At that moment, the construction workers stared down the barrels of six guns, completely frozen in fear.
Their blood ran cold.
They all scrambled back several steps before daring to stop. They stared at Yu Dong in terror, never imagining he would be so ruthless... that he would actually dare to have his men aim their guns at them.
Yu Dong sneered. Seeing Xu Yi howling in pain on the ground, he found an opening and landed a vicious kick.
"Who asked you to be a representative?"
"Who asked you to speak up?"
"Who needs you to guarantee their rights?"
"Did you not understand the second rule I laid out? There are only team members here, not a ’workers’ faction!’ Everyone is equal!"
"You’re trying to sow dissent? Form a clique? Who gave you the nerve! Huh?"
CLICK. CLICK.
Right in front of everyone, Yu Dong had the first person who spoke out brutally beaten.
"Alright, that’s enough."
Yu Dong stopped the four men, who were getting more and more into the beating. He looked at Xu Yi, now covered in wounds from the neck down, curled up on the ground, clutching his head and trembling like a stray dog.
Yu Dong looked up at the crowd of construction workers and grinned.
"Anyone with opinions or suggestions is free to voice them. But if anyone gets any funny ideas about dividing our team, they’ll end up just like him."
’There are always people who don’t know their place, who try to bargain with him.’
’In this life, Yu Dong wouldn’t give anyone that chance.’
’He, and he alone, called the shots in this team. For any manager, obeying his orders had to be their top priority.’
’Mistakes could be corrected, but trying to siphon off his authority... impossible.’
The construction workers were now too frightened to speak, completely cowed by Yu Dong.
Some even regretted not leaving earlier... Now they were afraid they’d be used as cannon fodder.
Seeing this, Jiang Zhuoyu gave a discreet nod to someone in the crowd of workers.
"I have an issue!"
A burly, middle-aged man among the workers stepped forward. His voice was deep and resonant, and he seemed utterly fearless.
The other workers stared at him, their eyes screaming one clear thought:
’Big Foolish Spring! What do you think you’re doing?!’
’Didn’t you see what a fucking mess they made of the last guy who spoke up?’
Yu Dong gave a slight nod. "Go on."
"I want to be a manager, too! I want a higher position! Or do you have no intention of giving us a chance? Do you just plan on having your gun-toting thugs rule over us?"
’Holy shit!’
’Big Foolish Spring, you’re insane!’
’You can’t just say that out loud!’
The construction workers instinctively shuffled away from Big Foolish Spring, while the students in the crowd looked at him with open admiration.
’A true hero!’
Yu Dong studied him for three seconds, then burst out laughing. "Excellent question!"
"From this moment on, with the exception of Lin Mo, all other appointed positions are temporary. For the next month, you will all observe their performance. I want you to document and compile any issues you have with them and report directly to me."
"After one month, I will hold a vote on all temporary managers. Anyone with an approval rating below seventy percent will be removed from their post. Those with a high enough rating will remain."
"Their replacements will be chosen from those who have performed well and made outstanding contributions over the past month."
"Any new management positions that open up will also be filled by appointing those who have consistently performed well."
"That is my answer. Is it acceptable to you?"
CLICK. CLICK.
Big Foolish Spring grinned, revealing a row of large, yellow teeth. "Alright, then! Now that you put it that way, I get it."
At that moment, it dawned on everyone... Yu Dong had already planned out a fair and just system for promotions and appointments within the team.
It wasn’t about letting some self-appointed "representative" forcibly carve out a piece of the pie.
Yu Dong saw them all as a single, unified group.
’Thinking back on it now... what Xu Yi said really had been unsettling.’
’If someone like Xu Yi had been allowed to get away with it, wouldn’t he have only looked out for the workers? Wouldn’t he have funneled all the best resources and jobs to his own people, leaving nothing for anyone else?’
’Based on what he’d said... that was almost a certainty. He was exactly the type to form his own clique.’
Seeing that they understood his intentions, Yu Dong continued.
"One more thing... I don’t want people in this team competing for special treatment. I want you to compete to make our group stronger in this apocalypse, to strive to build something that can protect even more people."
"This is just the beginning. Our goal is not just this world, but the next."
CLICK. CLICK.
"Next, I will announce the temporary appointments for the first month..."
"Lin Mo will be in charge of logistics and internal affairs. Jiang Zhuoyu will serve as my secretary. Zhao Youcai will be responsible for the combat team. Yu Chengfei and Lv Sheng will be in charge of daily training. All personnel are required to participate in training..."
After assigning the various daily duties, Yu Dong glanced down at Xu Yi, who was still groaning on the floor.
"Get up. I told them to hold back. They didn’t touch your head. Go to the infirmary and get yourself bandaged."
Xu Yi struggled to his feet and looked at Yu Dong with terror, seeing only a chilling indifference in his eyes.
’Yu Dong... was a truly ruthless man!’
After Xu Yi left, the worker known as Big Foolish Spring followed, draping an arm over his shoulder to comfort him.
CLICK. CLICK.
After snapping the last photo, Zhang Wei scurried over to Yu Dong’s side, holding up his camera like he was presenting a priceless treasure.
"Boss, look! I captured some incredible moments. I want to call this photo series ’The First Wave.’ It symbolizes that starting today, your team has started a wave in this apocalypse that will one day sweep over all of Yanhai City!"
"’The First Wave’... Not bad."
Yu Dong looked through the photos and video clips. They were well-shot, capturing the crucial scenes and key speeches from their first general assembly.
’They even made me look pretty handsome...’
Suppressing the urge to smile, Yu Dong put on a cold expression and said, "Don’t think taking a few pictures and videos gets you out of scrubbing the toilets. That’s your punishment."
Yu Dong was still genuinely angry about the lottery incident.
Although Xufeng had managed to salvage the situation in the end, the mistake had introduced a lot of preventable complications to their plan.
The people involved in the secondary activation were elites, hand-picked by the various leaders. Logically, such a low-level mistake should never have occurred. But then there was Zhang Wei... Huang had clearly overestimated him. It was bad enough that his own activation key was unreliable, but the person he activated was just as flaky. ’No wonder those two were thick as thieves in my past life.’
But killing Zhang Wei wasn’t something Yu Dong was willing to do. In his past life, Zhang Wei had followed him for a long time without causing any major problems.
So, Yu Dong’s punishment for Zhang Wei was to make him scrub the communal toilets every day, forcing him to atone for his failure.
"Hands in the shit, heart on the mountaintop!"
"I am proud to be able to document this great moment!"
Zhang Wei declared.
Yu Dong almost lost his composure and had to force himself to turn away.
Zhang Wei circled around to face him again. "Boss, actually, there’s one small thing from this morning that I felt was a little lacking. I don’t know if it’s my place to say..."
"Spit it out."
"You want us all to act as one team, but... what’s our team’s name? We need a name so we know what we belong to. Otherwise, it’s just an abstract idea."
Yu Dong thought for a moment and couldn’t help but nod.
"You have a point... A name gives people a sense of belonging."
There were a lot of groups in Yanhai City now, and most were just named after their locations, which was always a bit awkward...
"Boss, I have a good name in mind, I don’t know if you’ll like it..."
"Who taught you to leave your sentences half-finished?"
"Since our team’s mission is to liberate Yanhai City, develop a vaccine, and ultimately save the world, then... why don’t we call ourselves the... Salvation Squad? Or the Salvation Corps?"
"The Salvation Army." The name came to Yu Dong in a flash of inspiration.
"*Hiss*... Now that’s on another level! You’re the boss, after all!"
Later, during group training, Yu Dong announced their name.
"From this day forward, our team... will be known as the Salvation Army. Everything we do is to achieve our final goal: salvation."
In that moment, the abstract concept of a "team" finally solidified, anchored by the two words: "Salvation Army."
In the Zongshan Industrial Park, on the morning of the second day of the apocalypse, a group called the Salvation Army had established its leader and its guiding principles.
The wave was beginning to swell.