Cave Refuge

Because of this, when Zachary, through his Divine Sense, noticed that the raider's ears were continuously twitching, it was very likely that he was trying to rely on his ability to discern locations by sound. This way, he would be able to detect Zachary's direction the next time Zachary prepared to attack.

As long as they could confirm the location of the stealth attacker, despite being trapped here at the moment, they thought it would be very easy to give Zachary, the assailant, a lesson.

In fact, even if Zachary revealed his position, he estimated that their attacks would not pose any significant danger to him.

Even though the Awakeners still haven't sustained any injuries, and all the snake swarms were unable to get within twenty meters of them, all the Awakeners remained in their strongest combat state.

But, with the tactics displayed so far, they weren't even qualified to face Zachary directly. If Zachary wished, he could use his Sword Control Technique and decapitate them all in an instant.

Although Zachary could slay all these people instantaneously at any time, this was after all Madeline's camp. Although everyone would agree to relocate after the retreat of the black snake swarm, Zachary was curious to see what methods Madeline would use to deal with the invaders.

In reality, even if Zachary hadn't acted, Madeline had many ways to swiftly deal with the raiders. Once in control of an entire fleet, Madeline certainly had powerful weapons at her disposal, similar to the cannons by her side.

It was unclear whether the raiders were just lucky or they sensed the situation around them and deliberately chose their location.

Merely separated by one building from them, on the other side of the street where the raiders were located, docked a Companion Spiritual Treasure supporting many survivors from the camp, who were sheltering inside from the black snakes' attack.

The two cannons beside Madeline were no ordinary cannons; they were high-caliber guns that could destroy small boats with just one shot, and the equipped ammunition could easily demolish a small warship with just a single round.

If it were not for Madeline's concern for the safety of the camp's survivors, she would have fired without hesitation, not merely displaying the cannons as a show of force.

The poor rely on tactics, the rich on overwhelming firepower.

Although there was basically no new ammo production, and every piece of Ammunition was precious, compared to most forces, Madeline had always been in the wealthy class, both before and now. Further, due to Master Ye and Robinson William's positions before the Natural Disaster, Madeline easily accessed various standard weapons and Ammunition after the Disaster.

Even after entering the Natural Disaster era, Madeline was fortunate to encounter Zachary, the "supplier," early on. Though her business had its ups and downs, it was profitable for the most part.

Although Madeline was a merchant, soon after entering the Natural Disaster era, she quickly grasped the notion, "If my neighbors hoard grain, I'll hoard guns; my neighbors are my Granary."

Therefore, apart from maintaining the working capital for her business, Madeline consistently spent money purchasing various firearms and Ammunition. Initially, because of Storage space concerns, Madeline primarily followed a principle of purchasing fewer but quality weapons. After all, carrying a vast arsenal wasn't just difficult, but storage alone was a challenge.

But when Madeline discovered that her Companion Spiritual Treasure could get a special Storage space by choosing the Bearing branch evolution, she first, at great cost, upgraded her own Spiritual Treasure and then, even if it meant spending her last penny, increased the Storage space.

Even penniless afterward, leveraging the early stockpile of weapons, her income gradually increased. After all, doing business without any cost is a favorite way to accumulate resources.

It was because of this past that, despite Madeline normally haggling with Zachary over some ordinary materials for ages. It wasn't merely because they had a good relationship - Madeline had always been unable to discern Zachary's true strength. Every time she thought she had estimated his upper limit, Zachary would soon refresh her understanding of him in their subsequent interactions.

As this occurred more frequently, Madeline gradually let go of her inner apprehensions and began to engage Zachary with an attitude of equality, trading with him.

However, aside from the inscrutable Zachary, when Madeline dealt with other trading parties, her attitude would vary greatly, especially towards those who broke the rules first and those whom she had the power to directly eliminate. Madeline didn't mind revisiting her past experiences.

After the flood disaster, most merchants seemed to have been transported back to the Age of Great Voyages. Inside the cities established by officials, they were trusty merchants with pleasant demeanors, but once they left the cities to conduct business outside, their ordinary convoy could very quickly and smoothly transform into pirate ships, hunting any vessel that appeared before them with insufficient power.

Because of this past experience, Madeline not only stocked up on a large quantity of regular firearms and ammunition, but she also acquired a significant number of highly destructive missiles.

However, compared to firearms that could be used immediately, the missile launchers—if stored in the Storage Space—would occupy a vast space. Thus, for the time being, Madeline had not stocked up on missile launchers, so even though she had missiles in her possession, she could only use them as slightly more powerful explosives.

Indeed, because she controlled so many powerful weapons, Madeline was not concerned when raiding groups suddenly appeared.

After all, even without the numerous black snakes appearing in the camp, Madeline firmly believed she could keep her enemies at a distance of thousands of miles, never allowing these raiding groups to enter the camp.

Even if the raiding groups managed to enter the camp, Madeline had many 'top-quality goods' as her trump cards.

However, these suddenly emerged black snakes not only blocked the raiders' attack on the camp, but also affected her efforts to gather the ordinary survivors.

Zachary answered the phone in his hand and heard Madeline ask in a very relaxed tone, "Zachary, are those remaining raiders gathering together yet?"

"Indeed, they are together, what now, are you really planning to open fire?"

Standing on the rooftop, Zachary naturally also saw the Companion Spiritual Treasure just a room's distance away from the raiders and noticed that some people were hiding inside that Companion Spiritual Treasure.

Naturally, he was aware of the power of the two cannons Madeline had placed beside her. So, based on his understanding of Madeline, given the situation where she held an absolute advantage, Madeline would not immediately choose to sacrifice the camp's survivors to annihilate the remaining raiders.

Instead, she would first attempt some more reliable strategies, of course, predicated on Madeline holding an absolute advantage. After all, only when one is in a position of absolute strength does one try to minimize losses. If one is at an absolute disadvantage, any price would be worth paying for a chance to turn the tide.

For this reason, Madeline did not directly answer Zachary's question but instead asked again, "How many raiders are left now, and can you give me a rough estimate of their strength?"

Hearing Madeline's question, Zachary asked curiously, "Why do you ask about their strength? Are you planning to arrange for a melee combat with them?"

With the support of absolute firepower, Madeline would be foolish to opt for close combat with the enemy, "I'm not stupid. If there aren't many of them, just assign a few snipers, why bother with close-quarters combat?"

Contrary to the on-screen depictions where, the stronger the Cultivation Level, the more likely one is to engage in hand-to-hand combat, most Martial Artists from China actually prefer to use various firearms as their strength grows.

As their own power increased, weapons that could not be used singly were gradually becoming personal weapons. Cold weapons, no matter how sturdy and sharp they were forged, still did not provide the exhilarating rush of using firearms.