After rescuing Luoluo and the others, it was nearly evening, and Mu Ying headed to the camp with them.
Once they entered the Forest Park area, everyone visibly relaxed; zombies were hardly seen anymore.
"Mu Ying, really, thank you for today. We were doing so well killing zombies in town these past two days that we got a little overconfident. Today, we heard that a supermarket had an underground warehouse, so we went to gather supplies. We didn't expect that the supermarket warehouse was filled with zombies. Although we were startled, we didn't take it to heart and continued luring and killing them, but we accidentally entered that dead end," Luoluo said, still frightened.
Hearing this, Mu Ying silently reminded herself. She had been having a smooth time too, but no matter what, she couldn't let her guard down; otherwise, who knew if she would also be forced into a "dead end" and whether she would be lucky enough to be rescued.
"What's all this stuff crammed in your basket?" Cheng Wei asked curiously. Mu Ying had been gone for over a week. If it weren't for her name still showing on the leaderboards and her steady progression, they might have thought she was dead. The stuff she went to great lengths to get must be something special.
"I got these seeds from the seed market. Oh, when I was coming back, I saw officials organizing people heading this way to the camp. There were many of them; they should arrive in the next few days. Are there many people in the camp now?"
Mu Ying could actually check the current situation of the territory through the Player Manual. There were 105 residents, double the number since she had left, but it still seemed too few.
Since most of the town's zombies had been nearly wiped out, logically, more survivors should have made it to the camp by now. Why were there only so few?
"Not many have entered the camp, but there are quite a few people around it, and it's a mess," Luoluo said, becoming a bit angry.
She wasn't the only one who was angry.
"You don't know. We kindly saved some people, but ended up with a bunch who couldn't stand on their own two feet. They dare not kill zombies yet always expect to gain without working, morally blackmailing us. Are we supposed to take care of them for life?"
"If it weren't for the lack of zombies in Forest Park, we'd have led some right to the camp entrance just to scare them!"
...
Mu Ying listened to their complaints for quite a while before she understood. Many people couldn't afford the entrance fee, so they lived right outside the camp gate. Some of them were especially excessive, blocking the camp gate to beg, and if they weren't given money, they would curse at them for lacking compassion, morally blackmailing them.
The small camp outside went unmanaged, full of messy issues. The few college students from the mountain climbing club, still having a conscience, naturally couldn't stand it.
Mu Ying too felt a headache coming on, but upon reaching the camp gate and seeing the large barren area, where not a single blade of grass grew, replaced by makeshift shelters made of tree branches, she became furious.
She had once personally experienced the vigorous vitality of these trees and had taken great care of them. Recovery Spring had even watered some of them. To think they had cut down the large trees was one thing, but they didn't spare the young saplings she had replanted either!
Mu Ying regretted situating the camp in the forest. Human survival always required wood, and her camp had drawn people here, inflicting who knows how much damage to the forest!
Now that moving the camp was impossible, she could only resort to other measures to restrain these people.
As soon as Mu Ying and the others approached the camp, a group of people squatting near the camp all rushed to the camp gate, sighing and making faces of distress, looking at them with longing.
"..."
"Damn! Here they come again!"
Luoluo and the others were extremely angry, "These people are like clingy gum; we can't shake them off. Beating them does no good; we can't just kill them, can we?"
"We don't need to kill them, just scare them enough," said Mu Ying, looking at these men, all of whom were grown. Instead of doing something productive, they resorted to begging and effectively extorting, even using her camp gate, affecting her business. It was essential to scare them off.
"What?" Luoluo hadn't realized what Mu Ying had said when she saw her wave a hand and familiar vines burst from the ground, swiftly tying up several people's limbs.
Then, a vine whip covered in spikes appeared in her hand and without hesitation, she swung it forcefully.
The team from the mountain climbing club swallowed hard. The whip looked terrifying; how painful must it be to be hit by it? But hitting people like this felt satisfying!
Aside from being initially scared, they quickly returned to the thrill they felt watching Mu Ying kill zombies, as their inner demons cheered.
"Good hit!"
"See if you dare to block the camp entrance now!"
That was verbally satisfying.
"I really want to give them a few whacks too, but I don't have a whip."
"I know there's a thorn vine nearby, not as good as this whip, but it should work well enough. I'll go pick some."
"Count me in!"
"Bring me two as well."
They wanted to get hands-on.
"Ahqing, take the salt from the bag, let's go to the lake and splash it on them."
This was outdoing the teacher.
"Help, murder!"
"You are breaking the law!"
"It hurts, stop hitting us!"
"You witch, you're so cruel, why are you so heartless?"
...
"I was wrong, I won't dare again!"
"Please, let us go!"
"Wuu, Mommy~"
No matter whether they cursed or pleaded, Mu Ying didn't utter a word, and the whip in her hand didn't slow down a bit.
Until they no longer had the energy to shout, she stopped, dragged them aside with the vines, "Be smarter in the future!"
Leading the ox, she walked proudly into the camp, tied Old Yellow Bull under her tree house, and clenched her teeth as she moved two bamboo baskets inside.
"Ouch, my arms are so sore," she grimaced as she massaged her arms, "Gungun, was your master just now incredibly imposing and awe-inspiring?"
Gungun looked at Mu Ying doubtfully, scratching his head. Imposing and awe-inspiring? Was she talking about him?
Before getting a response, Mu Ying was distracted by the mountain of copper coins on the little table, "So much money!"
She exclaimed as she dove over, grabbing handfuls she couldn't even count, playing with them for a while. They felt heavy, bringing immense joy.
After converting them all into silver coins as well, she had 52 silver coins and 50 copper coins. Counting her own, she now had a fortune of 56 silver coins and 27 copper coins.
Mu Ying fondled the silver coins, as the satisfaction from the metal coins far surpassed that from paper money. For someone who had been poor for two lifetimes, money always brought her an extraordinary sense of fulfillment.
But while she loved to save money, she wasn't stingy about spending it.
Druid was a frugal profession, and this money would eventually be invested in territory development. However, she needed to think carefully about how to use it.
Seeing that it was getting dark and Oak Grocery was about to close, Mu Ying set aside these thoughts for now, carried the two bags of seeds for Grandpa Shom, and holding Yuan Gungun, hurriedly ran to the grocery store.