Chapter 65 Decision
“Who are you even?”
Dilan had no idea who the woman in front of him was. This confused him enough to make him bluntly ask the question.
From the looks of it, he was not even joking, which hit the slightly chubby woman even more than a slap right on her face.
But even if he didn’t know the woman, Dilan chose to stay calm…for a moment, at least.
“WE? Looks like you are trying to speak for the entire group. In that case, tell me your reason to reject the group of survivors!”
He might appear to be calm on the outside, but the eerie presence Dilan radiated, caused fear within everyone.
Due to his dominating presence, the chubby woman took a few moments before she dared to speak once again.
“The…most obvious would be the scarcity of food, and water… furthermore, think about the space…the cafeteria is not exactly big enough for more than two hundred people to be squeezed in. If you accept this group, who knows how long it will take before you accept more and more Survivors!!
And to add on, conflicts are more likely to occur. We’re in a hospital that is specialized to treat mentally ill patients as well…so who knows how many of the new Survivors are mentally ill, and ready to kill us at once?!
Last but not the least, monsters will find it easier to locate us due to our high number!!”
If one were to listen to the woman’s words and give it some thought, one could clearly tell that most of her reasons had some truth behind it.
The more people they had in their group, the less food everyone would receive, and they would also turn into easy targets for monsters.
However, Dilan didn’t agree with the other reasons because they simply made no sense to him.-.
“In that case, what about the possibility of mentally ill people being among us for the entire time? Just take a look at the situation from a moment ago.
Someone pointed a gun at me. Isn’t that a little bit unreasonable and a clear sign that this brickhead’s mental health reached the same level as your IQ?
Space is no problem as well because the first, second and fourth floors have already been cleared. Even the third floor looks safe.
The only issue on the second floor is the Gate, but that is not something anyone needs to be worried about right now.
And if we were to talk about the dangers of zombies and other monsters, this can be solved the moment we have more Ascenders, who are ready to fight, to level up, and to become stronger!”
Dilan tried his best to stay calm, and not to use his Strength as a means of authority to exert his dominance.
But that was far more difficult than he expected, simply because he was not a born leader. Neither did he have any idea of how to convince some idiots that they had to do something in order to get stronger simply to survive.
“I still don’t accept them!” The woman announced, ignoring the intimidating presence of Dilan. She was unwilling to give in, but flinched the moment Dilan sighed deeply.
“Alright, in that case, how about everyone who wants to be useful for this community, including the Survivors that are willing to fight against zombies and other monsters will be accepted in our group, and everyone else is thrown out?
That obviously includes everyone, who is already in the group…such as you, as well. I don’t even know you! Is that not funny? I have been in the cafeteria for almost an entire week, but I have never seen you before. Are you a ghost, or just good at hiding?
Let’s be honest here. Considering that I do not know you, you either just joined this group, or you were lazying around, like a piece of shit!!
If you have a complaint, try to sound reasonable, please?!”
He shook his head, feeling that he had had enough of people doing nothing and trying to coach him unable to remain calm. It was only fortunate that not everyone was as stupid as the old man, and the woman next to him.
Somehow it felt like she had flushed her IQ in the toilet while taking a dump.
As such, Dilan had to take a deep breath before he returned his attention to the others once again. Looking at all of them, he asked in a loud and clear voice,
“Except this human with an IQ of a brick next to me, who has something against accepting the Survivors?”
The only thing that held Dilan back from starting a riot owing to his anger and frustration was to start openly cursing others.
This was something everyone realized quickly because Dilan had still not started to threaten them with the same gun that had been pointed at him or even kill those who were annoying him.
It was contrary to the expectations of most people, which led them to calm down a little bit.
On the other hand, Bianne raised her hand to share her doubts.
“If we allow everyone to eat their fill, I doubt that the food reserves will last more than 50 days. And that is already the maximum. How are we going to solve this problem? If we find more Survivors, our reserves would vanish even faster…”
It was obvious that Bianne didn’t disregard Dilan’s authority, otherwise, she would have said something about the things he had said before.
On the contrary, she readily accepted his decision to take in other people. Bianne felt that it was the best they could do by taking everyone in.
This was even the case if the new Survivors wouldn’t actually do anything to help them.
She felt that it was her moral duty to help those that needed it because all of them were in the same situation; closer to death than ever before, and imprisoned in a world that was becoming more dangerous over time!
Bianne understood that Dilan wanted to help them and that he was giving his best to provide everyone the best possible life.
However, in order to achieve this, everyone had to do something that made living in their community easier.
A leader was required for this; someone who was generous but also strong-minded when it came to taking tough decisions.
And Bianne was of the belief that Dilan was the right person for this!
‘Do we have to start rationing the food already? Should we test hunting mutated animals and eating their meat?’ Dilan wondered as his gaze flicked to the Kobold weapons.
They lay in the corner of the room, clean and shiny previously, but now were simply collecting dust.
‘If the meat of mutated animals is fine to eat we can create hunting teams as well.’
As long as the mutated animals’ meat isn’t poisonous or inedible, or too potent for the human body to digest, everything should be fine.
“We shouldn’t worry too much about food for the time being. The meat of mutated animals should be edible, but that is something we have to test later on.
For now, I would propose that everyone should recuperate, and then we will decide on what kind of chores, or tasks everyone does afterward.
The most important to eat their fill are the fighters of the group, which is kind of obvious. After all, we are responsible for everyone’s safety. If we die because we didn’t eat enough to have the required energy to fight, everyone else will die as well.
Next would be those who contribute at least something to the community. They should be allowed to eat, at least, a plate of food, and those who do nothing…well you guys get the rest.”
Dilan just shrugged his shoulders. He had yet to think of a proper plan for food distribution without creating any conflicts.
There was still some time to think of a proper plan, but Dilan was quite obvious with his intention.
Those who worked hard would get more benefits, while the lazy people would be left without much.
But even then, Dilan allowed them to survive, and he wouldn’t throw them out.
Somehow, it was as if the question of the acceptance of new survivors had been answered by Dilan, and he had also made it clear that no retaliation would be accepted.
This was even more apparent when Dilan began to set up some basic rules.
“The first rule I have in mind is among the most important to maintain a good atmosphere in our small community, in my opinion. I strictly forbid ****!
I don’t really care if someone has sex with mutual consent, or even if someone sells their body willingly. This is your private business and it has nothing to do with me.
But the moment someone tries to do some stupid shit, I won’t hold back from using violence!”
After he finished telling everyone the first rule, Dilan took a pause for a few seconds before revealing the other rules he had come up with.
“Everyone is free to leave whenever they want to, but if you guys ever return, you won’t receive even an ounce of trust. After all, I would be clueless about your real reason for returning, if you are spies, or what kind of intentions you will harbor!
Even if I don’t care who stays and who leaves, the moment anyone dares to betray me, I won’t hold back from nicely showing every traitor how I reward them!
But I guess, not accepting betrayals is kind of obvious…
The second rule would be that everyone needs to have killed, at least, one monster. This has nothing to do with whether they want to fight or not.
If you don’t want to fight, kill a single crippled monster, give us the ability crystal if it is even remotely related to combat, and everything is fine.
Otherwise, reconsider if you need the ability and if it is compatible with you. If that happens to be the case, you should focus on upgrading it.
Coming to the third rule…just don’t make too much trouble for me if you guys consider lazying around. I demand from everyone to have some basic manners and question themselves how I would react if someone hits another person, or if someone steals the goods of someone else.
Some of you might have noticed but I have a bad temper…so think twice before getting on my nerves!!”
It was quite obvious that Dilan had never been a leader. He was probably younger than half the crowd of survivors.
But that was not something he could be bothered about right now.
After all, they needed someone to take the responsibility for everyone, to protect them, and to hold their leashes tightly, otherwise, it was just tragedy waiting to happen.
However, Dilan couldn’t help but feel a little bit frustrated when he finished stating and explaining the rules.
He saw something that made him feel as if his words had been ignored in their entirety.
His eyes moved towards one of the rather young men, who had been in the cafeteria since the beginning of the Primordial Ascension.
His eyes were glued on the women that had been treated like sex slaves, and Dilan couldn’t help but shake his head in disappointment.
‘Looks like the prime example to show how serious I am with my rules has already shown up…’