Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 220: Internet & Trolls

[Let him worry for a bit. If he comes to you for help, then show him the footage. I think he should get punished, but he's the only real farmer we've got. We can't have him feeling out, so let's just make this be a lesson for him.]

Evo sent the reply to the chatbox on his smartwatch's hologram screen. He received a report from Tatang Robin that Felipe was frantically looking around for the watering-can.

Last night, Evo randomly tried to connect to the internet, and to his surprise, it worked! He managed to connect to the world wide web. Though he doesn't know whether each country's power grid could last for months or years, he knew that this was the only time he could surf the web. 

The first thing he did was to open social platforms only to find them not working. Then he tried online forums and successfully found people at 4chan.

The first time the internet was accessed by people was from the first day after the 'Town Siege.'

No country was prepared for what's coming but highly equipped cities were the ones who survived. Most of the world's capital city was plunged into chaos since capital cities tend to have the most number of people.

With a high-density area forced to dive into the unknown, the mortality rate was horrifying.

He made some friends and learned a few more global news. The US, China, and Russia lost more than half of the population at the initial phase. Besides old people dying from a heart attack and other injuries, the highest kill rate was from traffic accidents. It even became a joke that people who don't leave their homes were the most unlucky since they can't experience the thrill of getting chased around.

A lot of other news was spread around. No matter what kind of news circulated, there was no reassurance that they were all true.

That night, Evo continued to lurk around 4chan while having a bowl of peanuts by his side. Ahh, how cozy... Everything would become so nice if he had some warm coffee and chill background music playing on the speaker.

You thought everything would go well, right? It doesn't.

Evo received a chat from Tatang Robin and requested him to come over. When he arrived at the security room, he was shown the video of a drunk Felipe bringing a bargirl inside the vegetable farm. Then he acted as a show-off by feeding a watering-can with an essence shard. He then demonstrated and explained everything that the watering-can can do.

In the end, the woman became greedy and due to his drunkenness, got the watering-can stolen from him. At that time, Evo and Tatang Robin's face were angered.

Evo wore his AirPods and contacted Nik's group to encircle the farm area. The woman excitedly stuck to Felipe as they made their way out. By the time she noticed that there were people waiting at the fence, she had no chance to run away nor even explain as she got apprehended.

The woman complained that she didn't do anything wrong, but Evo's orders resounded once more. When Nik learned that she stole the watering-can, he even threatened her to cooperate, or else he would have to do something bad, which is something he prefers not to do.

In the chaotic situation, Felipe fell asleep by leaning on the fence. He was brought to his room and slept like a baby.

After resolving the situation and retrieving the watering-can, Nik's group handed the woman to the police. It was a compelling sight to be escorted by the Black Haven's elites, but it wasn't good for the woman's image when she was brought to the police. There's a high chance that her social standing would be tarnished if she had some.

Evo tried to get some peanuts from the bowl but failed to get any. He looked to the side and found that the bowl was empty with only salts and skins remaining. He shrugged then accidentally looked at the computer's clock. 

5:45 AM

Huh... that's probably why I'm sleepy. I have work to do though... Let's take one look at /b so I can wake myself up.

After navigating to 4chan's available boards, he found the miscellaneous section and clicked Random.

The board was still filled with people of culture but one post made him shudder.

Anon22121: Zombie girls are awesome girlfriends! [tiedup.jpg] [sexy.jpg]

He closed the window and went out to get some coffee.

The sun has risen and it's a wonderful day to slaughter carriers.

Jun led the group and left the national highway.

They traveled on the back alleys and made sure to not attract attention to themselves. It was easy since the area was mostly cleared of carriers. The military would, of course, clean their own backyard first before moving around.

He used his IDSearch to his maximum capability and scanned every corner before proceeding. At the same time, he was finally able to move around while training his aura sensing ability manually. The training process became instinctive after repeated training every day.

To his surprise, he learned that if he used the skill together with his IDSearch, the usually 10m radius would double in size. In a sense, he doesn't actually use the aura sense skill. He was merely tapping on the idea of it. When applied together with IDSearch, his innate skill improves and increases the detection radius by what his soul could take which was eleven.

Together with his aura, the detection radius became twenty-one meters around him. Not knowing that set of important information, Jun tried to increase the output to 4energy/second hoping that the detection radius would further increase, but to his dismay, it didn't.

Instead of becoming annoyed, he became thankful for having such a random windfall. He didn't realize that he just tapped on the basic step of skill creation.

The sky has turned light blue, by the time they could see the military soldiers patrolling on the distance. The residential area finally reconnected with the national road forcing them to leave everything to fate as they walked in the middle of the road with both hands raised up.

Before they could even step at the national highway, a sniper from the adjacent building spotted them. The man hastily placed the ration he was eating and placed his eye on the scope. His partner, the spotter, quickly radioed the situation in which caused a series of commotion to the nearest military patrols.

"Chewck!"

A soft sound reverberated the area. Jun was about to step forward when he felt alarmed causing him to slow down. A moment later, dust rose up from the ground where he was supposed to step while its surface got scraped off. 

Jun stopped walking immediately followed by Carl and his subordinates.

"That's... do you think he's in a good mood?" Jun asked Carl while sweat formed on his back. "I finally realize that this is a really bad idea. Haven't they called back?"

"Well, he tried to shoot you... but since he missed maybe?"

The two didn't know that the sniper was actually trying to shoot Jun's foot but missed the timing. 

The six of them stood like target practice as soldiers ran towards them. The leading one was even shouting at his radio before ordering his subordinates to surround them.

Jun turned to Carl with a sarcastic expression saying 'what to do now?'

The sergeant did not appreciate his gesture and shouted while raising his assault rifle. "Don't do anything you'll regret. Kneel down and put your arms behind your hand!"

Jun quickly knelt on the ground after getting a closer look at the rifle. The soldiers behind them blitz forward and pushed them towards the ground.

When the soldiers successfully forced them to lie down, they swiftly tied the 'terrorists' hands.

Carl who was getting tied up quite roughly shouted: "I'm Colonel Carl Joseph Antonil. I request communication with retired-General Basilio Mestreet or Major General Paul Celestine."

The sergeant frowned upon hearing two high ranking officers came out from the man's mouth. Of course, he couldn't immediately believe him and threatened him with the rifle. "Who are you?!"

"I repeat. I'm Colonel Carl Joseph Antonil. My platoon was sent out to retrieve high-value assets two weeks ago and we got caught up in the town's problem. We were left out after we got separated from the caravan. I'm sure a caravan passed by here, right?"

"And this one?" the sergeant looked at Jun.

Carl hastily thinks of something he could say. Jun was a special case, he was only an additional package since the General wanted some good dogs.

"He's also one of the ones we have to extract."

The story was quite believable and it was true that a caravan passed through here last night. But anyone could know that! Besides, one of them was a civilian!

The sergeant's unusually clogged up brain decided that it was time to be used for imagination. He imagined that these six people managed to kill five soldiers and took their gears. With the news of crazed rebels spreading around, these 'soldiers' saw the caravan and decided to cook up a story.

The sergeant scoffed! Did these people think he was an idiot?

"Bring them for interrogation!"