90: Chapter 90 The landlady refuses to "sell herself" and entrusts a task.

Chen Chen picked up the glass of purple wine but wasn't in a hurry to drink it.

He brought the glass to his nose and sniffed, identifying the fermented scents of at least three types of fruit that didn't belong to the human world. Amidst the rich fruity aroma, a trace of inexplicable spiciness was hidden in the base notes.

The alcohol content was definitely not low, but to someone with a constitution of 107, it was no different from drinking water.

He downed it in one go.

The spicy liquid slid down his throat, exploding into a ball of warmth in his stomach.

"Good wine."

The proprietress was using a cloth to wipe a wine glass that had just been splashed with debris from the Guide Card. Hearing his words, her eyes crinkled into crescents, and she tapped her red fingernails on the bar counter.

"Of course. It's from my private collection that even I'm reluctant to open."

Chen Chen set down the empty wine glass and tapped his fingers twice on the wooden surface.

"I want to ask you something."

"Go ahead." The proprietress leaned forward, supporting herself on the bar with both hands.

This movement made the curves of her chest, squeezed by the tight leather corset, appear even more startling.

But Chen Chen's gaze didn't shift downward at all, staring straight into her amber slit pupils.

"Where can I get rare materials of Grade A or higher? Not the junk circulating on the black market; I want the top-tier raw materials required for manufacturing S-grade weapons."

The proprietress's movements paused for a beat, and her fox ears turned in his direction.

"Also, where is the entrance to the next map after Sector 069? What are the rules? I need complete intelligence on hidden dungeon coordinates and the distribution of danger zones."

Both of the proprietress's ears pricked up simultaneously, and the frequency of her tail's wagging dropped sharply.

She straightened up, took half a step back, and fumbled under the bar for two seconds before pulling out a palm-sized stone tablet.

The surface of the stone tablet was covered with dense alien script, and its edges were inlaid with dark gold energy patterns.

"It's possible, I suppose."

She placed the stone tablet on the bar and tapped the top line of text with her fingertip. "Fixed production points for Grade A materials, coordinates for S-grade energy hubs, teleportation conditions for the next map, and basic rules. It's all on here."

Chen Chen reached out to take it.

The proprietress slapped her hand down on the tablet, her red nails pinning it in place. She smiled sweetly, but her tone carried the characteristic reserve of a merchant.

"Sir, how much do you think this intel is worth? For Grade A materials, a single report starts at twenty intermediate vehicle cores. S-grade materials are calculated using advanced cores. As for the package price for intel on the next map, it's either two hundred primary vehicle cores or fifty intermediate vehicle cores. Take your pick."

Chen Chen's hand stopped mid-air.

Fifty intermediate vehicle cores.

He quickly ran through the inventory in his silver-grade storage ring.

The cores that Shen Wanxing had previously produced through her critical hits had all been poured into the control console when upgrading the Ghost Fortress.

Later, when they looted the Raiders' camp, they hadn't had time to clear the spoils before the entire camp turned into a vitrified crater.

His pockets were clean; his inventory was zero.

He had pure water, high-grade meat, and bullets, but after the last round of trading, the proprietress likely hadn't finished offloading them yet. She wouldn't be interested in conventional supplies right now.

"I don't have them." Chen Chen withdrew his hand.

The proprietress tilted her head, her fox ears drooping halfway.

"Then there's nothing I can do. Business is business: payment on delivery. Come back once you've saved up enough cores. The balance on your Guide Card is enough to teleport you one more time."

She picked up the stone tablet, flipped it over on the bar, and covered it with a black cloth.

Chen Chen was silent for two seconds.

The dark gray tactical long-sleeves made his physique appear well-defined. The warm light from the kerosene lamp hit the side of his face. After his constitution broke through the limits of his species, the proportions of his bone structure and muscles had reached a level akin to a sculpture.

He leaned against the bar, resting his arm on the edge of the counter, and turned his head to look at the proprietress.

"Let's change the method of payment." Chen Chen's voice dropped half a tone, and his speaking speed slowed down.

"What method?"

"A person like me should be worth something, right?" The corner of Chen Chen's mouth twitched slightly.

"I'll spend the night with you. To settle the debt."

The air in the tavern went silent for a full three seconds.

The proprietress's expression went through a fascinating transformation: first her pupils dilated, then the corners of her mouth twitched, and finally, she couldn't help it and burst out laughing.

"Sir." The proprietress put her hands on her hips and leaned back against the wine rack. Her fluffy red fox tail puffed up into a ball of fur in annoyance.

"Do you know what race I am?"

She extended a finger and pointed at her furry red ears.

"I am a quasi-priest of the Red Fox Tribe with a lineage spanning centuries, an eligible female of a high-ranking race ranked in the top fifty of the Mother World. By the system's judgment, my profession is bound as a Wandering Merchant, a server-limited special NPC. My constitution, talent, and racial bonuses rank in the top three among NPCs at this node."

She leaned down, supporting herself on the bar with both hands, and rolled her eyes condescendingly, though the tips of her ears turned red.

"Do you know how many males on this wasteland are lining up to spend a night with me? The point is, my intelligence was gathered through hard work. You think one night of yours is worth hundreds of intermediate cores? To get what you want while getting laid... you think too highly of yourself."

Chen Chen raised an eyebrow.

It seemed his 180 points of charm definitely took a hit when it came to the matter of "money."

Having hit a wall, his tone instantly returned to its normal cold hardness.

"Then tell me, how can I get the intelligence?"

The proprietress's tail slowly returned from its puffed-up state and wagged twice.

She tilted her head and sized up Chen Chen, the shrewdness in her slit pupils overriding the infatuation brought by his charm value.

"You said just now that the camp exploded?"

"A Grade A nuclear reactor detonated, vitrifying everything within a two-kilometer radius." Chen Chen's tone was flat.

The proprietress let out a whistle. "Then you are currently the strongest in terms of comprehensive combat power among those still alive in Sector 069. Bar none."

Chen Chen didn't deny it.

"Actually, there is something I can't handle myself."

The proprietress's smile faded. She reached under the bar and pulled out a heavy leather-bound ledger, then withdrew a rolled-up beast-hide map, spreading them out side-by-side on the counter.

The map was marked with a large number of coordinates and movement routes in fluorescent ink.

"Do you know why I have to keep teleporting to avoid the Black Mist? Besides staying alive, my status as a merchant requires me to complete supply tasks assigned by the system every so often. Otherwise, I'll be forcibly demoted. If I hit the bottom, I'll be directly erased."

She drew a line across her throat with her fingernail.

She flipped open the leather ledger, pointed to a Death-grade commission, and then tapped a location circled in red on the map.

"Two hundred and eighty kilometers to the southeast, there is a place called the Rusted Waste City. It used to be an industrial zone supporting a military research base. The underground automated factory there is still running even now."

The proprietress held up two fingers.

"First, there is a complete material refining furnace inside that can purify low-grade metals into high-grade alloys. I need it to upgrade the tavern's defense system. Second, it's also a defunct energy transfer station, and it contains the core components for my next batch of goods."

She drew out her words:

"But the problem is, that place has been occupied by a nest of second-tier Burrowing Mutants. They aren't large, but there are twenty to thirty of them, and the leader has an energy reaction close to the third tier. Moreover, there are scouts from other factions active in that area, and I don't want to expose my teleportation patterns. The three groups of guests who took this commission before all lost contact. Not even their bodies came back."

Chen Chen stared at the red circle on the map, his mind racing with calculations.

Two hundred and eighty kilometers. The Ghost Fortress could cover that in less than an hour and a half at full speed.

Over twenty second-tier mutants plus one quasi-third-tier. Yesterday, that would have been suicidal, but now with a constitution of 107, his own strength plus a Level 15 RV and the girls' modifiers, he was confident he could slaughter them all.