Apocalypse - Infinite Resource System
Chapter 116: Extort
Leland naturally remembers this matter. However, he got a bit nervous and forgot it all of a sudden. Even someone as fearless and ruthless as Waldo, who can kill a bunch of people without blinking an eye, is also scared! Leland awkwardly touched his bald head and chuckled, "Ah, there might be something like that! You’ve got a remarkable memory, boss. I’m impressed!"
Waldo glanced at him with a smile that seemed both mocking and ambiguous, saying, "Aren’t you curious why I came to you?"
Leland grinned, "I know, I know! The boss must have come to my place as a guest, right?"
Basil was standing nearby at this moment. Upon hearing Leland’s foolish words, he couldn’t help but close his eyes, thinking, "Oh my boss, why do you lose your wits at crucial moments?"
Waldo, after listening, pursed his lips and remained silent for two seconds before slowly saying, "Leland is indeed hospitable. Let me be direct. I came here today to ask if you were involved in the things Drug lord did to me in the past?"
Leland hurriedly shook his head vigorously, resembling a tambourine. "No, absolutely not! How could I do something like that? I’ve never liked those Drug lord people!"
"It seems that the Saturn team has distanced themselves from Drug lord," Waldo said, having gathered intelligence earlier that the two teams had fallen out due to uneven allocation of the police station inheritance.
"Now, I just want to verify," Waldo added.
"Oh," Leland responded, looking perplexed. "The second matter?" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
Then he blinked and wiped his forehead, thinking, "It’s not about the concrete incident, is it? When I bought concrete from you to build the underground fortress, Liu Lao Da seemed very unhappy."
Waldo leisurely said, "Leland, you have quite a good memory. Back then, when I wanted to buy concrete from you, you seemed to reject me."
Leland’s heart sank. "Oh, my goodness, why do you hold grudges so tightly?"
He forced an even uglier smile and desperately explained, "It’s not like that, boss! You see, at that time, we had a shortage of materials, so the price was a bit high. Please don’t take it personally!"
Waldo tilted his head, gazing at the fidgety and anxious Leland, and smirked inwardly. Nonetheless, he replied coldly, "Is that supposed to be funny? I don’t find it amusing at all! When you rejected me back then, I was so furious I couldn’t even eat."
At this moment, Leland finally realized that Waldo was clearly demanding adequate compensation from them before letting them off the hook. Otherwise, the armored vehicle would directly destroy their camp, following the footsteps of the police station and Drug lord.
Helplessly, Leland had to ask, "Boss, what do you suggest we do? How about I give you a few thousand kilograms of concrete?"
Waldo remained silent for a moment. Leland couldn’t figure out his intentions and, feeling desperate, decided to sweeten the deal by offering some extra bargaining chips.
"Boss, I’ll add fifty pieces of S-alloy to the deal. How about that?"
Only then did Waldo speak, "Leland, you really don’t understand. My house is quite large, and recently, I’ve been having trouble loosening the soil in the yard. I heard that the Saturn team has a bulldozer, so I thought of borrowing it from you."
Saturn originally had two bulldozers, but one of them was damaged halfway. How could Leland not know that water once poured cannot be retrieved? It’s not a recirculating water system. Borrowing is just a polite way of saying he wants to take it forcibly.
But the bulldozer is Saturn’s lifeline! If we give it to Waldo, can we still call ourselves Saturn?
Leland hesitated.
Waldo immediately frowned displeasedly. "You don’t want to lend it? Then I’ll have to take it by force!"
Leland cursed inwardly, "What you’re doing is no different from being a bandit!"
But he didn’t dare say it out loud.
After much hesitation, he turned to Basil beside him and said, "Basil, bring out the bulldozer."
Basil nodded and walked straight into the camp, bringing the bulldozer out. He also knew that this was a relatively peaceful way to handle the situation.
Waldo had the full capability to wipe out the Saturn team and take away their resources.
At this moment, Waldo added, "By the way, don’t forget the S-alloy and concrete. Bundle it all together for me."
"B-but, didn’t I lend you the bulldozer?" Leland’s heart was bleeding. The bulldozer was a top-tier resource. Adding several thousand kilograms of concrete and fifty pieces of S-alloy was like cutting off their lifeline.
Waldo smiled and looked at him, saying, "Leland, compensation is compensation, and a loan is a loan. I hope you won’t confuse the two."
Just then, Basil brought the bulldozer over and presented the concrete and S-alloy to Waldo.
Waldo accepted the supplies obtained by coercion and left contentedly.
"Liu Lao Da, you’re an honest person, and I like that. I’ll be visiting often in the future!"
Leland watched Waldo drive away in the armored vehicle and slumped on the doorstep with a hopeless look.
"We’re done for. Just like what I said, Saturn has collapsed," Leland thought.
As Leland said, although Saturn didn’t suffer the same fate as the police station and Drug lord, their situation was still far from ideal.
A large team needed sufficient resources and powerful weapons to occupy more bases and obtain higher-level supplies. Now, Saturn had lost their trump card, the top-tier bulldozer.
If other teams found out about this, they would surely seize the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Waldo’s move was like cutting off their lifeline, even more painful than killing them. The news of losing the bulldozer would probably spread throughout the entire city soon.
Leland even hoped that the meteor shower would arrive earlier. It might spare them from a bloody confrontation.
As for Waldo, he couldn’t care less about Saturn’s future.
The fact that he didn’t resort to violence was already quite accommodating.
In a world without order, something as simple as a glance could lead to someone pulling out a gun.
Waldo often saw on the chat channels how some survivors would escalate minor disputes, reveal their locations, and end up in a Wild West-style showdown.
However, many were cowards as well.
In essence, it wasn’t much different from the keyboard warriors in the pre-apocalyptic world. But if you dared to challenge me in a face-to-face fight, that would be a different story.
So, Waldo felt no guilt about his actions. Even though he caused Saturn to suffer heavy losses and possibly drop from the ranks of surviving teams, allowing others to take their place, he believed that it was just Saturn’s bad luck.