Chapter 82 Fighting Outsiders

The night was coming and the food was cooking.

Suddenly, one of my Minions rushed over to me.

[Another human has been detected]

Another human?

I drew [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] and cautiously made my way out of the hut with Chloe.

"Apparently one of my Minions saw a human."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go check it out."

My Residential Heater Minion came over and provided some warmth as I made my way out to the border of my settlement. In the distance, I saw a small group of people standing behind my wall. I called several Minions over to me as I slowly approached them. I had all three of my Elite Minions standing by my side.

As I got closer, I noticed that they didn't seem to be belligerent. They were simply standing there as a group of my Minions kept watch over them.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Ah, so you're the owner of this settlement?" one of them asked.

"I suppose."

There were three people, all dressed in thick white, winter clothing. I guess they managed to get some clothes despite the huge supply issue. They also had weapons on them but for the most part, they appeared to be peaceful.

I didn't remember seeing any settlements nearby so they must have come a long way.

"What do you guys want?" I asked.

"We're just looking for other groups of people to partner up with."

"What type of 'partnership' are you talking about?"

"Well, we all have a common enemy in the zombies, correct?"

"I guess."

"I think our two groups can work together like we can help each other in need and trade. Think of it as an official alliance."

To be fair, working with other humans did have lots of benefits.

First of all, almost every person has a different system from what I could tell. Each system also has unique crafting recipes alongside the mechanics of the system. Cooperation could allow for mutual gain.

Secondly, it was true that our mutual enemy was the zombies. There was no negotiation when it came to zombies and they were always going to be thorns in our back.

I did consider their offer for a moment.

But I also had another thought.

I didn't really need help fighting the zombies.

I also could purchase unique items on the Grand Exchange.

If I decided to kill them right here, I could collect whatever items they have.

That included the clothes they had on them.

But the thought of wearing a dead person's clothes was a little gross.

"Before I give you an answer, what type of systems do you guys have?" I asked.

"That information is private."

"We have to have a little trust if we want to work together, isn't that right?"

They thought about it for a little.

"We can't fully trust you yet, I notice that you have lots of soldiers around the place, from your system I'd assume. You're not exactly acting very trusting of us either."

Ah.

It's a dog-eat-dog world, isn't it?

"Doesn't that give you more reason to answer my question?" I said.

"Are you threatening us?"

They suddenly all took a few steps back and put their hands on their weapons.

Negotiations were breaking down from the looks of things.

Well, this alliance felt like more effort than it was worth. I wonder what they had in their inventory.

Go, Elite Minions, attack them.

%%%

At my command, Rook and Bishop charged straight toward the outsiders.

"What the hell?! You're a fucking monster!"

They drew their weapons and began to fight my Minions. Instantly, they clashed with my Elites, trading attacks and swinging their various different weapons. The area was filled with the sound of steel hitting steel.

"Ah, are we fighting them now?" asked Chloe.

"Yep."

I've been wanting to try out [Tengen-Ko-Rin], its sheath has been attached to my back, behind my clothes for a while now.

I looked over at the battle and saw that the outsiders were actually quite strong, managing to fight off my Elites. I called more Minions over to help with the fight.

"We came asking for an alliance and this is how you fucking treat us?!" they screamed.

This is the world we live in now.

I raised the long blade of [Tengen-Ko-Rin] up toward the sky.

Chain him down, Tengen.

Suddenly, long steel chains were conjured, completely immobilising one of the outsiders. The chains grabbed onto their arms and legs, pulling them away from his body. The outsider frantically jerked their limbs as Bishop approached them.

"Shit! Clone!"

The person who was chained suddenly summoned a clone of themselves who began fighting Bishop on his behalf. Their clone was able to fight hand-in-hand with Bishop, stopping their impending death.

The other two quickly rushed over to help their friend.

Chloe ran toward them with her [Platinum Sword].

More and more Minions were making their way over and the outsiders were very clearly struggling. There was no chance that they were going to defeat me. My magic Scout Minions and combat Scout Minions were coming in droves and the outsiders were quickly overwhelmed.

One of them threw some sort of explosive but it had little effect on my Minions.

"...why... why are you doing this to us?"

One of them broke down and fell to the ground.

The other two desperately tried to fight my Minions but it was to no avail, before long, the three of them were slain, their dead bodies falling to the ground.

Ah, I still remember when such a scene would shock me.

Slowly, I made my way over and observed their inventories.

-

[x19] Tokens

[x1] Winter Clothing

[x4] iron

[x310] wood

[x1] Platinum Sword

[x6] diamond

[x2] Enchanting Orb

p -

They didn't have as much loot as I expected, although there were quite a few useful items.

-

[x34] Tokens

[x1] Winter Clothing

[x11] iron

[x98] wood

[x1] Silver Spear

[x1] diamond

[x3] freeze grenade

[x2] fireball

[x5] healing potion

-

[x12] Tokens

[x1] Winter Clothing

[x1827] wood

[x142] meat

[x1] Diamond Sword

[x7] diamond

[x32] gold

[x2] platinum

[x987] rocks

-

I organised my newly-gained items into the various categories of my inventory.

Just from this fight, I managed to gain 65 Tokens and a large number of other goods including 142 meat. This was definitely more than I would've earned in any form of cooperation between us. The outsiders seemed to have mainly combat-oriented systems anyways, they were basically useless to me.

"You're ruthless~"

"It's just cost and gain."

"Hehe, well, I can't blame you."