Chapter 130: Didn’t You Peel It and Cut It into Pieces?

"Am I that kind of person? Isn't that something you know best? There are no magical beasts where we come from anyway."

Although he did have thoughts along those lines, how could he possibly admit it? He was, after all, the captain of the best caravan in the world. Anna was still too naive and easily believed his words.

"But I can't do it alone. You still need to find a few people to help me; there are too many magical beasts out there."

"No problem."

Soon, ten professionals who had joined not long ago were assigned to Anna. Anna looked at these people in silence, her eyes filled with suspicion as she looked at Lin Mu.

"Ahem, everyone else has their own work to do. These people just happened to be free, so I'm handing them over to you."

Anna nodded helplessly. This time, Lin Mu was telling the truth; the others were genuinely busy. Regardless, the caravan had grown in size, and with it, the workload had increased. It was no longer possible to distribute resources as casually as before.

Lin Mu’s idea was simple: distribution based on contribution. If you contribute more, you receive corresponding resources and matching food supplies. As for those who contribute little, they only get the minimum standard meal. In short, they wouldn't starve, but they wouldn't eat well either.

After watching Anna leave, Lin Mu returned to his vehicle and turned on the camera. He picked up the walkie-talkie: "Are you ready? Get ready to start now. Let's aim to finish this in the next two days."

The reason Lin Mu wanted to do this was still a matter of resources. Although he was currently acquiring a large amount of resources, most of them were basic supplies. Food resources, however, were actually quite scarce. Currently, it was in a state of equilibrium, but if the sources of food were to diminish, the amount of food they could distribute would drop significantly. Of course, the most important point was to establish a class system. While Lin Mu didn't particularly like this, he had to admit that it was a very effective method.

Just then, four figures appeared on the screen.

"I didn't expect this monitor could be used like this?" Shu Yi looked at the four figures on the screen, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah, it can actually make video calls." After all, they had always used these cameras to monitor the outside, never thinking about using them for video communication.

Lin Mu waved his hand quickly, steering the conversation back.

"Do you have a charter for this policy yet?"

Aside from Zhang Qian, who was of little use, the others had their own respective skills. There was no need to mention Zhao Jin; before coming here, she was an ordinary lawyer. By her own account, she wasn't a top-tier attorney, but she could earn twenty or thirty thousand a month. She was a lawyer capable of taking on cases. Jiang Han was an executive at a top-ten enterprise in Fengjing with some understanding of rules and regulations. Shu Yi was a seasoned corporate worker. As for Zhang Qian, he was just a social drifter who was only there because he led a caravan.

"I think we can just take the sales department's reward and punishment system as a framework and adjust some details based on our current situation. There's no need to make it too complicated."

"I agree with that, but it needs to be rigorous; we can't have conflicting situations."

"I suggest setting up KPI evaluations..."

"..."

The three of them went back and forth, building the framework. With so much experience from the Blue Star, how could they not handle something like this? Lin Mu felt his eyelids twitching wildly. Why did he feel like the caravan was about to become a shell company?

Three meals a day became the base salary, drinks and alcohol became bonuses, and various basic materials became commissions... This had literally turned a survival game into a game of "slaving away for the company." These three people were terrifying. He hoped that when those people outside saw these rules, they wouldn't be reminded of any unpleasant memories.

As for the KPI that Shu Yi mentioned, Lin Mu rejected it outright. It was enough as it was; bringing that in would surely drive people mad.

*The team members: We thank the captain for sparing our lives.*

At eight in the evening, Anna returned with her team. Just as Lin Mu had said, there was indeed no danger outside.

"A lot of the magical beast meat is inedible, but I’ve brought back all the magic crystals for you. However, since a portion of the beasts were of such low level, their crystals are tiny. You'll have to decide what to do with them."

There were hundreds of thousands of magical beasts; even excluding the inedible ones, there were still tens of thousands. Lin Mu took the vehicle core and couldn't help but frown.

"Didn't you skin and butcher them?"

Anna looked at him, puzzled. "There are only a dozen of us, and these are the carcasses of tens of thousands of beasts. You expect me to skin them?"

Ahem, old habits.

"My mistake. I meant you should organize some people to cut them into pieces and store them."

"That's better, but it will take a long time. Just letting you know ahead of time."

"Then let's just do a portion first and handle the rest as we eat. By the way, does it taste good?"

Anna recalled, "Most of it doesn't taste good."

Lin Mu nodded. Then he would keep it to distribute as rewards. Regardless, it was still meat, and high-protein food at that.

...

At one o'clock the next afternoon, Lin Mu glanced at the countdown in the office. It would be 24 hours soon. He picked up the walkie-talkie: "Attention all departments, attention all departments. The 24-hour mark is almost here. Keep an eye on the situation in all directions—north, south, east, and west."

"Copy that!"

"Copy that!"

The cameras at the four corners of all the houses that had been turned into shelters began to rotate, and some houses had a device larger than the standard cameras extending from their centers to look around. It could be said that with these cameras in place, no one would be able to sneak in.

However, the countdown changed to 23:59, and still, not a single living creature had been spotted.

"Captain, is it over?"

"Yeah, Captain, no signs of life detected within a five-kilometer radius."

That shouldn't be right. There couldn't just be that little bit of trouble for a 48-hour event. Moreover, since the countdown hadn't ended, it meant this defense battle wasn't over. But where were the people? Were they invisible, or had they not arrived yet?

"Split up a portion of the people and turn on the thermal imaging."

Even if you're invisible, you can't hide your body heat, unless you're a cold-blooded animal. Over twenty shelters switched to thermal imaging mode.

"Report! We have a sighting. There are traces of people in the woods 20 kilometers to the south."

The person speaking was the one using the large camera. Lin Mu had reinforced that camera, allowing it to zoom in on figures 20 kilometers away to a normal size, clear enough to distinguish their features. Even at a distance of two or three kilometers, one could discern a rough outline.

"There are also sightings to the west."

"Sightings to the east, but their body shapes are different from humans. They are definitely upright-walking creatures, though."

"No sightings in the north yet."

Lin Mu let out a sigh of relief. That was more like it. As long as they could find the enemy, everything was manageable. The scariest thing was not knowing where the enemy was.