30: Chapter 30 Looking down on people, the iron coffin and the high-level caravan

"Iron coffin?"

Inside the cabin, Lu Chen sat upright in the driver's seat.

The harsh mockery coming from the loudspeaker outside filled the entire cabin. He wasn't angry at all; instead, he laughed silently.

On the wasteland, snobbery was the norm.

Those backed by large Mobile Cities had an inherent sense of charity towards drifters.

"City Lord, they have guns and there are many of them. Should we..." Lin Wan nervously grabbed the corner of Lu Chen's clothes, her face pale.

"Business is business. As long as they don't use cannons, it's just a negotiation."

Lu Chen patted Lin Wan's hand away and picked up a crude microphone connected to the external loudspeaker from beside his seat.

The lethal fire control joystick was right at hand, but he didn't even touch it. He spoke in a tone devoid of any emotion.

"The Winter Trade Alliance has a sharp nose. However, my iron coffin doesn't contain scrap—only luxuries you can't afford."

His extremely cold voice transmitted through the worn-out speakers of the Polaris, echoing across the snowy plains.

The caravan guards outside were clearly taken aback.

They had expected trembling pleas for mercy or reckless shouting from inside.

But this flat, spine-chilling tone sent a surge of eerie unease down their backs.

"Damn it, a pauper driving a broken tracked vehicle dares to play tricks here!"

The lead guard, humiliated and angry, raised his rifle and cocked it. The dark muzzle pointed directly at the Polaris's bulletproof glass.

"I want to see what kind of bullshit luxury is in this coffin of yours! I'll give you three seconds to open the door, or I'll turn your tin can into a sieve!"

"Since you want to see, then open your damn eyes and look closely."

Click.

Pushed by hydraulic rods, the thick composite scrap steel door of the Polaris slowly opened a crack.

No one walked out.

A thick iron rod held by a mechanical arm extended from the gap in the door. At the end of the rod hung a transparent vacuum-sealed fresh-keeping bag.

The lead guard snorted disdainfully, thinking it was some low-quality scrap metal. But as he squinted through the swirling snow and saw the contents of the bag, his contemptuous expression instantly collapsed, and his eyes widened!

"This, this is..."

The guard's breathing grew rapid. He couldn't even believe his eyes and rubbed them hard.

Inside the bag was a piece of Mutated Snow Bear hind leg meat, so fresh it still had faint traces of blood and distinct marbling!

The meat emitted a healthy, lustrous glow in the dim light, showing no signs of severe radiation contamination. A thick layer of fat, fine texture!

In the Pale Shoals, covered in lethal radioactive dust and toxic snow, the meat of Mutant Beasts was the primary food source, but most of it had become shriveled, foul-smelling, or even toxic due to long-term radiation exposure.

Low-level drifters could only survive on this toxic meat.

In mid-to-high-level Mobile Cities like the Winter Trade Alliance, high-ranking nobles and wealthy merchants were most eager to spend a fortune on this kind of fresh animal meat that wasn't severely contaminated and provided high protein!

This was not only a status symbol but also a top-tier luxury for extending life and resisting radiation-induced mutations!

On the wasteland, a piece of high-quality fresh clean meat was worth more than a kilogram of low-grade sourcefire coal crystals!

Gulp.

Several guards swallowed simultaneously, the sound clear even amidst the wind and snow.

Even through the vacuum bag, they could smell that long-lost aroma of meat, the essence of life.

"What? Do you think this meat isn't fresh enough?"

Lu Chen's cold, hard voice came through the speaker again, tinged with amusement.

"True, in my iron coffin, this kind of stuff is usually just fed to the dogs."

This sentence made the guards' Adam's apples bob simultaneously.

The lead guard's attitude underwent a 180-degree turn. He lowered his rifle; though greed and vigilance remained in his eyes, his tone had lost its previous arrogance.

"Kid, how much more meat of this quality do you have?"

"Enough to make your caravan's manager come out of that big tortoise shell to talk to me in person."

Lu Chen coldly dropped those words.

The mechanical arm retracted, mercilessly pulling the tempting Snow Bear meat back into the cabin.

With a thud, the heavy door slammed shut.

Outside, the guards looked at each other.

They stood in the cold wind for a moment. The lead guard gritted his teeth, turned to the communicator on his off-road vehicle, and began reporting to his superiors in a hurried voice.

Inside the cabin, Lu Chen threw the meat back into the cold storage.

In this dog-eat-dog world, the gap in strength was an objective reality. But at the negotiating table, desire was the greatest weakness.

The Winter Trade Alliance was a group of bloodthirsty merchants.

And for merchants, the most irresistible thing was huge profits.

As long as they took the bait, the final gap for today's upgrade would be filled.