36: Chapter 36 The fox-eared proprietress is throwing herself at him; her charm is unbeatable!

A blast of sour ale mixed with the pungent smell of smoke hit them full in the face.

The light in the hall was extremely dim.

Several windproof kerosene lamps hung on the supporting pillars, their wicks crackling with sparks.

Four or five greasy round tables were scattered about.

There were no living humans; everyone sitting there was an outlier.

In the shadows to the left, a figure draped in a tattered cloak was tearing into a piece of dripping raw meat.

The hood had slipped halfway off, revealing a jaw covered in green scales.

In the corner to the right, two hunched creatures with high, protruding spines huddled together, their bony claws gouging deep marks into the tabletop, with two glowing broken stones placed between them.

The appearance of these three stunning women instantly broke the dead silence of the tavern.

The lizardman on the left stopped chewing.

Its green vertical pupils bypassed Chen Chen and fixed greedily on Shen Wanxing's bare, fair little feet behind him.

A muffled swallowing sound came from its throat as it pushed aside the raw meat and stood up.

The stool was knocked over by its thick tail.

It took a step forward, closing in on them.

Shen Wanxing retreated half a step in fear, clutching the hem of her assault jacket.

Jiang Yanxue's wrist flicked as she directly pressed down on the Shadow Instant-Kill Blade on her outer thigh.

Chen Chen didn't stop walking.

He didn't even spare the lizardman a glance.

He casually pointed his right index finger downward.

Gravity Field.

Fivefold.

"Bang—!"

A deafening roar erupted.

The gravity parameters within a three-meter radius of the nearly two-meter-tall lizardman suddenly collapsed.

It didn't even manage a roar before being slammed directly into the ground by an invisible force weighing half a ton.

The solid wood floor exploded with a web of cracks.

Green scales flew off, accompanied by several tooth-grinding sounds of breaking bones; the lizardman lay pinned in the crater, limbs twitching as it vomited a large mouthful of dark purple blood.

The two hunched creatures on the right snapped their claws back, wishing they could fold themselves up and hide under their chairs.

At the bar directly ahead,

stood a woman.

A tight leather corset squeezed her upper body into an extremely exaggerated curve.

She had striking red hair, and atop her head stood two furry crimson fox ears.

Behind her, a thick, fluffy red fox tail was flicking irritably back and forth.

When the lizardman had stood up earlier, she hadn't even lifted an eyelid, continuing to wipe a glass with a dirty rag.

So many people died in the wasteland every day; a few living players being devoured by other races wasn't worth her energy.

But that loud bang forced her head up.

The landlady lifted her eyelids.

The moment her gaze met Chen Chen's face,

"Clatter."

The glass dropped onto the bar, shattering everywhere.

One hundred points of top-tier Charisma was meaningless data to players, but for the non-human NPCs native to the wasteland, it was a dimension-reducing crush that transcended rules.

The fox-eared landlady's mask of indifference, accustomed to life and death, was smashed to pieces.

Her amber vertical pupils suddenly constricted.

A complex mix of awe, greed, and infatuation instantly rose in her heart.

Her waist went soft.

She stepped quickly to the edge of the bar in her high heels, her chest pressing against the solid wood surface, bringing with her a rich, domineering scent of roses.

"This gentleman looks like a new face."

Her voice was so charming it could drip water, the final syllable drawn out long.

Ignoring the glass shards everywhere, she turned and pulled a bottle of wine shimmering with a faint purple light from the top shelf, took a clean glass, and filled it.

With red-nailed fingers gripping the base of the glass, she slowly pushed it in front of Chen Chen.

"A special Crimson Mary, on the house. The wind and sand outside must be quite harsh, right?"

As she handed over the drink, that irritably flicking red tail had, at some point, crossed the gap of the bar.

Quite deliberately, it climbed up Chen Chen's combat boots, the fox fur rubbing against his leather tactical pants with a faint rustling sound.

Behind him,

the atmosphere completely changed.

Jiang Yanxue let out a cold sneer, the veins on the back of her hand holding the blade bulging.

In her mind, Chen Chen was the absolute core of their vehicle; having an outlier of unknown origin go into heat in front of him was equivalent to stepping over her boundary line.

Shen Wanbing directly thrust her hand into her trench coat pocket, feeling the cold grip of her silenced pistol.

Her ice-mountain face was covered in a layer of frost, ready at any moment to blow a bloody hole through that fox tail.

Shen Wanxing bit her lip, her eyes wide as she stared fixedly at the tail.

Chen Chen was completely unresponsive to this blatant seduction.

He pressed his finger against the rim and pushed the Crimson Mary back.

"The wine is good, but I prefer something more practical."

He reached back into his storage backpack.

"Slap."

A brand new self-heating hotpot box and two bottles of purified water were slammed onto the greasy bar.

The air in the tavern froze.

The two hunched creatures in the corner made frantic swallowing sounds, their eyes glowing green, yet they were deterred by the previous Gravity Field and remained pinned in place, not daring to move.

In the wasteland black market, pollution-free pure water and processed food were hard currencies people would risk their lives for.

The fox-eared landlady's ears twitched twice.

With a flick of her wrist, the hotpot and water were swept into a hidden compartment under the bar. Her movement was so fast it left an afterimage.

She leaned in even closer, the large expanse of fair skin at her neckline completely unobstructed.

"Generous patron, what would you like to know? My information will surely satisfy you."

"The origins of this tavern, and that black mist on the outskirts."

Chen Chen tapped his knuckles on the wooden counter. "Spit out everything you know."

The landlady sighed.

Her fox ears drooped accordingly, and with that face, she looked aggrieved to the extreme.

"I'm just like you, an unlucky soul pulled into this game. The difference is, as soon as I landed, the system shoved the management rights of this broken tavern onto me and gave me the title of 'Shelter Merchant.'"

She drew a circle on the bar with her finger.

"The safe zone isn't fixed. That deathly black mist isn't just chasing you fleeing players; it's chasing us too. Once the black mist covers these coordinates, the tavern and I will be crushed to ash. I can only scavenge enough resources before the black mist catches up to pay the system's 'migration fee' to pack up the tavern and teleport to the next node."

Chen Chen listened and gave a cold laugh.

"A very convincing story."

He propped his hands on the bar and leaned forward, his powerful pressure locking the fox-eared landlady in place.

"The system doesn't do charity, and it certainly doesn't hand out professions for no reason. If you could get this tavern, you must have a special designation from a high-order race tied to you."

"As for the 'migration fee' you mentioned, the bulk of it was used to advance your own strength, wasn't it?"

The fox-eared landlady's body stiffened.

Her secrets had been stripped bare.

She had always treated those panicked players as stupid ATMs.

But the man before her was terrifyingly clear-headed, tearing her packaged rhetoric to shreds in just a few words.

Combined with that lethal charisma suppression,

she completely lost her temper.

"The gentleman truly has a keen eye." She dropped her pitiful act and gave a bitter smile.

"I know the rules: each gets what they need. Whatever goods you have, feel free to show them."

Chen Chen didn't waste words.

With a thought, the permissions for his thirty-six-slot storage backpack opened.

In the open space before the bar, light flashed repeatedly.

He directly materialized ten slots' worth of supplies.

Piles of D-grade military rations, dozens of crates of high-quality canned meat, and barrel after barrel of pure fuel.

Outside, for half a bottle of stinking dirty water, those solo players would stab each other a dozen times.

And now, this pile of fine supplies that could feed a company for a month was just casually piled on the floor.

This was all the wealth the Juehu Convoy had accumulated through killing and looting along the way, and now it was Chen Chen's bargaining chip for capital operation.

The old fox was completely stunned.

She had kept this tavern for several years, and the novice players she had hosted in the past mostly brought a few pieces of scrap metal or bloody monster organs to trade for half a mouthful of dirty water.

A reserve of pure supplies of this level and scale was practically a mobile quartermaster's warehouse.

The frequency of her fox tail's wagging went off the charts.

"For these goods, I want something practical," Chen Chen stated his conditions.

"Black Iron-grade protective gear, tactical accessories, daily necessities."

He pointed back at Shen Wanxing, who was standing barefoot on the wooden floor.

"Especially shoes."

"Flat boots suitable for hiking, silent, and with protective functions. If you try to fool me with inferior goods, you know the consequences."

The landlady nodded repeatedly, the smile on her face uncontrollable. "I wouldn't dare neglect the gentleman's orders."

She turned and ducked into the warehouse behind the bar.

The sound of rummaging through crates came from inside.

A few minutes later, she carried out three heavy, dust-covered wooden boxes and slammed them onto the bar.

"Three Black Iron-grade tactical windbreakers with built-in Kevlar fiber, cut-resistant and stab-proof. Two Black Iron-grade low-light night vision goggles."

She opened a separate wooden box.

Inside lay a pair of military-gray tactical flat boots.

"Stealth Walker Boots. The size automatically adjusts to the foot shape. The soles are special memory foam plus noise-canceling rubber, perfect for that little sister."

Chen Chen scanned the item descriptions to ensure no tricks had been played.

He grabbed the boots, turned, and threw them directly into Shen Wanxing's arms.

"Put them on."

Shen Wanxing held the boots and sat directly on a nearby empty chair, sliding her feet into the tactical boots.

The automatic adjustment system triggered.

The boots wrapped snugly around her ankles, and the memory foam gently supported her aching arches.

She stood up and tried a couple of steps.

Silent and light, she couldn't feel their weight at all.

Shen Wanxing looked up, her gaze crossing most of the tavern to land directly on Chen Chen's back.

The affection within was so full it was about to overflow.

If the setting weren't so inappropriate, she would have wanted to rush over and hug him right then.