91: Chapter 90 The Withered Leaf Merchant Guild

Chapter 90 Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce

Naturally, the person minding the shop for the Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce had just noticed the ruthless method with which Wang Ting killed the plunderer.

Yet he still wore a beaming smile, flashing a customized grin, without the slightest bit of reservation after having just witnessed a murder scene.

His eyes darted around, having long since caught sight of the four large cases carried in the hands of Fu Xing and Ren Chuan behind Wang Ting.

Carrying cases to one's doorstep with such caution—most likely extraordinary materials.

"I am Jia Yukun of the Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce. May I ask how to address you all?"

Jia Yukun invited Wang Ting and the others to sit down inside the shop.

A lamp was lit inside the shop, its yellowish glow illuminating the place. The shelves displayed items like bullets, canned goods, and medicine, but the quantities were small, making them look more like samples.

"Wang Ting of the Outpost Camp."

Outpost Camp?

Jia Yukun pondered for a moment, realizing he had never heard the name of this camp, and couldn't help thinking: Is it a new camp or a usurped one?

"What ready stock do you have on hand right now?"

Hearing Wang Ting's inquiry, Jia Yukun patted his own chest: "Whatever you want in the black market, our Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce has a way to get it."

Ren Chuan glanced at him and let out a cold snort: "Don't talk big. If you've got the ability, how about helping us get an extraordinary potion?"

Jia Yukun was momentarily at a loss for words: "You're putting me on the spot. If extraordinary potions could be easily obtained, the Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce wouldn't be guarding the black market."

Ding Xu, the boss of the Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce, was merely a Tier 1 Extraordinary.

He pulled together such a team and holed up in the black market, traveling back and forth between Jumu City and several Shelters.

Delivering urgently needed supplies to these remote Shelters, including food, weapons, medicine, clothing parts, and so on.

And transporting extraordinary materials, monster materials, or Extraordinary Cores to Jumu City or larger Shelters.

He sought profits from this, striving to make connections with the people of Jumu City so as to secure a next-tier extraordinary potion for himself and thereby complete his breakthrough.

Not every Extraordinary had the ability to procure such in-demand items. As for extraordinary potions, either one had connections with Jumu City, or one raised researchers under oneself to formulate suitable extraordinary potions.

Ren Chuan said indifferently: "Since you can't procure it, let's talk about what ready stock you have on hand first."

Caravans were guests, traveling between sanctuary cities or Shelters. Their goods came in batches, and no one knew what goods they currently had hoarded in their hands.

Jia Yukun obviously often encountered patrons like this, so he didn't mind much.

"The caravan still has a batch of weapons and ammunition right now. I wonder if the three of you are interested?"

"Rifles or pistols?"

"Both rifles and pistols. About three hundred rifles, one hundred pistols, and one hundred thousand rounds of bullets. I don't know how many you want?"

Jia Yukun was very confident. This quantity of bullets and firearms would take even Bullet Town a while to prepare.

"Only rifles and pistols?"

Wang Ting frowned slightly, not caring much about these two.

The Three Wolves Gang had sent them a large batch of weapons, which, combined with what the Outpost Camp originally had, was already enough for them to arm three to four hundred people. Ordinary weapons were temporarily not among their needs.

Understanding the hint, Ren Chuan immediately said: "We want some big guys, do you have any?"

Jia Yukun's eyes lit up slightly, knowing this group wanted heavy weapons.

He pondered slightly, then asked in a low voice: "Machine guns?"

"Tell us about them."

"We got two Browning K19 heavy machine guns from Jumu City. They weigh 20 kilograms, fire 200 rounds per minute, and are 12.7 caliber. Piercing cars and steel plates is completely not a problem, and these things are useful even against leader-tier individuals. It's just that the price is a bit expensive."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ting's eyes instantly lit up with interest.

The caliber of this thing was consistent with an anti-materiel sniper rifle, and the power it unleashed was probably comparable. More importantly, it was a continuous-fire lethal weapon.

To a certain extent, as long as the bullets were sufficient, it was an equalizer weapon among humans.

Even an Extraordinary, if lacking special abilities, would probably only have half their body left when facing this thing.

Of course, this Extraordinary was limited to Tier 1 Extraordinaries. If it were a Tier 2 or even higher-level Extraordinary, that would be hard to say.

"You guys actually even have this thing?"

Ren Chuan couldn't believe it. Things that posed a threat even to Extraordinaries, although not quite contraband, were deliberately controlled by various factions. Even Jumu City might not necessarily allow them to flow out casually.

Of course, it was merely control; to say it was completely banned was impossible.

On one hand, Extraordinaries were extremely fast with strong reflexes, making it difficult for a single machine gun to lock onto their position.

Since it didn't completely suppress Extraordinaries, it naturally wouldn't become a completely restricted weapon.

On the other hand, there were quite a few large Shelters on the Tieling Wasteland, coupled with Infinite Buildings like the material floor. Whether through manufacturing or scavenging, there was always a way to acquire such heavy machine guns, just in small quantities.

This also explained why these brokers were able to get their hands on these weapons.

As for whether they dared to sell the weapons once they fell into their hands?

Men die for wealth, birds for food.

If they could obtain more extraordinary materials, perhaps their boss could take it a step further and become a Tier 2 Extraordinary. Just a machine gun, what was there to worry about?

"How much?"

"One heavy machine gun for 100 extraordinary materials."

Ren Chuan drew in a sharp breath, glaring fiercely at Jia Yukun: "Your price is much more expensive than a light machine gun."

Scarecrow Town had light machine guns, three in total, usually mounted on the city walls.

The price of one light machine gun was about 4,000 rounds of bullets, which, converted into extraordinary materials, was roughly 10.

The heavy machine gun was a full 10 times more expensive than the light machine gun.

"The guest also said, this is a heavy machine gun, and its power is worlds apart from a light machine gun. What a light machine gun can deal with are only elite individuals. Leader-tier individuals can completely push forward against a light machine gun and slaughter their way up."

Jia Yukun paused slightly, seemingly holding all the winning cards: "You don't usually use this thing, but when an abnormal riot breaks out on the wasteland, and monster groups of abnormals like zombie packs and Lizard Hound packs all rush out, it becomes dangerous during a siege."

Ren Chuan looked at Wang Ting, seeing that he remained silent and merely nodded slightly, and he knew Wang Ting wanted this thing to consolidate the defense of the Outpost Camp.

"Even so, it's too expensive. 100 extraordinary materials could already trade for an extraordinary potion. Since you're in the black market, haven't you heard any wind of it? If we had that many extraordinary materials, would we still trade for this heavy machine gun?"

Hearing this, Jia Yukun immediately looked somewhat troubled.

The heavy machine gun could indeed inflict damage on Extraordinaries, but after all, it was an external force. Compared to the temptation of an extraordinary potion, it was undoubtedly much inferior.

"80 extraordinary materials."

Ren Chuan wanted to continue bargaining, but this time, no matter how he and Jia Yukun discussed it, Jia Yukun was like an iron rooster—tight-fisted and refusing to budge an inch.

This was a heavy machine gun capable of threatening Extraordinaries. Although this "threat" might need quotation marks—even though the heavy machine gun had a fast fire rate, wanting to form an encirclement against Extraordinaries wasn't something two units could achieve.

"How many bullets do you give? This thing consumes bullets faster than rain falls. For 80 portions of extraordinary materials, you at least have to gift me a large case of bullets. 12.7 caliber bullets aren't cheap either."

"1,000 rounds of bullets, that's the most I can gift. The rest must be bought with money. 1 portion of extraordinary materials for 200 rounds."

If it were ordinary bullets, then one portion of extraordinary materials could probably exchange for 400 rounds of bullets, but this was 12.7 caliber ammunition, considered large caliber, so naturally it wouldn't be cheap.

When the bargaining reached this stage, both Jia Yukun and Ren Chuan actually looked toward Wang Ting.

"How many 12.7 caliber bullets do you have on hand?"

"There are only 5,000 rounds in total. Plus the 1,000 rounds we're gifting you, that makes 6,000 rounds of bullets."

"I want all of them. Do you have smokeless gunpowder here?"

Hearing this, Jia Yukun's eyes flickered slightly, and he immediately guessed what Wang Ting wanted to do.

"No smokeless gunpowder. Generally, this stuff is sold by Bullet Town, and we can't get goods from them either. Bringing goods from Jumu City here doesn't allow us to set a high price. But I know Blade Head Gang seems to have some stock over there; you can go take a look. Right, as for brass, I do have quite a few refined copper ingots on hand. I wonder if the three of you are interested?"

Jia Yukun was able to hold down the fort at the black market store; he was a master at business and knew how to seize every opportunity perfectly.

Guessing that Wang Ting wanted to make bullets, he smoothly pushed forward the brass needed to make bullets.

Since they were going to manufacture bullets, brass was indispensable.

Ren Chuan simply bundled the brass needed for the camp, the material supplies required to restart the Machinery Factory, circuits and parts for repairing vehicles, and other items together to start negotiating.

The two engaged in a battle of wits, talking for several rounds. By the time they reached an agreement and all kinds of items were tallied up, Jia Yukun was already all smiles.

"2 heavy machine guns, 6,000 rounds of 12.7 bullets, 1,000kg of brass, vehicle parts, gasoline—totaling 300 portions of extraordinary materials. Will the three of you pay with extraordinary materials, or exchange it for equivalent food or resources? But fair warning, the heavy machine gun portion can only be paid with extraordinary materials."

Ren Chuan was very seasoned: "I'll take the heavy machine guns and bullets directly, and give you 200 portions of extraordinary materials, with the excess part serving as a deposit. The remaining 100 portions of extraordinary materials will be offset with monster materials. The Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce accepts monster materials, right?"

"I need to inspect the goods first."

"Fu Xing, show it to him."

Fu Xing took out a bundle of light green fibers from the case. The fibers were about the thickness of a hair, refracting a faint glow under the light.

Fu Xing handed the vine fibers to the other party.

Jia Yukun took the vine fibers, and upon just touching them, his eyes lit up slightly: "New monster materials?"

He thought to himself: "These three people are generous with extraordinary materials, yet we've never seen them before, and now they've pulled out new monster materials. Could a new Infinite Building have appeared nearby? If so, I must build a good relationship with them."

A new Infinite Building represented new possibilities, especially if the Floor World inside was a floor that had never appeared before; that would bring even more new things.

He took the vine fibers, untied the strap, pulled out one strand, and gave it a slight tug. The toughness turned out to be stronger than he thought, and its flexibility was also not low.

"It's not an extraordinary material, but the characteristics of this monster material are quite good. Is it convenient to tell me what monster it came from? You guys should have done some research on its uses, right?"

"A vine-type monster we call the Parasitic Fungus Vine. This is the plant fiber from among their vines, yet its toughness is stronger than many cotton and linen fibers used for making clothes. It should come in handy for making special ropes, capture nets, or bulletproof vest fabrics. As for broader uses, it depends on who you sell it to."

The Shelter had no researchers and limited scientific research capabilities, so the current uses were merely deductions made based on ordinary fiber materials used for making clothing.

"How about 1 jin of fiber for 5 energy blocks?"

Jia Yukun began to drive the price down.

Ren Chuan let out a cold snort: "A single monster doesn't even yield 1 jin of fiber. If you're going with this price, I'll turn around and leave. Brass, circuit components, parts, and such things can be found in other shops too."

Jia Yukun remained unhurried: "Then I'll add a bit more: 1 jin of fiber for 10 energy blocks."

"1 jin of fiber for 30 energy blocks, final price."

Seeing that Ren Chuan wouldn't budge an inch, Jia Yukun knew this price couldn't be driven down further.

The three people before him were big patrons; he couldn't directly force the price down and ruin the relationship.

Moreover, this thing was a new monster material. When first sold to a faction like Jumu City, the price certainly wouldn't be low.

Thus he nodded and agreed: "Then let's do it that way. Will you take delivery in the black market or outside?"

"We'll pick up the heavy machine guns and bullets right here. As for the remaining items, let's agree on a time and place to trade outside, how about that?"

"Naturally, no problem."

Black market meetups and outside transactions were also a common trading pattern. Not everyone wanted to swaggeringly complete their transactions inside the black market.

After coming out of the Withered Leaf Chamber of Commerce, the things needed by the Outpost Camp had actually accumulated pretty much enough.

As for the remaining parts or supplies needed to restart the Machinery Factory—such as butter, lathe parts, rubber, and other items—Ren Chuan was quite familiar with the routine. He strolled around several shops and bought them all back by paying on the spot with extraordinary materials.

After making a round of visits, the extraordinary materials spent had already reached 232 portions, leaving only 308 portions of extraordinary materials on hand.

At this moment, Wang Ting finally understood why Zhao Kun and the others had accumulated extraordinary materials for so long, yet still didn't have enough for 100.

It was not only because the monsters on the Scarecrow Farm floor refreshed relatively infrequently and the probability of obtaining extraordinary materials was relatively low, but also because many of the supplies they needed could not be fully covered solely by selling grain; often, extraordinary materials were required as trading currency.

As for these extraordinary materials, making the rounds, they all converged into larger Shelters, and even converged into Jumu City.

Inside the motorcade, Ren Chuan, Fu Xing, and the others had just loaded some of the purchased goods onto the vehicle. There was still some time away from evening at this moment.

So Ren Chuan asked: "Boss, the things that needed to be discussed are pretty much done, and we've moved all the miscellaneous items into the car. Next, where are we going?"

Wang Ting narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking of his idea from earlier today, and said: "Let's go take a look at that Pig Head Tavern Boss Fan mentioned and check out the situation first."

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