Chapter 277 - 149: Disposition

Chapter 277: Chapter 149: Disposition

The young man looked up at Xu Mo. His lips moved, as if he were about to make up an excuse, but his resolve crumbled under Xu Mo’s calm, soul-piercing gaze. He gave up and said succinctly, "I want the supplies in your car, too."

"You want them, too?" Xu Mo keenly caught the word "too," and his brow twitched. His heart sank a little.

’He had a feeling that a perfect score of 100 had just dropped to 99.’

"Where’s your camp?" Xu Mo asked, changing the subject. His tone was unreadable.

The young man’s eyes flickered, and he seemed hesitant to answer. But under the threat of the gun barrel, he raised a hand and pointed toward the left rear of the SUV, the general direction from which he had first appeared. "Over there."

"Over there?" Xu Mo followed the direction the young man’s finger was pointing, his gaze sweeping over the barren fields and scattered ruins into the distance.

The very instant Xu Mo’s gaze shifted, his attention seemingly diverted—

Suddenly, everything changed!

A vicious glint flashed in the young man’s eyes. His left hand, which he’d kept raised, suddenly shot to the back of his neck. His fingers hooked onto something, and with lightning speed, he viciously flung it at Xu Mo on the car roof!

A streak of black light, fainter and more silent than before, shot straight for Xu Mo’s throat, its speed far surpassing the glass marble from earlier.

However, though Xu Mo appeared distracted, his senses were actually on high alert. He’d already detected it the instant the man’s shoulder muscles twitched!

Standing on the roof, he didn’t even make a major move. He simply flicked the wrist of his right hand, which held the Mountain-Cutting Saber. The blade rose before him as if it had a life of its own!

"DING!"

A crisp, metallic clang rang out as the streak of black light slammed into the blade, throwing off a small burst of sparks. It was instantly deflected, landing on the ground with a faint TINK.

Out of the corner of his eye, Xu Mo saw what it was: an incredibly sharp, polished Triangular Steel Dart.

Even after deflecting the dart, Xu Mo’s expression didn’t change. He just continued his questioning. "How far? How many people?"

With his second ambush a failure, the last trace of color drained from the young man’s face, leaving it an ashen-gray mask of despair. He weakly raised his hands again and answered in a strained, dry voice, "It’s about a twenty-minute run, full speed. There are seven of us in the camp, including me."

"Oh." Xu Mo nodded in understanding and asked no more questions. Holding his AK-47, he leaped nimbly down from the roof of the car.

He walked up to the young man and sized him up. The intense scrutiny made the young man’s hair stand on end, and his limbs grew cold.

After sizing up the young man, Xu Mo turned, walked to the trunk of the SUV, and pulled out a folding military entrenching tool, which he tossed on the ground by the young man’s feet.

"Take it." Xu Mo motioned with his gun muzzle toward a relatively flat patch of soft earth about twenty meters in front of the SUV’s right side. "Go over there and dig a pit for me."

"Dig... dig a pit?" The young man was stunned, completely baffled as to what Xu Mo wanted.

"Yes, a pit." Xu Mo’s tone was flat, as if he were discussing the most mundane of tasks. "As for the dimensions... make it one-point-seven-five meters long, eighty centimeters wide, and half a meter deep."

The young man glanced from the entrenching tool at his feet to the black hole of the gun’s muzzle in Xu Mo’s hand, and then to the chilling saber. Finally, he bent over and picked up the tool.

’He knew he was in no position to refuse.’

The scorching sun hung high in the sky. There was no wind in the wilderness, only the blistering sunlight beating down relentlessly upon the earth.

Sweat pouring off him like rain, the young man dug into the earth, one shovelful at a time. Xu Mo stood a few meters away, his gun lowered but his gaze never leaving the man.

While digging, the young man, either unwilling to give up hope or simply trying to ease his own fear, began to make small talk, attempting to fish for information from Xu Mo.

"Sir, where did you come from? Where are you headed?"

"Just passing through."

"Are there any bigger, safer survivor settlements around here? We’ve been hiding in the mountains, so we’re out of the loop on news."

"Northwest. Jiang City."

"Jiang City? How big is it? How many people? Is it safe?"

"It’s alright."

The young man asked his questions cautiously, and Xu Mo’s replies were concise, mixing truth with falsehoods. When the young man ventured to ask what he was doing driving alone through such a dangerous area, Xu Mo glanced at him and answered calmly, "I have a mission from Jiang City. I’m delivering a message to the Ming Pearl Port Shelter, which has gone dark."

Hearing this, the young man’s digging visibly faltered. A look of disbelief and suspicion crossed his face. ’Alone? Crossing thousands of kilometers of dangerous territory just to deliver a message to a shelter that’s gone dark? It sounds like something out of a fantasy tale... or more like a suicide mission.’

But with his life in Xu Mo’s hands, he didn’t dare voice his doubts. He just let out a dry laugh and went back to digging, keeping his head down.

Halfway through his work, sweating profusely, the young man claimed to be terribly thirsty and begged Xu Mo for some water. Xu Mo didn’t give him a hard time, simply grabbing an unopened bottle of water from the car and tossing it to him.

The young man caught the bottle and chugged more than half of it in one go. If not for the gun in Xu Mo’s hand that was always casually aimed in his direction, the scene might have looked like a foreman supervising a worker. The atmosphere might even have seemed... harmonious?

About ten minutes later, a rectangular pit matching Xu Mo’s specifications had begun to take shape thanks to the young man’s strenuous efforts.

The young man straightened up, wiping a mixture of sweat and dirt from his face with a filthy sleeve. He looked at Xu Mo and forced a sycophantic smile. "Xu, the pit’s finished. Seeing as it’s so hot out and I’ve put my back into it, could I maybe get another bottle of water? My throat’s practically on fire."