Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 273: Wounded Strangers from the Wild Portal

The military camp at Cardona became lively due to the arrival of two wounded strangers. Both were men in their twenties and only has slight difference in age.

The younger one had sharp facial features as if he was a short-tempered individual. He had short hair rich in volume, tied on the midsection like bundled reeds, that reached up to his shoulders.

The older man had long flowing hair that reached his waist. If it weren't for the overflowing masucilinity coming off from his body, he could be mistaken as a girl due to his calm-innocent appearance.

Both of them were unconscious, lying down on the town plaza. They wore black and white kimono soaked with blood from the cuts and bites all over the limbs. Some dried blood didn't even belong to them.

Based on their facial appearance and the way they dressed, these two appear like they were some commoners from the medieval times.

As the town manager, Luke Baslot was forced to deal with the matter. There was no one who could make decisions on the military camp since they were all reserve soldiers and in no right position to interfere.

Luke decided to help the two strangers but kept them under surveillance at all times. He also informed Gilbert about it since he was the only person he could really ask for help at the moment. 

Instead of hurrying to get medicine and treat the two, Gilbert ordered the reserve soldiers to bring their bodies towards the river.

From then on, people witnessed the powers that humans could achieve.

With a sway of his arms, a small tide of water was forced to the riverbank and enveloped the wounded bodies. Together with additional energy and intent, he was able to relieve the pain and give a slight recovery to the two strangers.

Although he knew that it would work, Gilbert was still surprised when it actually happened. Black Haven's research was available exclusively to trustworthy people. As the head of the town that takes care of the Tree of Life, old and new discoveries were available to him.

Most of the skills originate from something, then branches out to do another thing. One could also learn a different variety of skills and the only requirement would be one's intention.

With water's healing nature, Gilbert tried and succeeded.

Afterward, the unconscious youngsters were brought to the military camp to be watched. 

Gilbert told Luke to inform Evo about the event and everyone went back to their posts. 

The arrival of random people through the red portals raised awareness of possible unfortunate events that could happen and future security breaches.

With the event as a reminder, Evo was able to convince Jun to recruit more soldiers to defend their towns.

Not everyone is interested to die and work as a soldier.

Unless one has something to protect or you have high enough benefits for people to consider it.

Jun already has three towns under him, four if the newly repopulated Cardona would be considered. Angono and Morong were the two towns he had the highest control with, while Cardona and Binangonan had small groups marking their bases.

With around seven thousand people in total, he had a good reputation over six thousand of them. Recruiting would become much easier if he raised the salary since people would be willing to take the risk.

And he planned to do it.

Raising the soldier's salaries, more benefits; insurance and the like.

In the first place, he doesn't need to worry about running out of money.

Worst case scenario, inflation could happen and he just needs to increase the price of essential things. No one could really argue since he had control over weapon and food productions for the entire region.

But there were things that must be announced first.

When passing by Angono to create an outpost for Taytay, Jun met with Marvin and was given a piece of great news.

The new laws were finally finished.

Rene Galacia produced a set of laws that also acts as a contract.

There were two sets of laws. 

For the civilians and for the army.

Rene Galicia's newly composed laws were of the same nature as the old government's laws. His version just heavily emphasizes the citizenship of an individual. 

In general, the new proposed laws revolve around several things.

The tax collected from the people, the protection offered, rewards and punishment dished out to the people.

They were practically ripped off from the old government and Jun likes it. These were the core laws, and they were quite simple. Due to its simplistic design, anyone could understand them after roughly reading them.

Also, thanks to its simplistic design, it could be easily amended and anything could be added in the future!

Black Haven citizens would be protected at all costs from all kinds of mutated monsters. However, they would be taxed for a small percentage of their monthly earnings.

They were charged monthly because they can die at any time.

For paying taxes monthly, they would be protected from all threats.

Anyone who caught causing trouble would be imprisoned or killed depending on the final decision of the military court. While those who worked well and serve with all their hearts could be promoted to exemplary positions.

Everyone would be given a copy of the laws and would have to sign their names on it. This would force them to abide by the laws that acted as hidden contracts.

As a security measure, Jun decided to ban anyone who doesn't sign the contract-laws from using all the facilities of Black Haven. The stat buffs, the mission panel, auction house, and the CP account cards.

Not signing the contract-laws meant that they don't want to be citizens of Black Haven, so why should they be granted access to all of Black Haven facilities, right?

After his encounter with Rene, Jun realized that he had a lot of things needed to set up. The first was the military court. The new law already mentioned it before he even established it.

That's fine though.

Since the Black Haven army structure was already decided, he could just select the top Directors as members of the military court.

While pondering about things, he also gained an inspiration about military ranks. With the current setup, people would have the same ranks and could easily reach the top ranks after some promotions.

That's why Jun decided to create ten tiers for every rank.

Everyone would start from the lowest rank after passing their training period. Reserve Soldiers could also be considered as having the Trainee Rank.

After successfully passing the training period, they would be promoted to Tier 1 Rank & File. Whereas after reaching Tier 10, they could wait for further promotion, which would bring them to the next rank, Team Leader. If they worked hard and successfully climbed the ladder from Tier 1 to Tier 10, they would be taken for evaluation to become Managers.

As for the Director position, Jun needs to see whether he could trust a person or not before making a decision. They also need to have some sort of understanding between each since Directors work directly under him.

Jun informed Evo about the "Oath-taking" ceremony and the military recruitment plans he had in mind.

Although not peaceful, Evo still agreed with Jun. Besides, having strict control over their citizens would be better than having to regret later when people got used to the easy life and cause rebellions.

The outpost at Taytay was chosen to be the Club Manila East Resort. They were near the red portal and at equal distance with the cemetery and wild dungeon. If they want to continue making sure that the town stays safe, then they must guard these points of interest.

There were increased sightings of armed military officers while establishing an area of control in Taytay. However, no crossfire happened and both groups left each other alone.

Time progressed as usual and night came.

The soldiers in training returned back to the military camp at Cardona and found out about the captives.

As the Director in charge of the training camp. King's first action was to visit their guests.

The two injured strangers have already awoken before the night came. Unfortunately, not a single person could understand them since the two were speaking a different language.

Luke ignored the problem and let the military camp take care of it. Dealing with strangers coming out of red portals wasn't mentioned in his job description.

With bits and pieces of interaction; through drawings, the reserve soldiers were able to learn some things about the strangers.

Even if one doesn't know how to speak another language, drawing was another universal communication tool regularly underestimated.

King observed the drawings on the bunch of papers given to him.

From his observation, the two men were relatives; most likely brothers. Their city was overrun by mutated monsters and ghostly spirits. Afterward, they fought their way to get out of the city but were forced to escape by jumping into the red portal.