106: Chapter 104 Conditions for Survival

Chapter 104: Conditions for Survival

Deputy Commander Yan Qihu hastily gathered men and formed a pursuit team, but by the time they chased out of the black market, half an hour had already passed.

Shortly after driving out, the convoy lost all sight of the Heishui Town fleet. Let alone visual contact, even the tire tracks were partially wiped away by the blowing sand and wind.

Under these circumstances, even if they wanted to pursue, they lacked the ability to do so. The only way to find Liao Shan and his men would be to charge directly into Heishui Town's lair.

But relying on just the men they had on hand, trying to charge into the enemy's lair would be like throwing an egg against a rock, wouldn't it?

Deputy Commander Yan Qihu was filled with indignation, but no matter how angry he was, he could only suppress his resentment and lead his team back to Huangyan Town.

The turmoil in Huangyan Town and the black market had not completely settled down yet. Looting and slaughter were everywhere. Although things were gradually stabilizing and those who had looted shed their black robes to turn back into ordinary citizens, these hidden wolves would certainly not bring peace and stability.

Huang Yanwu and Deputy Commander Yan Qihu would likely need a massive amount of time to restore the old order completely.

Huangyan Town and Heishui Town were both in a state of chaotic turmoil. Wang Ting led Researcher Huoling straight back to the Outpost Camp. As soon as he returned, he entered Vine Town and immediately arranged for his subordinates to clear out an isolated room near Hall Hospital.

He also required the building to be isolated by a courtyard wall, set up with barbed wire and roadblocks, with a heavy machine gun positioned on the wall and guarded by a battle-ready Guard Team.

"Tell the brothers to watch her carefully. This woman is not simple."

Ren Chuan was filled with joy when he saw Wang Ting return safely, but his expression suddenly shifted when he saw Wang Ting carrying Researcher Huoling, the person who had done business with them. He hadn't expected his boss to be so bold.

"Don't worry, Boss. I guarantee not a single word of news will leak out."

Ren Chuan had met Researcher Huoling before and knew how important this woman was to Huangyan Town.

Her ability alone to compound extraordinary potions was enough to make Huang Yanwu attack the Outpost Camp regardless of the consequences if news were to leak out.

However, Ren Chuan didn't realize that the "careful" Wang Ting referred to was not about this matter.

"This woman is a Tier-1 Extraordinar. It's temporarily unclear which pathway she belongs to. She could be Painless, or perhaps from the Gardener Pathway. However, her strength is superior to yours—that much is certain."

Ren Chuan froze completely, an expression of disbelief written across his face.

"What the hell? She's an Extraordinar too?"

Wang Ting's expression remained calm, not showing much surprise.

"She can formulate extraordinary potions herself, meaning she's only honed her physique less than you guys, but that doesn't mean she can't become an Extraordinar. She doesn't need to hone her body through training; enhancement potions are enough for her. It's just that her period for digesting the potion's energy might be much longer than yours."

Breaking through human physical limits isn't achieved solely through constantly tempering the body.

There is another pathway: enhancement through potions.

Ren Chuan felt his scalp go numb. "A Tier-1 Extraordinar... Besides you, Boss, who else could keep an eye on her? Even if we mount heavy machine guns, that's not a long-term solution. Even a tiger nods off sometimes, let alone the brothers tasked with keeping watch on an Extraordinar."

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Ren Chuan was never a blindly arrogant person, and he immediately realized how troublesome Researcher Huoling was.

Her patient endurance was only one aspect; possessing the strength of a Tier-1 Extraordinar yet never actively revealing it until she was captured by Wang Ting—this kind of calculated mind alone made her extremely difficult to deal with.

On top of that, she could synthesize Tier-1 extraordinary potions on her own. Given the chance, was it possible she could formulate Tier-2 extraordinary potions?

When that time came, if Wang Ting couldn't suppress Researcher Huoling, the entire Outpost Camp would become the target of her vengeance.

"Which is why I locked her up here."

Wang Ting had naturally considered this issue, otherwise he wouldn't have brought her back.

"As long as she doesn't want to die, she won't make a move easily in the short term. You guys just keep a good eye on her. As for the gap in strength, I'll help you bridge it—provided you put in the hard work. Having the strength of a single limit-break is still not enough."

Ren Chuan's pupils shrank, and he looked at Wang Ting in shock.

How could he fail to understand the implication behind Wang Ting's words? He was going to push them to become Extraordinars.

Since Wang Ting put it that way, Ren Chuan set his heart at ease.

He immediately assembled a team of men and, along with Wang Ting, led Researcher Huoling to a building located near Hall Hospital.

The building stood detached, surrounded by perimeter walls, making it an ideal place for confinement.

After bringing Researcher Huoling there and seeing the building, Wang Ting immediately controlled countless vines to accelerate their growth. Countless dark green vines, like dancing pythons, clung to the vertical walls and extended bit by bit, eventually turning the standalone building into a prison wrapped in vines.

Having completed all this, he then locked Researcher Huoling on one of the floors.

Outside the building, team members stood guard fully armed, with machine guns mounted at critical positions. Barbed wire was being set up and would be finished shortly.

As for Researcher Huoling, she was still unconscious at this time.

Knocking someone out doesn't keep them unconscious for long. If it lasts too long, it doesn't mean your knockout technique is brilliant; it means the person is near death.

Researcher Huoling was naturally not in that situation—it was because Wang Ting had used drugs on her.

On the way back with Researcher Huoling, he had casually injected her with some anesthetics. These items were standard team supplies used for pain relief and sedation in case members got injured, and now they were conveniently used on Researcher Huoling by Wang Ting.

While Researcher Huoling was unconscious, Wang Ting had Ren Chuan tie her up tightly before going to process the items pillaged from the black market.

Between the extraordinary materials looted directly and the 170 portions of extraordinary materials he had paid to Deputy Commander Liu Song but unexpectedly retrieved, Wang Ting's total haul this trip came to over 300 portions. It wasn't too much, nor too little—just a modest profit.

According to Ren Chuan's advice on how to launder this batch of extraordinary materials, he believed that 170 of them were what Wang Ting had paid to Deputy Commander Liu Song. These materials were originally produced by the Outpost Camp, so selling them posed no problem regardless of the quantity, as their origin was legitimate.

However, for materials originally held by other Shelters, the corresponding monsters were relatively specific. Selling those materials wouldn't be easy. If they came from distinctive monsters, such as Night Demon materials from Silent Desolate Town, selling them in small quantities could be explained as gains from exploration, but selling them in bulk would prompt Huangyan Town to start asking questions.

Of course, Ren Chuan was only concerned about the difficulty of bulk liquidations. If sold slowly, slipping a few here and a few there, nobody would pay attention.

Extraordinary materials were merely the simplest part of Wang Ting's gains. The 5 enhancement potions and 3 extraordinary potions that fell into Wang Ting's hands were the real main attraction.

"Boss, I've roughly figured out the functions of these three extraordinary items."

"Two of them are weapons. One is the Vine-Wood Alloy Blade, forged from wood-like material combined with alloy. It has extreme toughness and superior slashing sharpness compared to regular blades, suitable for dealing with heavily armored monsters. The second is the tree-heart strong bow, likely crafted from body materials of an elite or leader-type specimen; it inherently contains extraordinary factors and a special structure. Guiding extraordinary factors onto the arrows can unleash several times the power. Although it can't match firearms in speed, it should be quite effective for sniping certain monsters. The last item is the tree-bark inner armor, offering twice the defense of ordinary bulletproof vests while fitting closer to the body."

When Ren Chuan spoke of these three extraordinary items, his eyes gleamed. The value of extraordinary items far exceeded common imagination.

Ren Chuan possessed a large quantity of firearms, and Wang Ting had even acquired heavy, large-caliber machine guns as well as RPGs looted from the Sanlang Gang. The firepower of these items was enough to completely kill ordinary leader-class monsters.

But even so, the power of tools like conventional weapons merely represented the peak of humanity's past industrial civilization.

That did not mean extraordinary items forged from monster body materials were worthless.

Extraordinary items represented humanity's utilization of monster materials and fundamental extraordinary factors, marking a brand-new path for human technology.

The enhancement of extraordinary items lay not merely in altering material properties, but in how these items forged from extraordinary materials could mobilize the extraordinary factors within the materials and leverage their structures.

Through crafted, relatively stabilized extraordinary factor structures and the factors they mobilized, the performance of extraordinary items could be immensely boosted.

Some powerful extraordinary items could even eradicate an entire Shelter City purely on their own strength.

This was an unimaginably powerful force whose destructive potential rivaled the legendary nuclear weapons of the old era.

If an arrow shot from an ordinary bow derived all its force from the energy stored in the bending bow limbs—a power of the material itself and physical laws—

then with this tree-heart strong bow, beyond the raw strength of the material itself, the extraordinary factors gathered on the bowstring and arrow would continuously amplify the arrow's momentum, transforming an ordinary arrow into a lethal assassination weapon capable of piercing steel armor.

This was merely a minor demonstration of extraordinary factors during creation. High-explosive bombs crafted from extraordinary materials, impenetrable defensive walls, and endless specialized creations were all built upon extraordinary factors—like the ordinary yet rock-solid foundation beneath a hundred-meter skyscraper.

Taking the tree-bark inner armor that Ren Chuan tested as an example, Wang Ting had personally unloaded dozens of bullet rounds into it with weapons, yet even at that point, it remained unbreached. This was proof enough that the extraordinary factors and factor structures contained within were not only sufficiently stable, but also remarkably powerful.

Such was the wondrous utility of extraordinary materials.

"Boss, how should we handle these extraordinary items?"

Ren Chuan was both surprised and delighted. He was glad because the attributes of these extraordinary items were indeed excellent; giving them to any team leader, or directly to Wang Ting, would offer significant assistance.

He couldn't help thinking in his heart that if given to the chief, the marginal effect would actually be the smallest.

Wang Ting wielded the vine skull tyrant blade and wore the sand scorpion armor, cutting down monsters like chopping vegetables and resembling a god of slaughter on the battlefield—a sight deeply burned into their memories.

Ren Chuan and the others had speculated more than once that the sand scorpion armor alone was likely close to matching a Tier-2 extraordinary item.

After all, rare full-body armor had an extremely high manufacturing threshold.

"Among you guys, who knows how to use a bow?"

Several of them froze for a moment. Ren Chuan shook his head and replied, "We're all trained in firearms; bows aren't our thing. Neither Feng Bo, Feng Ku, Xiang Nan, nor Xu Yan can use them well—none of us are good at it."

Wang Ting thought for a moment, then said, "Price all three extraordinary items with contribution points. List the tree-heart strong bow up there and wait for someone to redeem it. Temporarily lend the Vine-Wood Alloy Blade and the tree-bark inner armor to Peng Bo and Dong Hu. If someone redeems them, have them return the items. If they want to permanently redeem the items themselves in the future, they must use contribution points to buy them."

Wang Ting could have given them away directly, but he chose to tie them to contribution points instead. Lending the items for them to use was fine, but if they wanted true ownership, they had to redeem them. Rules at the Outpost Camp were rules; only by establishing firm rules could they move forward more effectively.

Since they were on the topic of extraordinary items, Wang Ting decided to distribute the enhancement potions as well.

"The price of the five enhancement potions in contribution points will be roughly the same as the blood vine fruit. Xiang Nan and Xu Yan haven't used enhancement potions yet and are still a bit away from their first limit-break, so give the potions to them. I remember their contribution points might be short; log any deficit onto their tab, and whenever they earn new income in the future, deduct whatever points are owed."

Ren Chuan nodded. "They've actually been carrying out exploration and gathering tasks, including hunting a large number of anomaly monsters. Their accumulated contribution points should be substantial—roughly close to 10,000 points."

"10,000 points still isn't enough, especially for Feng Bo, Dong Hu, and you. I'm giving you only one month. In one month, your physical conditioning had better be capable of enduring the strength of a second limit-break. Once you break through your physical limits a second time and can endure extraordinary potions, I'll have extraordinary potions ready for you."

Ren Chuan heard Wang Ting assign the extraordinary potions to them so simply.

Although it was currently just painting a promise—one that required them to break through human physical limits a second time before becoming reality—

Wang Ting's mindset and promise alone were proof enough that he was an exceptionally generous leader.

The high regard Wang Ting held for them sent a wave of warmth through his heart.

"Don't worry, Boss. Even if I don't sleep or rest for the whole month, I will keep tempering my body and definitely reach a second limit-break by then."

"Dismissed for now. In a couple of days, once things calm down outside, find ways to bring in more people. Our Outpost Camp still has too few people. If we want to build a grand city, relying on slow, piecemeal progress will take forever."

Ren Chuan agreed. Although he felt a heavy weight on his shoulders, it was just as Wang Ting said: if the Outpost Camp wanted to develop, it couldn't rely on just a few hundred people. 1,000, 2,000, or even more people would only be the starting point.

Previously, they worried about having insufficient grain, but now large quantities of food sat stored in the camp's warehouses, along with even more extraordinary materials that could be exchanged for food.

Coupled with continuous land reclamation, even if their yields couldn't match Scarecrow Farm, the food they produced could still sustain many more residents.

Wang Ting handled the miscellany quickly. The development of the Floor World, the defense of the camp, and the preparation of supplies were assigned to Feng Bo, Dong Hu, and Ren Chuan respectively.

Ren Chuan was the busiest. Not only did he have to manage the camp's supplies, but he also had to direct his brothers to get the Machinery Factory fully operational.

Just bringing the generator back to life was enough to keep them busy for a while. Connecting wires to reinstall the generator, as well as inspecting and repairing lathes, milling machines, and other machinery, was no small undertaking.

After Wang Ting rested for the night, the Guard Team members watching Researcher Huoling sent news.

That woman named Researcher Huoling had awakened. She didn't make a scene or cause a fuss; she just sat quietly in that room for nearly three hours.

The news was reported to Ren Chuan first, who immediately dispatched a crate of hand grenades, shotguns, and rocket launchers over there.

By the time Wang Ting woke up, the message was delivered directly to him.

"Neither making noise nor causing trouble—she certainly knows how to stay calm."

Wang Ting chuckled. Researcher Huoling's behavior was no different from his impression of her—the cold-faced woman who inquired about extraordinary materials and engineered the black market turmoil.

Though Researcher Huoling appeared calm, in her heart she was likely calculating who had captured her, where she was currently located, and how she might escape.

After eating, Wang Ting headed toward the building where Researcher Huoling was imprisoned.

He arrived at the building, pushed open the entrance door, and strode inside. He saw Researcher Huoling sitting in the middle of the hall, having pulled up a chair.

This was a building completely cleared out by Ren Chuan and his men. The entire room contained only a wooden bed, a chair, and a table—nothing more.

Wang Ting pulled up a chair and sat opposite Researcher Huoling. Expressionless, he opened with a cold question: "Let's talk about the conditions for your survival."

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