Chapter 114: Dog Eat Dog

Sun Peng grew tense and quickly asked, “Do those people have guns too?”

His lackeys shook their heads. “Aside from the one in your hand, no other firearms have shown up so far.”

Sun Peng’s eyes darted around. That’s odd! These guys don’t even have guns—so what exactly are they relying on to make so many people bow down to them?

He picked out one of his more sharp-tongued followers. “You, tell me in detail—how do they collect their protection grain?”

The chosen lackey stepped forward and explained concisely:

“At first, they just went door to door robbing people. I heard that once, the residents of an entire building tried to band together and resist, but they were all brutally slaughtered.

After that, they came up with some kind of ranking system. Residents who obey them are classified as high-tier—they pay less grain and even get extra benefits. Those who don’t obey are low-tier—not only do they get abused, they have to hand over double the grain.

There are only so many high-tier spots, so everyone’s afraid of being downgraded. Now, people are practically scrambling to hand over their grain!”

After hearing this, Sun Peng couldn’t help but marvel inwardly:

These bandits are pretty clever—turning external conflict into internal competition among the residents! That way, people will be even more motivated to scavenge for supplies.

This is way smarter than just barging in with a gun and taking what you want.

It’s practically a sustainable business model!

He rubbed his hands together, thinking to himself: I should try this method in the future.

The little lackey glanced at Sun Peng’s expression, seeing he was silent, and asked cautiously, “Brother Sun, what should we do next?”

Sun Peng’s mind raced. That gang has numbers and brains—it’s best to avoid them if possible.

He said, “Isn’t there another resettlement complex nearby? Let’s go there instead!”

The lackey replied, “Those guys collecting protection grain? They’re from the resettlement complex.”

Sun Peng: …

So, aside from their own Fenglin Yijing complex, every other neighborhood around here has already been taken over?

Damn it! This is intolerable!

Sun Peng’s face darkened.

A bunch of guys wielding kitchen knives are actually stepping all over him, the one with the gun, and running a monopoly?

He gritted his teeth. “Tomorrow, we’re going to the resettlement complex to collect grain!”

The first lackey looked troubled. “But… there’s so many of them, and there’s only a few of us…”

Sun Peng snapped, “Are you stupid? I have a gun!”

Seeing his lackeys still hesitating, he snorted coldly:

“All the nearby complexes have been taken. You think ours can escape? If you don’t want to go, just pack up your supplies and wait for them to come take it from you!”

The group exchanged glances, then immediately said in unison, “Brother Sun, we’re with you!”

No kidding! They’d risked their necks in the heat, searching every home for that food. Now that they finally don’t have to starve, there’s no way they’d let anyone take it away!

Brother Sun was right—even if they didn’t go looking for trouble, trouble would come looking for them sooner or later.

Strike first, or be struck down.

Screw it—let’s do this!

The group huddled together to discuss their plan for tomorrow.

They decided to first find a resident from the resettlement complex, threaten them with the gun, and get all the details on the gang’s leader and where he lived.

Then, they’d quietly take him out with a surprise shot.

With the leader gone, everything else would be easy.

Anyone who tried to cause trouble would get a bullet and have their body hung out to dry as a warning.

Kill ten or so, and nobody would dare step up to lead the grain collection anymore.

They had their plan all set—but before they could put it into action, the protection gang came knocking first.

Just after dawn, when the residents were barely asleep, over a hundred strong young men stormed into the complex.

Starting from Building 1, they broke into every apartment, one by one.

They thought it would be as easy as the other neighborhoods—collect the grain, assign the rankings, done. But this time, something unexpected happened.

“Er Kui, there’s not even a kilo of grain in this whole building!”

Er Kui was the gang’s leader.

He’d been sitting on a chair on the first floor, eyes closed, resting. Hearing the report, he frowned. “How can that be?”

“The residents say there’s a guy in Building 6 named Sun Peng. He’s got a gun and already swept the whole complex clean.”

Er Kui’s brow furrowed. “A gun? What kind, how many? Grab a few residents and find out everything about this Sun Peng!”

After learning that Sun Peng only had a single pistol and a few newly recruited lackeys, Er Kui thought for a moment, then shouted:

“Brothers! Someone’s already collected all the grain for us. Let’s go get it from him!”

“Get the grain! Get the grain!”

Nearly two hundred young men chanted in unison, their momentum overwhelming.

The residents of Building 1 watched them rush toward Building 6 and couldn’t help but think—these guys look even scarier than Sun Peng!

But in the end, it was the ordinary people who suffered the most.

Hopefully, the two sides would fight each other to the bitter end, both wiped out. Then maybe the rest of them could finally have some peace.

Building 6.

A crowd gathered below, shouting, “Who’s Sun Peng? Get down here now!”

Their voices were louder than a megaphone.

These guys weren’t stupid—they knew the building was too narrow for a hundred people to charge up at once.

No one knew how much ammo the other side had. If they went in waves, they’d just get picked off one by one.

So they stayed downstairs, making a racket, forcing Sun Peng to come down.

Upstairs, Sun Peng had noticed them as soon as they stormed the complex.

After thinking it through, he knew this fight was unavoidable.

When people’s interests are truly at odds, there’s no room for negotiation.

Either he scared them off today, or he’d be cleaned out and have to hand over his supplies like everyone else.

There was no other way.

He’d wanted to hole up and fight from inside, but with over a hundred enemies and only twenty-odd bullets, that was hopeless.

He’d have to go down and try to intimidate them all at once, using as few bullets as possible.

He’d already decided—just like he’d done with the neighbors before, no matter how many people there were, as long as he had the gun, who would be the first to stick their neck out and die for the others?

Sun Peng prided himself on understanding human nature. Brimming with confidence, he headed downstairs, bringing a few lackeys with him to keep up appearances.

The residents, woken by the commotion, all craned their necks out the windows to watch.

An Nan stood at her window too, lips curling in amusement.

“Dog eat dog. Here we go.”"