46: Chapter 46 Zhao Kun's Shock and the Agreement

Early the next morning, Ren Chuan took Huang Han and Fu Xing, gathered four or five members of the Guard Team, and loaded a large pile of Parasitic Fungus Vine materials and the most important transcendental materials onto the truck.

The group drove across the boundless Gobi road, kicking up a yellowish dust cloud as they headed straight for Scarecrow Town.

They moved very fast, arriving at Scarecrow Town in less than an hour.

The guards on duty exchanged information with them, and after confirming everything was correct, let them enter Scarecrow Town.

Carrying the transcendental materials in his hand, Ren Chuan swept his gaze across the entire Scarecrow Town.

The ragged town residents were working numbly for the town, repairing houses, mending city walls, and reclaiming farmland. They came and went, queuing up to work in an orderly fashion, but that sense of numbness was still hard to conceal.

Compared to other Shelters, the Scarecrow Town Shelter was actually quite good. It had the most basic order, and the two people in charge, Zhao Kun and Fan Da, were both principled men.

Ren Chuan knew that some Shelters adopted a system of slavery. If slaves died, they could be plundered or bought again; at worst, they could make slaves reproduce. While people were alive, they had to work themselves to death.

Human lives were worthless in the apocalypse. Although countless people died every day, there were also places that raised people like breeding pigs.

Except for those super-large cities, no one would plan for how to handle the future.

As for Ren Chuan now, although he had only left for a mere ten days, the transcendental power displayed by Wang Ting gave him a different kind of hope.

He took a deep breath and then strode toward Zhao Kun's room.

Knock, knock, knock.

He knocked on that old iron door, the sound exceptionally loud, echoing in the empty room behind the door.

"Come in."

Zhao Kun sat alone in the middle of the room. His room was as neat, clean, and tidy as ever.

Dressed in a black combat uniform, he sat in a chair, raised his head to look at the incoming people, and a smile appeared on his face. "You've come a bit early. Are supplies running low? What do you need?"

According to the agreement between Zhao Kun and Wang Ting, the handover of spoils was once a month, and only ten days had passed now.

However, Zhao Kun seemed to have anticipated it and was well-prepared.

Facing a completely unfamiliar Floor World, the difficulty of exploring and developing it was extremely high. Even if he went, he would have to face numerous emergencies.

Wang Ting being able to hold out for ten days before truly running into trouble was probably because he bumped into that Thorn Vine Beast. But it didn't matter; he had already prepared heavy weapons, just waiting for the Outpost Camp to ask for help.

Thinking of this, Zhao Kun wore a confident smile of one who had everything under control.

"These are the spoils of the past ten days. The Captain told me to hand them all over to you."

Ren Chuan placed the box containing the transcendental materials onto the desktop, opened it with a click, and revealed the contents inside.

Zhao Kun: ???

Zhao Kun froze, a look of shock flashing deep within his pupils. His gaze looked inside the box, where a vine-wood eye emitting a faint glow like emerald came into view, appearing so prominent.

"Transcendental core... You killed the Thorn Vine Beast?"

"We didn't kill it."

Ren Chuan paused slightly, as if organizing his words.

"The grenades we brought were almost useless. The Captain single-handedly killed the Thorn Vine Beast with a spear... The Captain's strength is very strong."

Zhao Kun's pupils constricted, and he immediately realized that he had truly underestimated Wang Ting.

He reined in his emotions, and then a subtle smile appeared on his face.

He took a deep look at Ren Chuan, his gaze glancing back and forth between the vine-wood eye and Ren Chuan, the arc of his mouth becoming more and more obvious.

"It seems old Fan and I underestimated him."

Ren Chuan continued, "We killed a total of 289 Parasitic Fungus Vines and one Thorn Vine Beast. We harvested a total of 39 transcendental materials. According to the turnover ratio, it's 28 in total. Also, there is this vine-wood eye. The Captain asked me to bring it over together and price it as a transcendental material."

"Captain Wang's strength is very strong, and our speed in developing the Outpost Camp is extremely fast. Therefore, we urgently need manpower now—we need at least 100 more people. Some scrap cars in the Floor World might be reassembled, but we need engines, batteries, and some other parts, so we also hope to get Boss Zhao's support."

Boss Zhao waved his hand, interrupting Ren Chuan's words.

A trace of strangeness flashed in the depths of Ren Chuan's eyes, and his brows furrowed imperceptibly, worrying that some change might occur.

"From now on, the ratio will be split fifty-fifty. Tell Wang Ting this is a new agreement between him and me. The part he killed by himself doesn't count, but if there is a transcendental core, I will give more supplies in exchange."

Zhao Kun's tone was decisive and resolute, leaving Ren Chuan no room for any questioning or refusal.

He toyed with the vine-wood eye, feeling the rich transcendental factors inside, and after pondering for a moment, said:

"As for labor, I can give you 150 people, but as for food, I will only allocate the food quota for 100 people. For the excess part, you must exchange it with anomalous monster materials or transcendental materials. You can also take all the car parts this time, but next time we'll have to evaluate the required quantity. Cooperation for other supplies remains as usual."

Ren Chuan showed a startled expression. He hadn't expected Zhao Kun to be so generous.

Seeing him looking somewhat dazed, Zhao Kun cursed with a smile, "Everything has already been fed to your mouth, aren't you going to say thank you?"

"Thank you, Boss Zhao."

...

Billowing yellow sand enveloped the entire convoy of eight trucks. The front and rear trucks were packed full of Guard Team members, and the lead vehicle was an off-road car.

Fan Da sat in the off-road car, his gaze scanning the boundless Gobi like a hawk.

The trucks in the middle were fully loaded with wheat and ordinary materials dropped by various monsters such as Sand Scorpions and Scarecrows. These had been initially processed by the Supplies Group and were to be disposed of in this transaction.

It had been two days since they left Scarecrow Town, and Fan Da's nerves had been in a tense state, worrying that accidents might happen.

Although they didn't transport all the wheat over, this was already close to half of their food reserves.

If an accident occurred, not only might the Guard Team he brought out get trapped here, but for some time in the future, Scarecrow Town would probably fall into the terrifying situation of running out of food.

Fortunately, this time, the balance of luck tilted toward their side. Along the way, although they encountered attacks from Lizard Hounds and Carrion Spiders, and near the final stretch of the road, even suffered an impact from a group of zombies wandering the wasteland, they successfully repelled all these monsters by relying on the convoy's advantages.

With all perils safely bypassed, the convoy finally entered the territory of Huangyan Town.

On the distant horizon, the tip of a yellow cliff gradually revealed itself, rising from the ground and coming into everyone's view.

That was a cliff made of hard yellow rock, about a thousand meters high, looking like a yellow broken sword piercing straight into the sky, spanning a distance of several kilometers.

Beneath the Huangyan cliff was the notorious Huangyan Valley on the wasteland. The valley was trumpet-shaped, with a wide entrance and getting narrower the further inside it went.

As the convoy slowly approached, a black line began to appear at the entrance of the valley. At first, the black line was only the size of a hair, then it grew thicker, like a rough black python lying on the ground, fully revealing its appearance.

That was an isolation belt mixed with roadblocks, barbed wire, and high walls. The high walls built of stone and loess were about 3 meters high, with barbed wire wrapped around the inside and outside of the high walls. Further out were sharp roadblocks, and on both sides of the roadblocks were trenches. The trenches were steep, deep, and covered with sharp spikes, enough to trap vehicles.

Behind the wall were a large number of dilapidated shacks. They were uneven, built either of wood or pulled together from sheet metal, densely packed side by side, appearing extremely crowded, just like an anthill temporarily piled together.

Patches of dilapidated shacks stretched all the way into the interior of the valley, where another wall and tall buildings could be faintly seen hidden in the shadows.

Finally, they had reached Huangyan Valley.

The convoy slowly approached the outer periphery of Huangyan Valley, and that dirty wall covered in barbed wire presented itself more clearly before everyone.

Mottled black bloodstains had long since filled every corner of the wall, bullet holes left white marks, and broken cracks crisscrossed, looking like the scars of a city wall.

The convoy slowly crossed the roadblocks. Surprisingly, two mutilated zombie corpses were hanging on several of the roadblocks nearby, and pitch-black blood dripped down the roadblocks onto the parched earth.

"Stop! Which Shelter are you from?"

At the entrance of Huangyan Town, Fan Da's convoy was intercepted.

Armed soldiers looked at the convoy alertly, their muzzles sweeping across the car bodies intentionally or unintentionally, and their gazes sizing up the convoy from top to bottom.

Fan Da's expression was calm, his eyes exuding a hint of stern majesty. "Scarecrow Town. This is our toll."

As Fan Da's voice fell, Zhao Hu on the car threw down a bag of bullets.

The soldier nearby picked up the clinking bag, pried it open to take a look, roughly counted it, and smiled. "The amount is enough, go on in. The innermost part is the territory of our Huangyan Town; you aren't allowed to approach it casually. You can walk around the outer areas as much as you like, but don't ever draw your guns, otherwise our boss will deal with you."

Fan Da didn't respond. The convoy crossed the guard post before the gate, and he said to Zhao Hu, "Drive our cars in, and then grab a spot in the market."

As his voice spread into the convoy, the convoy slowly started up, passed through the dilapidated city gate, and entered the black market of this wasteland.