45: Chapter 45 Doing Business

"Clack! Clack! Clack!"

The harsh sounds of gun bolts being pulled back echoed in rapid succession.

Over a dozen crudely made rifles, shotguns, and even two dismantled heavy machine guns, positioned from all directions and various heights, had Lin Feng and the two women firmly locked at the center of the encirclement.

Several red laser dots danced brightly on Lin Feng's chest and forehead.

The air was thick with the palpable scent of gunpowder, a hair-trigger tension ready to explode.

"Train Master!"

Su Ya's expression changed.

Facing a few guns didn't scare her, but being surrounded by this crossfire network of heavy weapons was different. Even a First-Order Succubus couldn't withstand the hail of machine gun fire with her physical body.

She abruptly stepped forward, spreading her arms to shield Lin Feng.

The fire-based magic power within her surged wildly, ready to desperately conjure a flame shield.

Her white shirt fluttered violently from the agitated magic, the snowy white of her chest seeming ready to burst free from the fabric.

Xia Wanqiu also moved without hesitation, positioning herself on Lin Feng's other side, frost gathering in her palms.

Their loyalty was absolute. For Lin Feng, they would die without a second thought.

"Hahaha! Kid, you've got some serious guts!"

A minor leader of the Iron Blood Society, with a scorpion tattooed on his face and wielding a modified submachine gun, stepped out from the crowd.

He looked at the surrounded Lin Feng as if gazing upon a pile of walking supplies.

"You killed our Iron Blood Society men, stole our vehicle.

Wanted across the entire map, and you still dare swagger into the black market?"

The Scorpion Man sneered, his gaze raking over the alluring figures of Su Ya and Xia Wanqiu before he swallowed hard.

"These two bitches aren't bad. Kid, I'll give you a chance.

Kneel down now, break your own limbs.

Hand over the vehicle and these two women obediently to our Society Leader, and I'll leave your corpse intact!"

The threat of death loomed imminent.

Su Ya and Xia Wanqiu's breathing grew rapid.

However,

Lin Feng, under the muzzles of over a dozen heavy weapons, didn't even bat an eyelid.

He didn't even glance at the arrogant Scorpion Man.

He merely reached out with a hint of impatience and nudged Su Ya and Xia Wanqiu aside from in front of him.

"Step back. I said I'm here to do business."

Lin Feng's tone was flat, devoid of any fluctuation, as casual as going downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes from a convenience store.

"Do business?" The Scorpion Man was stunned for a moment before erupting into a wild laugh. "Hahaha! Are you fucking crazy? Do business with our Iron Blood Society? What are you trading with? Your life?!"

The surrounding Iron Blood Society thugs roared with laughter, their fingers already tightening on their triggers.

Just as everyone thought Lin Feng was about to be riddled with bullets,

Lin Feng leisurely reached into the large pocket of his jacket.

The next second,

he flicked his wrist.

An object was tossed out casually, tracing a parabolic arc through the air.

"Plop."

The object landed on the metal platform floor, slick with grease and bloodstains, even rolling forward a couple of times before coming to a stop right in front of the Scorpion Man's military boots.

The deafening roar of laughter died abruptly the moment they clearly saw the object on the ground.

It was as if a flock of crowing roosters had suddenly had their necks wrung.

It was a potato.

A mutated potato, roughly the size of a grown man's fist, its skin a purplish-red hue, still bearing a bit of damp, black, high-grade fluorescent humus soil!

In this wasteland, people would stab their own brothers for half a moldy, hardened, even green-fuzzed bread crust.

What did they eat every day?

Rotten monster meat, mutated insects, barely edible starch paste.

And now, a fresh, plump, even juicy premium carbohydrate lay casually rolled on the filthy floor.

The faint scent of earth and the unique aroma of starch it emitted was, for these desperadoes long suffering extreme hunger and malnutrition, no less potent than the world's most powerful aphrodisiac!

"Gulp... gulp..."

The sounds of swallowing saliva rose one after another, unnervingly clear in the deathly silent black market.

The eyes of all the thugs instantly glinted with greed.

Even the snipers perched at vantage points unconsciously shifted their muzzles away from Lin Feng, their scopes locked dead on the potato on the ground.

The Scorpion Man's hand trembled, the muzzle of his submachine gun drooping uncontrollably.

He stared fixedly at the potato at his feet, his breathing heavy as a draft ox.

"This... this is fresh food..."

Watching these thugs whose mental defenses had been utterly shattered by a single potato, a mocking sneer curled at the corner of Lin Feng's mouth.

He brushed off nonexistent dust from his hands.

"Don't be nervous. This is just a sample."

Lin Feng's voice, cold, arrogant, yet laden with infinite temptation, rang out over the black market.

"In my vehicle, there are another two hundred *jin* of such fresh vegetables and potatoes, ready to be traded for some heavy firepower blueprints and weapons."

Two hundred *jin*!

The moment this number was uttered, the very air in the black market seemed to freeze solid.

Two hundred *jin* of fresh food! That was fucking enough to buy half the Iron Blood Society's entire arsenal!

Lin Feng shoved his hands into his pockets, his gaze indifferent to the surrounding gun muzzles that could fire at any moment.

"I'm here to do business."

"But if anyone dares fire a single shot..."

A ball of orange-red flame blazed to life in Lin Feng's left eye, instantly distorting the air around him.

"I guarantee, before your bullets tear through me, I'll burn all two hundred *jin* of food to ashes even a dog wouldn't touch."

Lin Feng's gaze pierced through the haze, locking onto the still-dazed Scorpion Man.

"Now, tell your Society Leader. Does he want this deal, or not?"

The purplish-red mutated potato lay quietly on the metal floor, stained with grease and dark reddish bloodstains.

The air on the black market platform seemed completely drained in that moment.

"Gulp."

The sound of swallowing saliva was amplified infinitely in the dead silence.

Not just the emaciated vagrants on the periphery, but even the Iron Blood Society thugs aiming their guns at Lin Feng had their Adam's apples bobbing violently.

Hunger was the most terrifying plague in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

What they gnawed on daily were desiccated insect legs laced with radiation; what they drank was waste oil water filtered countless times yet still reeking of rust.

And this potato before them, its skin still bearing a hint of damp soil.

The primal fragrance of carbohydrates it emitted was like an invisible hand, gripping everyone's hearts in a vise.

Two hundred *jin*.

The number Lin Feng had uttered so casually churned a tsunami in the Scorpion Man's mind.

As a minor peripheral leader of the Iron Blood Society, he knew all too well what two hundred *jin* of fresh vegetables meant.

It was staggering wealth, enough to buy half the black market!

With that batch of supplies, he could even recruit followers, directly overthrow the Iron Blood Society Leader, and become the local warlord of the black market himself.