Yama Reborn-Chapter 576 - 573: The Town in Turmoil

Chapter 573: [The Town in Wartime]

At dawn, the distant sound of shelling had ceased, indicating that the nearby battle had come to an end.

In the morning, Chen Nuo stood on the balcony of the master bedroom at the Mayor Mansion, looking out at the town.

This balcony had a great position, facing the town’s largest main road. Moreover, as the highest building in the town, the mansion provides a panoramic view, perfectly overlooking the entire town.

From the north road of the town, a convoy could be seen slowly driving forward.

Leading the way was an armed off-road vehicle, with a machine gun mounted on it. Several mercenaries in black military uniforms sat on the vehicle with their guns.

Behind it were two multi-wheeled transport trucks.

After the convoy entered the town, it headed towards the International Hospital along the main road.

"Should be transporting the wounded," behind him, Lu Xixi had walked over and handed Chen Nuo a cup of coffee: "Do you want to go and take a look?"

"Forget it." Chen Nuo shook his head.

Lu Xixi sensed that Chen Nuo’s mood was somewhat off and asked, "What’s wrong with you?"

"I feel a bit uncomfortable inside."

Lu Xixi looked at Chen Nuo with confusion.

Chen Nuo sighed: "To achieve the Octopus Monster’s goals, humans here must endure the ravages of war. With any of his whims, humans can be made to toil for him, die for him, bleed for him.

This lofty stance, as a human, really feels quite annoying to watch."

Lu Xixi pondered for a moment, then spoke softly: "Find a chance to kill him?"

Chen Nuo sighed: "I’m afraid this chance is hard to come by."

To be honest, among all the Seeds, Chen Nuo currently felt the strongest aversion towards Kamisou Ichiro.

As for Seed, we won’t mention him; his actions haven’t harmed humans at least for now, and he even once detonated a Mother Clone, causing the Life Element to spread, triggering evolutionary changes akin to a big bang on this planet.

Gray Cat is even less of a concern, having long exited the Seeds’ war.

It now willingly lives as a cat, posing no harm to humans.

At most, it plagues a few feline creatures and becomes an annoying cat.

What’s the harm in that?

As for The Fourth Seed, it has always remained hidden in the shadows, rarely interfering with the human secular world.

·

Only Kamisou Ichiro!

He seems like a divine being on high, overseeing and driving humans.

With a mere thought, he can grant or take away!

Humans in the secular society, from nobility to commoners, are merely toys in his hands, at his whim to play with.

Such a superior life form, with its posture of overlooking and enslaving lower life forms, gives Chen Nuo the strongest sense of resistance.

·

In the morning, Chen Nuo still visited the International Hospital.

The Mercenary Corps delivered seven wounded, one of whom was critically injured and had passed away.

The remaining six wounded soldiers were placed on a floor that had been cleared out—reportedly more wounded would be transported here later.

The hospital guards had already been taken over by the Mercenary Corps. The guard officer, whom Chen Nuo once shared a cigarette with, and his men had been absorbed, disarmed, and assigned as logistics workers.

The hospital had stopped accepting ordinary civilian patients—the Mercenary Corps strongly demanded this action.

Although the doctors expressed opposition, well... they had guns.

During intense disputes, some doctors furiously refused to treat these [war criminals], leading to them being put under house arrest by the Mercenary Corps that occupied the hospital.

Upon arriving and learning of the situation, Chen Nuo called over the commander of the remaining mercenaries at the hospital and instructed him a few things.

The mercenary commander left in charge of the hospital had to abide by Chen Nuo’s orders.

The final result was the release of the doctors and the setting aside of a separate area on the hospital’s ground floor to continue providing limited medical care to civilians.

Throughout the day, several transport trucks arrived at the hospital in the afternoon, delivering twenty more wounded and sick.

However, Chen Nuo’s expression grew increasingly cold, and his eyes became complicated.

Lu Xixi visited the hospital in the afternoon, bringing some food to Chen Nuo, and stayed here with him.

"You’re waiting here, for what?" Lu Xixi asked Chen Nuo.

Chen Nuo shook his head: "Perhaps, waiting... for nothing."

"What?"

"The wounded."

"Haven’t they been delivered already?"

Chen Nuo took a deep breath, his face very solemn, and slowly said: "Did you notice? All the wounded delivered today are mercenaries organized by the Octopus Monster.

It’s impossible that none of the local forces or armed groups they fought against sent any wounded."

Lu Xixi fell silent.

```

The hospital director, upon hearing the conversation between the two, slowly spoke.

"They are not any country’s government army; they are private armed forces, mercenaries—so they don’t have to adhere to the Geneva Convention."

By evening, Chen Nuo saw... in the north side of the hospital, deep within the jungle across the river north of the town.

From a distant place, a thick smoke billowed into the sky.

Although it is daytime, the fire is not obvious, but the black smoke column shot straight into the sky.

After taking a glance, Chen Nuo sighed and said to Lu Xixi, "Let’s go back."

"Aren’t we waiting?"

"No need to wait."

Chen Nuo pointed at the distant black smoke column.

"Do you know what that is? That’s the smoke from burning corpses.

Such a big smoke column must have come from burning a great many corpses."

·

On the third day of hostilities, refugees began appearing on the northern road of the town.

Families dragging their kin, assisting the elderly and the young, began pouring into the town.

The African cook at the mansion told Chen Nuo that these were from villages on the opposite side of the northern jungle—those villages belong to the power and influence of different tribes and armed organizations.

These refugees barely reached the village, lacking food, clean drinking water, and medications—a lot of them were wounded.

Some were accidentally injured in military conflicts.

The roads on either side of the town’s northern entrance were occupied by refugees.

The mercenaries set up roadblocks on the road north of the town, refusing to let these refugees enter, forcing them to remain on the empty land beside the road outside the town.

The International Medical Organization at the International Hospital sent some humanitarian aid.

After negotiations with the mercenary organization in the town, some of the seriously wounded refugees were transported to the hospital.

Chen Nuo did not interfere with the mercenaries’ actions in blocking the town to refuse entry to refugees.

It’s not just because he is no saint—Yama certainly isn’t a saint!

But also because the actions of the mercenaries actually garnered support from the town’s local residents.

The local residents indeed resisted the entry of these refugees.

On one hand, the local customs here are inherently complicated, and there is hatred between different tribes; the visiting refugee tribe and the local town residents might have had bad relations before.

On another hand, too many incoming refugees can also lead to a sense of insecurity among the town residents regarding their safety status.

And soon, a conflict erupted.

Because the mercenaries sent people into the refugee area to conduct searches to eliminate potential dangers.

As expected, they discovered over ten deserters from the anti-government forces disguised among the refugees.

These individuals were captured, and some were found hiding guns, quickly being executed by the mercenaries.

This action caused an uproar and emotional resistance within the refugee camp.

However, facing the heavily armed mercenaries, the refugees did not dare to make overly intense moves.

But later, because of the drinking water issue, conflicts erupted with the town.

The hospital’s international organization had already made efforts to allocate some food and drinking water from hospital reserves to assist the refugee camp.

And the refugees, during their escape, carried some food with them.

Relying on these, they could temporarily sustain for a few days.

But drinking water was very scarce.

The town sends a water delivery truck to the refugee camp every day.

But with over 500 people gathered in the refugee camp, the need for drinking water under the hot weather was barely met by the daily water supplies—the water truck is small, not one of those heavy-duty trucks.

In such a rundown town in Africa, where could one find a large truck?

Chen Nuo had seen that water truck; it was about the size of a small domestic vehicle.

How much water could it carry?

Recently, the young and strong among the refugees organized to go through the jungle to fetch water from the river, barely enough for the refugee camp’s use.

But upon discovering the refugees’ own initiative to fetch water from the river, the town stopped the daily water truck.

This action caused an uproar and intense resistance within the refugee camp.

After all, the river is a few kilometers away from the town. The daily round trips to fetch water were already a heavy burden. With the town stopping its water truck...

Finally, on the fourth day, a violent conflict occurred between the refugee camp and the town.

The refugees gathered at the isolation roadblock north of the town, growing in numbers and starting to create a commotion.

Some even threw stones into the town.

At the edge of the town, some residents’ homes were hit by stones, breaking some glass, and injuring some people.

Thus, both sides began to confront each other. The angry residents and thirsty refugees started attacking each other with stones in a desperate manner.

The mercenaries stationed at the town gate initially did not intend to get involved.

But soon, the situation escalated when some emotionally extreme individuals in the chaotic crowd began throwing torches.

The thrown torches sparked a small fire, and only after the flames started did the mercenaries finally step in.

After a bout of gunfire, the crowd scattered.

Seven or eight people were killed in the refugee camp, and their bodies fell in the middle of the road.

The mercenaries rushed onto the road, dragged the corpses to the side, and poured gasoline on them to burn them on the spot.

This action drew hateful looks from the refugees.

What made the refugees even angrier was that when the mercenaries intervened, they didn’t harm the local residents but directly shot at the refugees to disperse them.

To put it more simply,

The refugees in these African tribal villages have basically received no modern education and adhere to extremely simple moral standards and behaviors.

You could describe them as simple.

But the other side of simplicity is ignorance, and the ignorance that comes with lack of knowledge can easily turn into brutality in extreme circumstances.

That night, for revenge, a group of young, strong refugees attempted to sneak into the mercenaries’ barracks guarding the roadblock at the town gate, seeking revenge or trying to steal weapons.

Then they were killed by the elite mercenaries.

Among the dead were three black teenagers who appeared to be underage.

At dawn, the mercenaries took a cruel approach, directly hanging the bodies at the town gate!

Family members of the deceased in the refugee camp tried to rush in to retrieve the bodies, but were harshly driven away by the mercenaries at gunpoint.

There was a pause for two days, but within the refugee camp, resentful looks grew more frequent.

·

On the seventh day, although the number of refugees outside the town wasn’t officially counted, visual estimation suggested there were no less than two thousand people.

The International Hospital made its best effort and sent another medical team into the refugee camp to provide some medical aid.

The mercenaries refused to let the medical organization bring critically ill refugees into the town hospital.

These doctors could only enter the refugee camp to treat the patients.

It must be said, these medical personnel willing to come to Africa embody great love.

This kind of voluntary medical aid to Africa comes without much compensation for all the medical staff.

To joke, you could say the doctors here are saints.

Saints, not fake saints.

Saints feed others with their own flesh.

Fake saints take generosity from others.

In all honesty, Chen Nuo naturally detests the kind of fake saints who say "You’re wealthy, why not donate to the poor?"

However, he admires the true saints who sacrifice themselves to help others.

Of course, it’s just admiration—he wouldn’t do it himself.

The mercenaries obviously don’t care for these saint doctors, so after negotiation, they tacitly agreed to allow a medical team to enter the refugee camp every few days—granting passage.

But the mercenaries did not assign personnel to go with the medical team for protection.

Mercenaries are paid to take risks.

With no income, they naturally wouldn’t want to risk entering the refugee camp full of hostile looks.

This is easy to understand.

After learning about this situation, Chen Nuo thought for a while and consulted the four Special Ability Users at the Mayor Mansion.

If they were willing, he invited them to accompany the medical team into the refugee camp to provide some protection for those doctors with great love.

Of course, under the premise of willingness, Chen Nuo expressed willingness to pay some compensation.

The reason Chen Nuo did this was precisely because he is very aware of the evil in human nature.

Don’t assume that refugees are all good people.

Once again, the other side of simplicity is ignorance, and ignorance from lack of knowledge can easily turn into brutality.

To put it bluntly, in extreme conditions, the beasts hidden among the crowd can’t help but show their fangs.

There are scum in peaceful and prosperous societies.

Let alone in a situation of hunger and hardship?

·

Facts proved Chen Nuo’s idea correct.

The four Ability Users accompanied the medical team into the refugee camp, and encountered incidents just on the second visit.

Some refugees—perhaps naturally brain-dead idiots—regardless of their motives, tried to kidnap the doctors from the medical team and rob the medication.

Alek, part of the Special Ability User group, who had previous interactions with Chen Nuo and a military background, decisively acted without hesitation, killing four or five people on the spot, then led the medical team personnel straight out from the refugee camp.

According to his companions, they ended up killing at least a dozen people along the way.

Alek was extremely decisive in his actions.

Initially, only three to five scumbags may have attacked the medical team.

But once the bloodshed occurred, all the surrounding spectators were refugees, and stimulated by the dead bodies and bloodshed, many days of resentment and dissatisfaction quickly turned into brutality.

Alek was not in the mood to differentiate, and just led the people out while killing.

If anyone tried to block or showed hostility—kill them directly!

"I’ve encountered such situations before, stopping to reason with them at such times? That’s simply a joke.

If you don’t leave, surrounded by a crowd, and if a group incident erupts, with the group insanity, in a crowd of two thousand, if anyone takes the lead in acting, they will frenetically attack.

Although we’re not afraid, there are still several people in the medical team, so we can only quickly kill our way out."

Some might genuinely feel bewildered:

These medical team people came to aid the refugees! Didn’t the refugees understand that offending the medical team will only hurt themselves in the future?

We can only say...

Ignorance is an extremely terrifying thing.

In a group where the majority are ignorant and uneducated, foresight becomes a luxury.

Following this incident, the hospital also had to stop dispatching medical teams into the refugee camp.

Alek and a few other Special Ability Users didn’t care about the refugees’ life or death.

In Alek’s words: "Not my business. I never liked black people anyway."

Hmm... Chen Nuo instead found this Alek guy quite agreeable.

When he initially commissioned a few Ability Users to protect the medical team entering the refugee camp...

He actually didn’t like black people either.

The only reason he did this was due to admiration for those truly loving international aid doctors.

True saints are worthy of admiration.

They don’t take generosity from others; they genuinely sacrifice themselves to help others.

Chen Nuo couldn’t do it, but he admired it.

·

On the tenth day, based on the report from the Mercenary Army commander at the Mayor Mansion.

The Octopus Monster organization’s military operation mobilized over two thousand elite mercenaries to launch an offensive, sweeping away armed forces of four different tribes within a few hundred kilometers, along with three long-term entrenched anti-government forces.

And the nation’s weak government finally dispatched a government army to this town.

It seems the quality of these government troops is on par with the anti-government forces.

Uniforms are ragged, vehicles are outdated.

Even firearms models aren’t unified.

According to the mercenary commander’s words: "We could defeat them with a single charge."

The arrival of these government troops clearly signifies some agreement with the Octopus Monster, coming here to take over the refugee camp.

The arriving government troops, however, only consist of a mere few dozen people.

Facing a refugee camp now numbering several thousand, the leader of this government army was immediately overwhelmed.

The political situation in this small African country can be summarized in one word: chaotic.

The so-called government is merely the largest force among various small warlords.

Its occupied territory includes only the capital city and a few nearby towns.

Merely a nominal government.

The leader dispatched to take over the refugee camp was evidently a loser who got stuck with an unprofitable, thankless job—otherwise, such a position wouldn’t fall to him.

However, he had a special status—he was the brother-in-law of the original mayor of this town driven away by the Octopus Monster.

Considering that the former mayor had seven or eight wives.

God knows how many brothers-in-law he had.

This mayor’s brother-in-law brought thirty soldiers, over a dozen government officials, a truckload of supplies, and an old, battered bus from who knows where.

Facing over thousands of refugees...

The look on his black face seemed a bit pale.

But he did have some wits, he immediately thought of an idea.

Ran to the guards at the roadblock at the town gate, the stationed mercenaries, and made a request.

"I want to see the highest-ranking commander currently in the town!"

·

Half an hour later, this guy was brought to the Mayor Mansion and appeared in front of Chen Nuo.