Chapter 37 Rescuing the Slaves
"What do we care about the lives of these people?"
Karen sneered, without even touching the crossbow in his hand.
"Who are you? Why are you killing us? We have no grievances..."
"Ah!!!"
Before the two men could finish speaking, two crossbow bolts shot swiftly from the windows beside them, hitting their wrists directly.
They had been vigilant about Karen and the others at the gate, but they hadn't noticed Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu by the windows.
The two men cried out in pain, dropping their swords to the ground. They wailed, clutching their wrists, with the crossbow bolts still embedded in them.
Karen, Yang Lazi, and the others immediately swarmed forward, knocking the two men to the ground and raining down punches and kicks.
The two men continued to wail, while the slaves around them gradually revealed a sense of vengeful pleasure in their eyes, mixed with fear.
Before, they were the ones wailing.
Zhuo Jiu also came in at this time, throwing the two naked women into the pile of slaves. Immediately, someone took out tattered clothes and draped them over them. Then, they huddled together, looking nervously at these… demons who had suddenly appeared.
For now, let's describe them as demons.
They didn't know whether these people had come to save them or to seize territory.
Perhaps, they had simply changed masters. These people would continue to treat them as slaves, torturing and abusing them.
Seeing that the beating was almost over, Karen picked up one man in each hand and threw them against the wall.
"Who are you people, and how long have you occupied this place?"
Karen asked, looking at the man on the left.
The man was so dazed from the beating that he could only grunt and was unable to speak. Karen raised his foot and kicked him in the face, then looked at the other man.
"Don't hit me, don't hit me, I'll talk.
We've been here for four months. We used to be good people, but then the city was breached by sinners, and we fled."
"Who are those people?"
"They're all refugees we've rescued in the past few months. We protect them and give them food to eat. We're good people, don't kill us."
"Ha."
"Tch."
"Pah."
As soon as he said this, a chorus of sneers arose from the crowd.
These people, who had captured refugees and treated them as slaves, trampling on their lives at will, actually had the nerve to say they were good people. They were truly shameless.
Karen was amused by the man's shamelessness. He reached out to slap the man, but seeing the blood and dirt on his face, he retracted his hand and instead kicked the man in the stomach.
"You're so kind as to take care of them? Aren't you just doing it for your own amusement?
You don't treat people like people for your own pleasure, trampling on them at will. People like you deserve to die a hundred times."
"They were originally sinners, slaves. What's wrong with us enslaving them?"
"Now there's no distinction between good people and sinners. Everyone is an ordinary person.
Why don't they resist or run away?"
"They've been enslaved by good people all their lives. Their servility is deeply ingrained. After we captured them, we brutally killed a few troublemakers in front of them, and they didn't dare to resist.
Sir, I'll give you all these slaves. Please spare me."
"Where does your food come from?"
"We scavenge it from the city ruins."
"Oh? You have so few people, and you still send people out to find food? Aren't you afraid these people will run away?"
"No, we always send the slaves to find food. We basically don't go out."
"Then the slaves who go out to find food don't run away? They live a life worse than death here. There's no reason for them not to run away."
"We always send those who have relatives to find food. For example, we leave the younger sister behind and let the older sister go out to find food, or we leave the wife and children behind and let the husband and father go out to find food. If they don't come back, we'll kill their relatives.
If they don't bring back food, we'll also kill them and eat them. That's the price. They don't dare to run away."
"Damn it!"
Karen gnashed his teeth in hatred and kicked the guy again.
"These people don't deserve to be called human beings anymore. Get out of the way, let me kill them!"
Yang Lazi had already raised the iron rod in his hand.
"Don't kill me, don't kill me..."
"Wait a moment, answer my last question honestly, and I won't kill you."
"Sir, you say, you say."
"Are there any other settlements nearby? Settlements of human survivors."
"No."
"No? You're lying to me, then how did we get here?"
"Sir, I really don't know. We never go out. We only let the slaves go out to find food. You might as well ask the slaves, they go out more often.
If I knew there were other people nearby, how would we dare to be so unprepared?"
"Alright, I understand.
Your happiness is built on the suffering of others. If you want to live happily, someone has to die in pain.
But nothing is absolute. Now it's your turn to die in pain."
Karen stood up and glanced at Yang Lazi.
"This world needs more tasteful heroes, it needs more noble leaders.
Do it."
Hearing this, Yang Lazi's eyes flashed with a fierce light. He raised the iron rod in his hand and mercilessly smashed the heads of the two men.
At this moment, her rod had no compassion, no principle of injuring the enemy without taking their life.
The greatest mercy for such scum is to send them to hell.
Wan Lei shook his head. According to his idea, he wanted to let those slaves kill the two men with their own hands, so that they could vent their hatred.
But Yang Lazi had too much of a fiery temper and didn't give him a chance to speak.
Karen looked at the slaves.
"Don't worry, we're here to save you. We have a shelter with food and medicine that can allow you to survive.
There, you are no longer slaves. You can become warriors, and even if you are not suitable for combat, you can do other things. Everyone is equal in our place.
Alright, pack up, and come with us."
The first step in Karen's grand plan was to recruit people and expand his power.
These slaves... no, now they are people, people with human rights.
But now, they still regard themselves as slaves, accustomed to obeying the arrangements of the strong, accustomed to having no opinions, and doing whatever others say.
They quickly packed up some of the dried food and canned goods they had collected before, as well as the meager amount of water they had, and followed Karen's team out of the castle.
This castle... a hellish nightmare.
On the way back, Karen used his brainwashing skills, constantly telling them about the cruelty of the apocalypse, just like he had brainwashed those warriors before.
A slave who looked a bit more clever ran to Karen's side and told him that they had seen two human settlements when they were often out searching for supplies, but they hadn't dared to tell those "masters".