In the Pokémon world’s food chain, Bounsweet basically sat at the same table as Caterpie.
Bounsweet wasn’t very strong either, though it should still be somewhat stronger than Pokémon like Caterpie.
Lu Li was slightly tempted. Bounsweet was a Grass-type Pokémon, which meant the little guy would be very easy to raise. If modern fertilizer worked on it, cultivating it might even be easier.
Even so, Lu Li still placed it as a secondary target. Bounsweet evolved too late, and he didn’t have that much time to wait.
Bounsweet needed to reach Level 18 before it could evolve into Steenee, whereas Weedle could evolve into Beedrill at Level 10. When it came to rapidly forming combat strength, Beedrill was definitely the first choice.
Of course, if one were talking about powerful Pokémon that could truly become battle-ready quickly, Duraludon would be the best option. But Duraludon wasn’t something he could afford to mess with right now, and he also didn’t have the Metal Alloy needed to raise one.
An Kang added, “And the locations of those demon beasts aren’t fixed. That’s the most troublesome part.”
Jun Shutong nodded as well, then sighed with worry. “With those four demon beasts around, every trip to the seventh floor is basically gambling with our lives. On top of that, the seventh floor is too close to the camp. Sometimes I even worry that one of those demon beasts might break into the camp.”
Lu Li frowned and began to think.
The demon beasts on the seventh floor were all far too dangerous. If it were up to him, he would rather cross the road and search other residential complexes for supplies.
The biggest problem with crossing the road was nothing more than the Flying-type Pokémon in the sky. But as long as they chose the right timing and crossed quickly enough, it wasn’t something they couldn’t deal with.
After all, Pokémon had already descended into this world for half a month. Most Flying-type Pokémon had adapted to the environment by now. Aside from a few weaker ones, most Pokémon with any real strength no longer regarded humans as prey.
To those powerful Pokémon, the amount of meat on a human body simply wasn’t enough to catch their attention.
When Pokémon had first descended into this world, most of them had been unfamiliar with their surroundings. When they got hungry enough, they really would eat just about anything.
But now that the situation had stabilized, carnivorous Pokémon would naturally hunt other Pokémon that tasted better.
“Then let’s seal off the seventh floor again. We can make the other residential complexes our targets instead,” Lu Li said.
Hearing this, everyone hesitated somewhat. The seventh floor was too close, and in most people’s eyes, being close meant being safe.
“Everyone should have noticed something as well. More and more people have been joining the camp lately, which means the danger of crossing the road is constantly decreasing.”
“Those demon beasts on the seventh floor are definitely more dangerous than crossing the road.”
An Kang stood up at this point and agreed, “Second Leader is right. Our camp’s population is already close to a hundred now. Especially recently, people have basically been arriving at the camp with their families every day.”
“It really has become safer outside. If we were choosing again, I’d also prefer going outside to gather supplies rather than going to the seventh floor to throw our lives away.”
An Kang was not a member of the Scavenging Team. He was the camp’s financial manager. The reason he stood up to support Lu Li was partly to do Lu Li a favor.
The other reason was that the camp’s supplies were becoming increasingly scarce, while the rate at which able-bodied young men were being lost far exceeded the rate at which they were being replenished. If this dragged on, sooner or later the camp would run out of young people capable of doing the hard work.
In just the past few days, more than ten people had already been lost on the seventh floor alone. That level of attrition was simply too great for a camp that was already struggling.
Rather than continuing to stubbornly fight over the seventh floor, it would be better to try their luck in other residential complexes. Lu Li had already proposed this before, and more than half the people in the camp had originally lived in the surrounding residential complexes, so they were sufficiently familiar with those places.
“I also support the Second Leader’s proposal. The seventh floor is too dangerous. We can’t keep filling it with human lives.” Old Xu also stood up in agreement.
“Then let’s vote by a show of hands.” After Jun Shutong finished speaking, she raised her right hand.
She had already used up all her bullets. When they had gone to the seventh floor to collect supplies that morning, she had accidentally encountered the strange armored beast and had emptied her magazine almost immediately.
But when the bullets struck that strange bird, they didn’t even produce a spark. Some of the bullets even ricocheted after hitting it.
Now there were no bullets left in her pistol, so the gun was basically useless.
That also meant that if they encountered a demon beast again in the future, she would no longer be able to protect everyone.
Thinking of this, Jun Shutong looked up at Lu Li.
She thought of that ugly fish demon beast.
The one who now held the “truth” was Lu Li. [TN: In Chinese meme culture, “truth” is a humorous pseudonym for a gun or heavy weaponry.]
After discussing it among themselves for a while, the others in the meeting room ultimately stopped objecting as well.
The seventh floor was close, but its dangers were far deadlier.
After the show-of-hands vote ended, Jun Shutong said, “Then we’ll make Anke Residential Complex our primary target.”
Anke Residential Complex was a wealthy residential complex. Especially in the villa area, the rich residents basically all had the habit of storing food and alcohol, so they would definitely be able to gather more supplies there.
Of course, that was assuming those supplies had not already been looted by someone else.
However, Jun Shutong actually had another reason for choosing Anke Residential Complex: she wanted to clean out the scum in the Anke Residential Complex camp.
But now that the gun in her hand was useless, Jun Shutong once again thought of Lu Li.
The demon beast in Lu Li’s hands was absolutely a crushing, dimensionality-reduction kind of existence when used against humans. With his help, the dangerous elements in the Anke Residential Complex camp would not be a problem at all.
Still, she needed to discuss this matter with Lu Li, though Jun Shutong did not bring it up during the meeting.
Everyone knew that Anke Residential Complex was a wealthy residential complex and that the supplies inside would definitely be more plentiful, so no one objected.
Finally, Lu Li stood up.
While chatting with Fatty Lei, Fatty Lei had told him about something else.
“Sister Jun, from now on, you don’t need to go out with the search teams anymore,” Lu Li said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Jun Shutong without a gun was like a tiger without teeth.
They had let her go out with them before because she had a gun. If they encountered other humans, she could bare her fangs and threaten them. If they encountered Pokémon, she could at least buy everyone some time.
But things were different now.
“I agree too.” Fatty Lei was the first to raise his hand in support.
He understood very clearly how capable he was and what position he ought to stand in. If something happened to Jun Shutong and Lu Li ended up taking over, that would still be fine. But if someone else seized power, there was no way he would be able to keep his current position.
So he was absolutely one of Jun Shutong’s die-hard loyalists.
An Kang also raised his hand. “I agree too. Going out to search for supplies is too dangerous. As the pillar holding the camp steady, the leader absolutely cannot be allowed to have anything happen to her. There are already around a hundred people in the camp now.”
“If something were to happen to the leader and it caused a mutiny, then the entire camp would fall into an extremely dangerous situation.”
Most of the people in the meeting room agreed that Jun Shutong should no longer go out and put herself at risk. Only a small number of people who knew that Jun Shutong’s pistol had run out of bullets were harboring different calculations in their hearts.
Those people were practically hoping something would happen to Jun Shutong, so they could seize the opportunity to take power.
Seeing this, Jun Shutong could only nod helplessly. She also knew that without a gun in her hands, her value as a mascot inside the camp was far greater than her value going out to search for supplies.
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