. Lin Feng answered without hurrying.

"Call me Lin. Where I am doesn't matter right now. What matters is where you are. Still in Harran, or...?"

"Yeah, still inside Harran. How far are you from us?"

"Hard to say. You know Georgia?"

"Georgia? That's not far at all. You're right to our west."

Lin Feng understood. No wonder Volatiles had been showing up on his end, turns out they were practically neighbors in the same disaster.

"Are you still holding out inside The Tower? Any chance of evacuating?"

"We're preparing to pull out now. Supplies are nearly gone, and those things are getting stronger every day. We can't hold the line anymore. We need somewhere safe to regroup."

Lin Feng's eyes narrowed slightly. Harran's physical quarantine wall had been breached? That was the only way to explain how Crane could actually get out.

Wait. A massive wave of elite mobs. Heading this way.

He pushed the thought aside and said evenly, "I can give you somewhere to go. But our camp is shorthanded and light on weapons, we can't send anyone to meet you. You'll have to fight your way out."

"That's fine. How do we find you?"

"King County," Lin Feng said without hesitation. "We operate near King County."

"King County. Got it. Two days — we'll be in touch."

"Alright."

Lin Feng set down the radio. He looked up, and the entire camp was standing around him.

Every last one of them staring at him with odd expressions.

Maggie leaned over and murmured into Beth's ear, "You see that? This guy is slippery. Lies come out of him like breathing. You'd better keep both eyes on him from now on."

Beth nodded with great solemnity, wide eyes fixed on Lin Feng, lit up with unmistakable amusement.

Lin Feng: "..."

➤ Next: Triangles Aren't Necessarily Stable