Chapter 191 - Road to Heaven
TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
ED: Nintendonuts
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“Okay, let's do what you’ve planned. Hey Brother Zhang, pay attention to your surroundings. I will stay here and protect the yacht with my life.” Wang DeCheng promised Liu Gan.
“Is there any of you locals who are more familiar with the area? I need a guide so we can search around for fuel,” Liu Gan asked the local survivors.
“While I was in the urban district, there were quite a few times I’ve had to come by here to do deliveries, so I am quite familiar.” HuJun had volunteered himself after he had looked around and saw that no one else was saying anything. HuJun wanted to proactively offer assistance so he could gain favour with Liu Gan and be accepted as one of the core members. This was one way for him to be able to enter level 5.
“Okay, then you can lead the way. Since the yacht is empty on fuel, lead us to the nearest gas station,” Liu Gan instructed. HuJun was now part of his investigation squad.
Zhang ShengLi gathered a few empty oil canisters taken from the yacht and he gave HuJun two to carry. These canisters would be filled with the fuel at the gas station. The four of them in the investigation squad proceeded down nearby streets and buildings.
[TL: Liu Gan, Zhang ShengLi, HuJun, Yin He, these four. ]
HuJun had been in this area for two months of deliveries, so he was quite familiar. HuJun led the investigation squad on the shortest path to the gas station nearby. This district was relatively closer to the suburban areas so the tornado hadn't reached this area and the damage to the buildings was minimal.
As the four people of the investigative squad got close to the gas station another group of people poured out from houses on both side of the streets to stop the investigation squad.
“This whole area is our territory! If you want to pass through here alive, then you have to pay a tribute. Only when we are satisfied with the tribute, then you may continue forward,” said the leader of the opposing group. It seemed like this enemy group wanted to collect toll money from any passerby's.
“This road leads to heaven! Stand aside if you don’t want to be on it! What will you do if I don’t agree?” Zhang ShengLi walked up to confront the leader of the group.
“Then go on a different street to pass! These few streets have been cleared out by us. It wouldn’t be fair for us to do the work for you,” the leader of the group said in a frustrated tone. The leader of the gang stood there blocking the road but didn't seem to have any intentions of fighting.
“Do you really think that with only a few of you, you could block our Elder Liu? If you don’t move, then don’t blame me if I didn’t warn you about our Elder Liu!” Zhang ShengLi walked up with his ax in hand.
Even though Zhang ShengLi was a muscular man, his original personality in the real world was very calm and collected. It was very rare that he would display such arrogance. Ever since entering [The Trembling World], he’d had experienced the tremendous pain of losing his only sister, Zhang Shengnan, and his best friend, HuRong, all in a flash. Now that he was paired up with Liu Gan, they’ve been through numerous life and death situations. Zhang ShengLi didn’t want to suppress his inner feelings anymore, so from deep within, a new personality was coming forth.
Zhang ShengLi had the ability to backup his words too since he was now level 5, it was a major boost to his confidence.
“Are you [Flying Snow]?” Liu Gan walked up to stop Zhang ShengLi. Liu Gan had to confirm the gang leader’s name.
[TL: “Flying Snow” from the movie Hero starring Jet Li. They just borrowed the name, no correlation.]
“You are… [Burning Fire]?” the gang leader recognized the voice of Liu Gan and his eyes widen.
“You are [Flying Snow]! What a small world!” Liu Gan walked up to greet the gang leader with a playful punch to the chest.
When Liu Gan was in college, he played an online game called [Dominion]. He had played this game for a good few years until the year when he'd had his limbs amputated, that was when he’d finally stopped. Within [Dominion], Liu Gan joined a guild called [Lonely Wild Crane], the guild leader was a Manchurian and his username had been [One Sword Flying Snow], and Liu Gan’s player username had been [Burning Fire].
[TL: Can’t find the game online for an English name “诡域” so I chose Dominion.]
The reason for the username [Burning Fire] was that the day before server started, there was a fire in the university cafeteria. So when Liu Gan had been thinking of a username, he’d casually thought of the event that had occurred earlier and decided to use that username for [Dominion].
Even though playing [Dominion] required the use of mouse and keyboard, the players couldn’t see the facial expressions of each other. To make their game experience smoother, they used headphones with microphones to cooperate with each other on strategies and gameplay so they were rather familiar with the voices of each other.
So the moment the gang leader called for them to stop moving, Liu Gan had a suspicion that he knew the gang leader. It was a very familiar voice, it also had the Manchurian accent similar to that of [Flying Snow]. So Liu Gan had to ask before he took action.
The gang leader didn't expect to hear a familiar voice even though they hadn't been in contact for over a year, but he was able to recognize the voice as belonging to [Burning Fire]. Now there wasn't much more that needed to be said, as the two of them were close guild mates!
“[Burning Fire]? This is [Burning Fire]?” Several other players started crowding over and greeted Liu Gan. Once the verbal greetings started, it was all too familiar, these were the same players from the [Lonely Wild Crane] guild.
“[Burning Fire], where have you been for over a year? You left without saying anything! We’ve missed you!” [Flying Snow] excitedly said while holding onto Liu Gan’s hands.
[Flying Snow] was the leader of [Lonely Wild Crane], his real name was Xue Jian and the username was derived by himself.
“Ah… after college, due to getting busy at work, it was a headache so I didn't have any time to play. So…” Liu Gan lied. As to his own personal misery of amputating his limbs, no one had to know.
“Man, who would've thought we would meet a familiar person! Really sorry about what I said earlier.” Zhang ShengLi forced a smile as he approached them. Originally, Zhang ShengLi wanted to be arrogant and flaunt his abilities to the enemy, except now he’d found the wrong target.
After their brief talk, Xue Jian led the investigation squad over to his base of operation. It was in a building that had four floors with a private back room. All nearby zombies have been killed off by them so Liu Gan and his investigation squad could walk around without worrying about alerting nearby zombies.
After reaching the backroom, Xue Jian quickly ordered his lackeys to get food and drinks for the guests. Liu Gan and his squad responded to the kindness with gifts of fried preserved fish and such.
“This is your base? How many followers do you have?” Liu Gan asked Xue Jian.
“This is only a temporary outpost, our campground is two blocks away. There is a total of thirty people. However, I am not that campground’s leader. Our leader is called [Mr. Sheng], he is a powerful level 5 player. He awakened an ability and his combat ability surpasses my own.” Xue Jian said in an embarrassed manner.
“Oh? What does he do for you guys?” Liu Gan asked Xue Jian.
“My fellow comrades are quite talented, we’ve already entered level 4. We are the central power of the group, so he relies on our squad here,” Xue Jian replied to Liu Gan.