Chapter 546: Chapter 195: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You
As it turned out, Cheng Ye’s foresight was extremely necessary.
12:40 PM.
Before the weapons could be delivered from the checkpoint, the sharp cries of Thorn Birds were already echoing from the horizon, with a massive flock flying over from the Yellow River, heading towards Dapo Town.
If he had a ruler in hand, he might have tried to shoot down the leader to disperse the flock, but without weapons, everyone could only take cover for now.
After evacuating the residents into the buildings along the road, Cheng Ye quickly dashed into an abandoned supermarket. The rotten wooden planks above couldn’t withstand much impact, but they could block the view of the Thorn Birds.
"Crash!"
"Crash!"
The flapping of wings swept over the head like low-flying bombers, making people feel tense inside.
Fortunately, this group of Thorn Birds circled once without finding a target to attack, then turned towards the red area where Luokuke was located.
As a Third-phase Inspector, Luokuke had naturally found a hiding spot in advance. The spacious abandoned granary could temporarily accommodate five hundred people with plenty of room.
But the next scene shocked the hidden observers watching from above. The flock of Thorn Birds didn’t scatter; instead, they "crash" landed in the red area, heading straight for the already dismantled supplies.
The boxes containing parts were shattered by the iron-clawed Thorn Birds, and the metal components that fell out became the best food. Hundreds of Thorn Birds pecked furiously on the ground, like a group of chicks scrambling for food.
"Damn these things."
At the granary entrance, both Luokuke and Garcia’s expressions turned grim.
Unlike Cheng Ye, who realized the Thorn Birds were coming and arranged for people to hide in advance, waiting for weapons to be in place before starting construction.
The two of them were not good with guns, and even if they had brought in a ruler, it might not have shot down the leader. So they had thought to quickly dismantle the supplies and hide the metal parts in the buildings before the Thorn Birds arrived, reducing their attraction. This way, even if the bird flock attacked, it wouldn’t linger too long.
They were even more convinced that this was the right move when they saw Cheng Ye not dismantling supplies but only busy organizing manpower. As long as they hid the parts first, the Thorn Birds would naturally target Cheng Ye’s side.
But despite all their calculations, they hadn’t anticipated the Thorn Bird flock coming so quickly.
"Who brought a pistol?"
Garcia turned to look at the residents and saw many people raising their hands, immediately giving the order, "Shoot at the flock and scatter them!"
Rapid gunfire soon erupted.
The Thorn Bird flock, startled, took flight and temporarily stopped pecking, but didn’t leave, instead circling around to launch a counterattack.
A dense barrage of bone spurs rained down. Although they didn’t penetrate the thick stone walls of the granary, they trapped everyone inside, unable to get out.
The way the bird flock hovered with no intention of leaving showed that they held a grudge and weren’t going to give up easily.
"This is troublesome."
Glancing at Cheng Ye’s side, where the supplies hadn’t been unpacked, Luokuke shook his head lightly.
He hadn’t expected that shortly after the assessment began, they were already at a disadvantage.
But this was just bad luck and not necessarily a failure in their decision-making. If the bird flock had come a little later, their choice might not have been wrong.
More than ten minutes later, the circling Thorn Bird flock finally dispersed.
Cheng Ye peeked his head out from the supermarket, confirmed it was safe, and shouted loudly, "Everyone can come out now!"
Five hundred people emerged from the various abandoned buildings, their faces still carrying lingering fear.
Clearly, everyone was familiar with the Thorn Birds and understood the dangers of these mutant beasts.
Sun Dazheng immediately approached, "Sir, our supplies were untouched and weren’t targeted by the bird flock. Should we now dismantle a portion?"
Cheng Ye shook his head, his gaze directed towards the other side of the block, where torn-apart boxes lay scattered, the chaos left by the Thorn Birds readily apparent.
He suddenly felt a sense of relief. Although the wilderness experience of a Third-phase Inspector was rich, they couldn’t foresee everything, such as the Thorn Birds’ timing or all unexpected occurrences.
This greatly eased the pressure on his mind, no longer as tense as before.
"Stick with my plan. Everyone continue to get familiar with one another."
Cheng Ye raised his voice so everyone could hear, "In the future, we are all neighbors in Dapo Town, and we will live together for decades. There’s no rush in starting the work just yet. In this three-day assessment, an hour of unpacking time won’t make a difference."
But since there’s time to spare, Wang Kang took the opportunity to take out his notebook and went to each group to register personnel information.
Cheng Ye stood by the roadside, occasionally glancing at the horizon, patiently waiting for the weapons to arrive.
Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, the flock of Thorn Birds came back again.
Gunfire and the sharp sounds of bone spurs clashing immediately erupted from the direction of East Street, lively as if a war had broken out.
"If you don’t aim to win the assessment but just want to excel in performance, being too eager can lead to mistakes."
After thinking it over and processing all the information, Cheng Ye understood.
With the assessment result as the goal, he didn’t mind waiting an extra hour here.
But if his aim was to show strong leadership ability, then he needed to start showing enough capability from the beginning.
He had already vaguely guessed Luokuke’s intention, but for the moment, he couldn’t figure out whether this guy was from Harlem’s group, arranged by Ding Yishan, or a neutral party?
However, one thing was certain: there was an irreconcilable conflict between him and Garcia, but there was no direct conflict of goals with Luokuke.
1:30 PM.
The checkpoint personnel finally arrived tardily, bringing weapons in a pickup truck.
For Luokuke and Garcia, the chosen guns were not very useful against the Thorn Birds. The two men quickly checked and signed, their grim expressions unchanged.
But for Cheng Ye, this was a critical first step in starting construction.
Four hot weapons were in place, each with five hundred rounds of ammunition, plus three thousand pistol rounds, clearly prepared for the residents.
