The Contradictions and Justifications of Women

Mutant ants grow rapidly, and their bodies, including their skeletons, are easily flammable. Mutant mosquitoes are the same.

Flamethrowers are the best weapons to deal with these threats, but Tom's flamethrower was lost in the river during the crossing due to the attack of black birds. They hadn't found any lighters like this in the residential area, so they had to rely on hand-to-hand combat to deal with the ants.

Now, such a large mutant mosquito had climbed onto the tin shed roof. Its sharp and hard mouthparts even pierced through the shed roof with a single strike, and nobody knew how the people inside were doing.

Tom's spear stabbed out and successfully hit its tail in one go.

This mosquito, as thick as an arm, quickly vibrated its wings in an attempt to escape, but it couldn't shake off the steel needle spear no matter how it struggled. It immediately turned around and aimed its sharp mouthparts at Tom's face.

In the darkness, Tom tilted his head just in time to avoid this attack, causing cold sweat to drip down his back. But there was no time to be afraid now; he directly grabbed the spear and fell back onto the wooden back.

The mutant mosquito was brought down by the spear, thrashing around wildly. Tom struggled to get up, half-kneeling, pressing down on the spear to prevent it from flying away with the mosquito. With one hand, he grabbed the mosquito's unretracted mouthpart, preventing its head from moving randomly. With the other hand, he drew a pig-killing knife from his back and viciously chopped at its head.

Even though the mosquito had mutated, it still relied on flying to move. There were no heavy leather defenses on its body, so the pig-killing knife only needed one blow to chop off its head.

Taking a deep breath, Tom raised his head, only to see the wooden back slowly crawling away, making him sigh helplessly.

This wooden guy was truly wooden. Its shell was too thick, and nothing could penetrate it. It didn't even react at all; it was still following Tom's previous instructions and crawling forward. Fortunately, it stopped after crawling only two centimeters. Lin Meiqi poked her head out from his back and shouted, "Doghead god, are you okay? Ugh... so annoying." But there were two more mosquitoes hovering above her head, buzzing around, trying to find an opportunity to strike her head.

"Go back! Go back quickly! I'm fine!" Tom ordered loudly, and Lin Meiqi, relieved, retreated back into the carriage.

After peeling off the sharp and hard hollow mouthparts of the mutant mosquito and digging out a piece of level 2 red crystal from its body, Tom climbed back onto the wooden back, satisfied.

"Wang Zixiong, is anyone injured?"

Wang Zixiong leaned against the window and replied, "No, everyone's fine. Boss, how about you?"

Tom nodded; it was best if no one was injured. "I'm fine. Here, take this... this thing is very sharp, you can use it." He immediately handed the sharp spike to Wang Zixiong. "I'll add a long handle to it later; it's much better than the steel needle spear."

"Thank you, Boss!" Wang Zixiong took it, feeling extremely pleased. For a martial artist, there was nothing more enjoyable than getting a good weapon.

"Girl, you shouldn't have come out. If there were more mutant mosquitoes, you would have been in trouble."

Lin Meiqi pouted discontentedly, "I was worried about you! The whole car relies on you to survive. Besides, you're just a wooden guy; you wouldn't even know if the master fell off. If I hadn't used the instructions you taught me to touch its antennae, it would have thrown you off long ago."

The little girl reacted quickly, which made Tom feel relieved. Among the many survivors he rescued, although there were still no awakened combatants, both Wang Zixiong and she had provided him with considerable help. He wasn't fighting alone all the time.

As they arrived on the second floor, Tom specifically instructed the wooden guy to look at Room 203. That Deng Xin, who had previously harbored improper intentions towards Lin Meiqi and was locked in Room 203 by Tom, was once a member of Team 404. The door was still tightly locked, indicating that they were still trapped in the room and hadn't come out yet.

Directing the wooden guy on the road, they crawled all the way down to the ground floor and out the door. Tom moved the remote control of the tank back onto the wooden back and controlled the tank to rush back to the Redemption Shelter together.

Perhaps due to the previous twists and turns, or perhaps because the heavy rain had just passed, they encountered only scattered ants on the way back, and they returned to the Redemption Shelter very smoothly.

It was already 03:41 on June 29th, and there were still over 9 hours left before the end of the shelter's protection and the initiation of the folding state. However, registering Liu Liqing as an awakened person could add another 4 hours, extending the folding time to 17:00 on June 29th.

Tom didn't gain much from this trip on the crystals, but he unexpectedly learned about the function of charging yellow crystals, which greatly compensated for the consumption of level 4 red crystals.

Of course, the most important thing was finding Lin Meiqi, this 16-year-old beauty with talent. With her sharp mind and good reasoning ability, she would greatly assist him in the development of crystal technology.

Moreover, he had also saved many survivors. Although some of them had bad temperaments or were too arrogant, looking at the worst ones like Feng Hanyun and Liu Liqing, Tom believed that as they spent day by day in the shrinking apocalypse, they would shed their past arrogance for survival and integrate into the collective.

In total, there were 21 people, all of them young and strong. If they all returned, it would greatly replenish the number of young adults in the camp. They would exchange crystal technology tonight, rest for one night, recover their spirits, and set off back to the camp at 9 o'clock tomorrow.

Tom calculated well, but as soon as he opened the shelter door and entered, he immediately sensed that the atmosphere inside was suddenly tense.

"What's going on?" He saw several men with injuries, and there were fresh bloodstains on the floor.

Feng Hanyun, with keen eyesight, immediately noticed that her boyfriend, Zhao Xifeng, had the most injuries on his face. She rushed over like a protective mother hen to check his injuries and then looked around. "Did you guys hit him? Why did you hit him?" Her voice was loud and intimidating, which deeply touched Zhao Xifeng.

Tom also noticed that their injuries were not caused by insects but by fighting. So he asked, "What happened?"

The three injured men were survivors of the tragedy in the 405 bathroom, so they should have had the most profound experience of the post-shrinking hell on earth. Among them, the leader was named Zeng Guangsheng. He said indignantly, "You have to ask that little white face. Damn it, we finally have a safe place, and we all listen to Tom, staying honestly in the shelter. But this little white face, since you guys left, he's been making a fuss all the time, saying that Tom abducted his girlfriend. We warned him several times, but he didn't listen. Does he really think that Tom would fancy his fierce girlfriend? Huh."

Seeing Feng Hanyun about to jump in anger, Tom glared at her, then impatiently said, "Get to the point."

Zeng Guangsheng continued, "Blame it on that Yu Liangjun. When the rain stopped just now, he teased this little white horse about his green hat. As a result, this little white face couldn't sit still, insisting on opening the door to find his lover, saying that even if he died, he wanted to die by her side. Tom, you ordered us not to open the door easily to prevent monsters from outside sneaking in. But this little white face wouldn't listen and insisted on opening the door. We couldn't stand it, so we tried to stop him. But he was the first to start the fight. Damn it."

Before Tom could speak, Feng Hanyun screamed, loudly questioning her boyfriend Zhao Xifeng, "Is that true? You actually suspect me? And you want to break the rules and force your way out? You useless piece of trash, what did I go through all the trouble for? How dare you doubt me?"

While the scolding hadn't finished here, Lu Qiuman next to her also grabbed her boyfriend Yu Liangjun's ear and fiercely scolded, "What do you mean by adding fuel to the fire? If I went out with Tom, would you suspect me too? Huh?"

Yu Liangjun was twisted painfully and immediately begged for mercy, "Ouch, it hurts... I was wrong... I..."

Meanwhile, Feng Hanyun actually slapped her boyfriend, and Zhao Xifeng neither resisted nor dodged, just bowing his head and enduring it, weakly trying to explain, "I didn't insist on going out; it's... they spoke so disrespectfully, and I... I'm not stupid, but I just couldn't bear it... me."

Watching both couples beating up their boyfriends, with others around stifling their laughter, Tom sighed, shook his head, and then said loudly, "Enough! You're too weak to fight monsters, but you're very enthusiastic about fighting each other." Tom wasn't entirely convinced that Zhao Xifeng fought with them just to go out.

Having grown up in an orphanage, he had seen a lot, and all sorts of strange stories abounded. As an adult, he found that especially when it came to topics involving hats, some people tended to get very enthusiastic, and once they started being sarcastic, it was entertaining to watch. There was no doubt that Zeng Guangsheng and the others were mocking Zhao Xifeng. He got angry and clashed with them. However, regarding the issue Zhao Xifeng was worried about... Tom looked at Feng Hanyun. He still remembered what she had said the previous night.

Although he didn't have any thoughts about her, it was clear that Feng Hanyun did have some ideas. But at this moment, she actually took the high ground and lectured Zhao Xifeng, accusing him of not trusting her.

Women... Tom shook his head. Just as Feng Hanyun finished scolding, she looked at him with a disappointed look, and she immediately turned her head in embarrassment, too ashamed to look into Tom's eyes.

"Picking people to go out is based on voluntary and capable premises. Not only this time but also if you want to go back to the camp with me in the future, you must abide by the rules. It's not that you can't question, but I won't tolerate baseless speculation and slander. If you have objections to my decisions, please leave on your own."

Seeing Zeng Guangsheng and the others snickering, Tom glared at them and continued, "Also, those who provoke disputes with sarcastic remarks will threaten the stability and order of the team. I don't want such things to happen in my team again."

Zeng Guangsheng and the others immediately lowered their heads in apology. "Tom, we're sorry. We were wrong. We won't say those sour words again or provoke conflicts."

Tom nodded in approval of their attitude. At this time, under Feng Hanyun's urging, Zhao Xifeng also quickly stepped forward and said, "Tom, I'm sorry. I won't randomly doubt anymore."

"It's your business if you like to doubt. But if it endangers the safety of my team, like when you opened the door just now and let bugs in, I will feed you directly to the bugs!"

He really disliked people who didn't follow the rules, even though he set them. But just think about it, just face the current situation, everyone should understand that these precautions are very basic and necessary. Those who still violate them knowingly are either stupid or bad. Usually, such people in Hollywood horror movies are used to push the protagonist and his team into worse situations, and of course, they also serve as examples of horror and bloodshed.

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again." Zhao Xifeng nodded repeatedly, and his waist was almost blackened by Feng Hanyun's pinches.

With Tom's satisfied nod, he took Liu Liqing to register as an awakened person. Zhao Xifeng, however, stared at Tom's back with resentment and unwillingness.