Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"Ha, sure, I didn't say he shouldn't be giving orders." The portly official sneered and shrugged. "But so what? Nobody listens to him. Isn't he just a commander without any real power? And he's distributing supplies to those scoundrels... Who the hell would carry out such an utterly stupid order?"

He spat in Jonah's direction, having already torn off all pretense of civility, and said without any hesitation, "Or you can think of a way to persuade us to serve your master, that would work too."

"Yes, that's it!"

"The matters of Pike City should be decided by the people of Pike City themselves. The customs officers should go back to where they came from."

"Security! Get these people out of here!"

……

These words received widespread approval among the remaining officials.

The atmosphere had become tense and tense. Zhang Renfeng caught a glimpse of smugness in the official's eyes.

Even at this point, are you still happy about winning or losing a power struggle?

He suddenly found it quite amusing that the “American government,” which he regarded as an adversary and which he had imagined to be a behemoth, was actually composed of such people.

"To convince you, right?"

“Yes, convince me,” the official sneered. “Can you even recognize that many words, you yellow-skinned…”

Before he could finish speaking, a large hand pressed down on his cheek, and the immense force that followed almost completely broke his cervical spine!

"Boom-!!"

Zhang Renfeng pressed down on his head and slammed it heavily onto the table. The black wooden table immediately shattered, and wood chips pierced his cheek, causing blood to gush out.

He was like a butcher, pressing down on a pig's head on the chopping board and slashing it hard across the table. A sickening "rip" was heard. The official's face had made incredibly intimate "rubbing" against the table, leaving a bloody, mangled stain. The force of that hand was so great that with just one slash, half of his face was wiped off.

"Ughh ...

The intense pain caused him to scream out in agony, his hands flailing helplessly in the air.

Aside from Sofia, no one could have foreseen this scene. They were all stunned by the horrific sight. This act of making an example of someone to deter others had a very good effect.

"What...what do you want to do?! He's a city government official, you can't do this..."

"This is illegal!"

"Security! Where are the security guards? Where have they all gone? There's been an attack at the city hall!"

“Mr. Jonah, he’s one of your men, isn’t he? Do you know the consequences of doing this? We can… we can report this to our superiors and have you removed from your post!”

……

After the panic comes the meaningless threat.

Zhang Renfeng remained unmoved. His right hand, fingers still pressed firmly against the man's head, as if trying to force his entire skull into the wood. His eyes, however, were lowered, scrutinizing everyone present with a critical gaze.

"And now?" he asked calmly. "Have the rest of you been 'convinced'?"

More and more security personnel poured in.

Zhang Renfeng seized the opportunity, released the official who had lost half his face, and at the same time grabbed the edge of the long table with both hands.

"Click!"

With fingers clenched together, the powerful grip and finger strength crushed the wood to pieces!

Under everyone's watchful eyes, he silently lifted the long, solid wood table used for negotiations like a heavy object and hurled it violently against the wall to one side!

"boom------!!!!"

The long table flipped in mid-air like a cannonball, striking the wall and shattering it into fragments of earth, stone, and brick. It then fell from the house, plummeting towards the city about to be soaked by the heavy rain. In an instant, dust swirled, and the cold wind and rain poured in, extinguishing all the kerosene lamps inside.

The impact of this scene was so great that the room fell into a deathly silence, and not a single person even cried out.

Even the security guards who rushed in were shocked, their pupils dilated, and they gasped. They silently put down their guns. They only earned a fixed salary each month. If they wanted to commit suicide, there were many other ways. Why risk their lives against this monster?

……

In the darkness, Zhang Renfeng turned on his electric light, becoming the only source of light.

At this moment, the calmness in his eyes was enough to send chills down the spines of those who had spoken rudely earlier.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve reasoned with anyone. I’ve always convinced people with reason, and I believe that everyone… has already been ‘convinced’ by me, right?” Zhang Renfeng said in a deep voice. “So, the following procedure is as follows.”

“We have already wasted a lot of time, so we must seize every second and act immediately.”

"Thank you all for your hard work. Stay in this room and do not go anywhere. Pass on your orders to your subordinates and tell them to act 'immediately'—note, immediately. As Jonah said, take as much food, water, medicine, and supplies as you can."

“Send people to the shantytowns to distribute food first, then organize them and evacuate them in an orderly manner towards the train station. There are no conditions to discuss. The mission must be completed in four hours, and we will evacuate the city together.”

"Anyone who holds us back, then..."

Zhang Renfeng looked around, and no one dared to meet his gaze.

"Take him as an example."

He grabbed the official, whose face was only half visible, by the collar and threw him out through the hole in the broken wall like trash!

Chapter 757: Should I bow, or just kneel down?

The municipal government is the municipal government after all. Having been rooted in Pike City for so many years, even with the mayor gone, it still maintains a considerable degree of mobilization power in critical moments. Once the thorough investigation began, the food supplies that had been confiscated a week earlier and stockpiled in the warehouse were also unearthed.

They used their few horses to make a few wagons, divided up some of the food, and drove into the shantytown.

Although... the food distributed to the shantytown consisted of cold, dusty canned goods and damp, nearly expired biscuits, to the starving people, expired or not didn't matter. As long as they could eat, it was enough to keep them alive.

Initially, Sam was worried that these starving people might swarm and loot the food when they suddenly saw it. He only had two people assigned to him; could he really maintain order? With over 3,800 people, a disturbance could cause a major incident, and Sam was genuinely unsure.

However, after seeing the actual situation in the shantytown, he realized that he had been worrying for nothing.

Hungry, cold, and with the house leaking, they spent the whole day soaked in the wind and rain, and had no energy left to cheer or scramble for food.

When they saw cartloads of food being transported in by horse and cart, many people's first reaction was that they were already dead, and that this was all a hallucination of heaven. Knowing the city government as they did, they figured they'd rather rot there than be given a single morsel of food.

The cheers only grew louder when they saw Sam alighting from the carriage.

……

“Mother, Mother? It’s me.” Back in the narrow, cramped room, Sam gently checked her breath with his finger and spoke cautiously.

"..."

Her weary eyes finally opened slightly. The old woman, who was so thin she was almost unrecognizable, had lips that were dry and stuck together from not speaking for so long. She glanced at Sam, who was kneeling nervously beside her, and with all her might, she managed to force a smile.

"Sam..."

"You're back."

With just those words, Sam seemed to have all his strength drained away. He let out a long sigh of relief, leaned against the not-so-sturdy wall, and sat down. He cupped his broad face in his hands, feeling a wave of dizziness. For a moment, he couldn't tell if it was lingering fear or relief.

A person who is starving cannot eat too much at once. Sam could only feed his mother a few mouthfuls of meat broth from the can and break off a small piece from the oat cake to fill her stomach.

“She’s looked a little better since you left.” Mr. Archie came in and exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, “I never expected you could get so much food… You’re really something, Sam. If it weren’t for you, we would probably have been forgotten here and rotted in the rain.”

"Ha... skill..."

Despite being praised, Sam seemed to have lost his composure, covering his face and forcing a bitter smile, "What skills do I have?"

“To be honest, Mr. Archie, I’m not even a formally employed government official, nor do I hold a position in any important department. I’m just a nobody in the customs office, doing odd jobs for others… and even my office is a million miles away from here.”

"If I hadn't been lucky enough to be selected and involved in this matter, I probably would have known nothing about it until the hurricane passed."

"If it weren't for... I happened to meet a powerful figure this time who was willing to travel with me, even if I returned to this city, I would only be a..."

Sam wanted to use "illegitimate child" to refer to himself, but he was afraid of bringing up his mother's painful past, so he didn't say it. He just made a gesture and smiled weakly, "I can't get this food and drink by myself."

The exhaustion he had accumulated over the days seemed to come to fruition the moment he opened his heart.

Sam always felt so tired that he had no energy left to pretend to be a smart and energetic elite civil servant.

But after playing this role for so long, he can hardly remember what he was originally like.

“This is really rare. I thought…” Yachi hesitated for a moment before finally speaking, “Those government officials have completely given up on this place.”

“They did give up, and they even tried to do worse things here, but they didn’t succeed. They were stopped by that amazing guy I mentioned before. He saved me, and he saved you…more than once.”

"Now, he wants to take all of us away from this hellhole."

After much deliberation, Sam decided not to tell Yachi about the near-death experience of the more than 3800 people in the shantytown.

After all, given the current situation, these shantytown residents still need to be evacuated from the city under the coordination and organization of the municipal government. Even if they knew this shocking news, it would only cause panic and distrust, and would likely lead to further trouble.

Sam, with a strong sense of the bigger picture, simply swallowed the news; now was not the time to turn against them. Even if they wanted to pursue the matter, they would have to wait until they had safely left the city before making any plans.

Yachi's eyes held a mixture of belief and doubt, which was understandable. For someone like him living in a shantytown, there were multiple limitations in terms of cognition and information. Some concepts that defied common sense were probably quite unimaginable to him.

In his eyes, government officials were the most "powerful" entities he could come into contact with. He couldn't imagine how an individual independent of the government could accomplish the aforementioned things.

But one thing he understood was that such important figures were absolutely not to be slighted or offended.

Yachi said somewhat nervously, "Then... after we meet him, do we need to prepare any etiquette? I heard that civilized people in the city shake hands, but for rough people like us... do we need to bow, or just kneel down?"

Sam paused for a moment, then smiled and waved his hand. "It's not that exaggerated. He's a very kind person. You can just talk to him normally."

----

"What did you say?"

Zhang Renfeng frowned and looked at the official standing in front of him who was giving a report.

Before anything had even happened, just a glance and a question were enough to make him tremble with fear, and he stammered, "I...I'll go and check again. Maybe the people below made a mistake."

Zhang Renfeng frowned, pondered for a moment, then pushed him away and strode towards the train station.

Behind him, a bustling crowd, organized by government personnel, finally emerged safely from the shantytowns and the main urban area. It could be said that almost everyone in the city who hadn't had a chance to escape was in this massive procession.

Too many eyes were focused on his back.

Chapter 758: Bad News

Pushing open the wooden door, one is greeted by a scene of utter chaos.

The once grand station hall looked as if it had been ransacked by bandits, with documents and forms scattered everywhere, and dim kerosene lamps.

On the exquisite marble floor, there were still marks where heavy objects had been dragged. The ticket window was empty, and the lockers where money was kept had been turned upside down. All valuables had been taken, leaving them not even a penny.

When Zhang Renfeng pushed open the door and entered, the group of municipal government officials stared at each other for a few seconds before pretending to be busy and avoiding eye contact. They were afraid that this extraordinary man might become displeased and throw them out the window again.

"Zhang, I have bad news..."

Jonah hurried over, his back slightly hunched, his posture quite humble.

Although nominally, as the "municipal secretary," he was currently exercising the powers of an acting mayor, politicians like him are extremely sensitive to the hierarchical relationships within the power structure. He knew very well that all his current power was thanks to this powerful newcomer. In reality, he was the one who truly held the reins.

"The stationmaster of this train station, in terms of factionalism, was Wilson's staunch 'one of his own.' So, when he fled, he probably encouraged the stationmaster to run away with him, and also took away the station's staff and some valuable supplies..."

"What's worse is that he was on what was probably the last train in Park City."

Zhang Renfeng's pupils dilated slightly.

This news was more devastating than all the previous news combined. He turned to look at his companions; Sam and Lydia, upon hearing the news, also looked troubled, unsure of what to do.

Time is too tight and manpower is too limited.

Given sufficient preparation time and Lydia's micro-management skills, he believed such a mistake would not occur.

This is the problem you inevitably face when playing away from home—the other side has cultivated deep roots in this place for generations, and they've always been able to nurture a group of their own people. They can blow up dams whenever they want, and start trains whenever they want, while Zhang Renfeng, with his overwhelming power, shatters the opponent's plans time and time again, but those are only tactical victories.

Strategically, he was always one step behind Wilson: while Wilson's attempt to breach the dam was exposed and he began preparing to flee, he was still trying to feed the refugees in the shantytowns. Even this current ragtag team was barely cobbled together under duress and inducement.

With a furrowed brow, he began to walk around the dilapidated train station hall, circling it repeatedly to relieve his stress.

"Anyway..." Sophia glanced worriedly out the window and asked, "The people outside don't know about the current situation, do they?"

They've only managed to hold on by clinging to that tiny sliver of hope. If I told them now that they couldn't even find a train carriage…

This is undoubtedly a huge blow to morale.

“They haven’t said anything yet,” Lydia shook her head. “But this kind of news can’t be kept secret. It won’t be long before everyone knows. We need to think of something immediately…”

……

"What are you still thinking about? Can't you see? It's all fucking over!" One of the municipal management staff finally broke down, kicking away a shard of glass, sitting down on the ground, and said dejectedly, "*Damn mayor... He didn't even say goodbye before sending the last train away. He really wanted us to drown here!"

"Yeah, we've worked for nothing all day. Without a train, nobody can move. You can't expect us to line up on the train tracks to get out!"

"I knew all along that this wouldn't work, but I still insisted on messing things up..."

"They've brought in such a large group of people; I don't know how they're going to handle this in the end!"