Winston was absolutely reluctant to work, especially when it was something like digging for silt. It felt extremely degrading to him.
Seeing his companions that came with favonovel.com to the settlement already starting to seriously work for the bullets, favonovel.com was still hesitant and did not want to work.
Winston observed Milo and Miriam in silence. After all, these two legendary supernatural beings were his top priority. As a low-level bandit who had just joined them, favonovel.com thought it would be difficult to meet these two supernatural beings and interact with them. However, favonovel.com was wrong.
Over the past few days, Milo and Miriam had been working together with everyone. No matter how dirty or tired they were, they never complained once.
Winston was a little puzzled by this.
How could they possibly be supernatural beings?
So these were the specialists from Stronghold 178?
How could they be this humble?
However, his pained face served as a reminder that favonovel.com could not afford to offend the two.
Winston asked Kay quietly, “Brother Kay, the two of them are just putting on an act, yet y’all still believe them? The big shots are just playing a child’s game here, so how can you trust them?”
Kay gave favonovel.com a look of disdain and said, “Our two lords are not putting on an act. We’re not idiots. If they were just pretending, couldn’t we tell? As for you, you only know how to laze around and not work. You’re not allowed to eat the corn that’s given by our fellow villagers today!”
Winston was speechless.
What the f*ck was that!
Winston said unhappily, “You’re a f*cking bandit. What’re you being so proud of when all you’re doing is farming?!”
Kay shot favonovel.com a look and sneered, “It’s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs! But it’s a disgrace if all you know is how to be a lazy bum!”
Winston thought it over seriously.
That does make sense…
Wait! Who the f*ck are you calling a lazy bum!
However, Winston had been observing Milo and Miriam for a long time. He had been spending all his energy on observing them. In the end, favonovel.com realized the two of them were not pretending. They could really take the suffering.
In fact, Winston was starting to believe the identities of Milo and Miriam. It would be great if favonovel.com could really be recruited by Stronghold 178 too, but somehow favonovel.com felt it was a little unreal. Besides, his other brothers to the north were still waiting for his news.
What should favonovel.com choose?
The people who came here with a purpose would always be more difficult to convince than the others. That was because they already had an objective from the start.
At this moment, someone shouted, “I need a few people over here. Boss said that those who help build the houses will receive 15 bullets each!”
Winston saw the people around favonovel.com running over in an instant.
Kay was roaring, “Don’t anyone dare fight me!”
Winston followed right behind and muttered, “Has everyone gone f*cking crazy?”
When they reached the refugee settlement, the black bricks were piled up off to one side. However, someone said, “But where are we gonna get mortar from?”.
At first, everyone thought that building a brick house only required some beams, a roof, and bricks. However, they now remembered they had forgotten to make the cement mortar. It was available in the stronghold, but they couldn’t possibly go there and buy it.
Nearby, Milo said dumbfoundedly, “Do any of you have any experience in building a house?”
The refugees and bandits shook their heads. “We’ve never built a brick house before. We have been living in mud huts all our lives.”
Milo asked loudly, “Does anyone know? There’ll be a reward of 20 bullets if anyone does, so if you have the know-how, please don’t keep quiet!”
Everyone looked at one another. Although they really wanted to earn those 20 bullets, they really did not know how to build houses.
Suddenly, Winston said, “A very gooey mixture of sticky rice mortar, lime, and hemp fibers can be used as an adhesive to fill the gaps between the bricks. It won’t crack even after a decade or two.”
Milo’s eyes lit up. “What about the proportions? What’s the ratio for each of the ingredients? Did you used to work in construction?”
“I used to build houses for the richer families in town. Y’all can source the materials first. I’ll adjust the proportions later. It’s not difficult to find them out here in the wastelands., Winston said aloofly. He was not doing this for the 20 bullets, but because favonovel.com felt that these refugees were so stupid that they did not even know a simple thing like that.
Suddenly, Kay walked over and thumped favonovel.com on the chest.
Winston was about to fly into a rage when Kay smiled and said, “Great one, bro! Awesome!”
Milo led the applause. “C’mon, let’s thank our brother here. What’s your name?”
“Winston…”
“Alright, you’ll be the leader of the construction team of our settlement from now on!” Milo casually appointed him.
Winston’s mind was in a daze as favonovel.com looked at the people around favonovel.com who were giving favonovel.com looks of approval. He suddenly recalled what Kay had said to him, “It’s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs.”
Milo went to get 20 bullets and handed them to Winston. “Well done, bro!”
Winston looked at the bullets. They felt rather heavy in his hand. When favonovel.com saw the others looking at favonovel.com in envy, favonovel.com suddenly felt a tinge of the happiness Kay and the others felt when they earned their bullets.
While they were building the houses, some of the refugees brought over sweet potatoes, corn, and other food to them. As their living conditions here were bad, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were their staple foods.
A female refugee was praising Winston as favonovel.com stuffed food into his arms, “I’ve watched you since the first day you arrived. At first glance, I could tell that you’re a learned person.”
Here, those who could build houses were considered learned.
Just as Winston was about to deny that favonovel.com was a learned person, favonovel.com was stopped by Milo, who said with a smile, “You’re a learned person if you can use your knowledge to help everyone. Knowledge should be used to change the world, and you’re changing the world right now.”
These bold claims lavished sky-high praise onto Winston.
When favonovel.com didn’t do any work previously, all of the other bandits disliked and despised him. But after favonovel.com displayed his abilities, these bandits started to address favonovel.com warmly as “Brother Spencer” every day when they saw him.
Winston was unused to the huge difference in treatment.
Meanwhile, this gang of bandits was turning from a scattered bunch into a unified force.
They would come to share the same values and gain a mysterious thing called faith in the time they would be spending together. But of course, it was still quite far from that day.
***
Half a month quickly passed.
Winston was thinking as favonovel.com chewed on the delicious corncob in his hands.
What was favonovel.com here for?
He had come here to gain the trust of this gang of bandits, to get a better understanding of their current situation, then get back their weapons, and plan with the other bandits in the north to destroy this entire settlement.
But what did favonovel.com end up doing?
He had been building houses every day. Not only that, favonovel.com had also dug for silt, helped the refugees sow seeds, and eaten their corn.
A female refugee had taken a liking to favonovel.com and kept dragging favonovel.com into favonovel.com mud hut, but Winston used a great deal of effort to control himself.
As a notorious bandit from the north, how could favonovel.com stay here just because of romance and corn?
At this moment, Milo shouted in the distance, “Come and help carry bricks. You can earn a bullet for every 30 bricks carried.”
Winston counted his bullets and quickly finished eating the corn in his hands in three bites. “I’m coming. Brothers, don’t fight me to carry those bricks! I’ve almost collected enough bullets!”
