The staple food served for lunch was palm-sized white bread, crispy corn kernels, and wolf meat cooked with soybeans.
Not only Liu Jiuyue, who was the envoy, was entertained, but also the eight slaves and two guards who were pulling the carriage were also given food.
Leaving aside the guards that were servants with the same status as him, Liu Jiuyue did not expect that even slaves were also served with food.
But after all, they didn’t dine in the same place, so Liu Jiuyue didn’t say much.
Putting his hands together, he thanked the host who gave them the food, and then he couldn’t wait to reach out and grab the white bread on the plate.
Different from the cold and hard green wheat bread, this bread was very soft. Liu Jiuyue didn’t know what raw materials it was made from, but just holding it in his hand made him unable to hold back the urge to send the food quickly into his mouth.
So fragrant!
His eyes almost bulged out, and before he could swallow the food in his mouth, he quickly picked up the spoon and scooped a spoonful of bean stew and stuffed it into his mouth.
Soft and delicious, and it melts in the mouth immediately.
It was an extremely high evaluation of the food he was given.Before he could savor it, he gulped it down as fast as he could, as if suffering from starvation for a long time, completely forgetting what the boss had told him before he left.
Wolf meat was usually sour, but after it was stewed with soybeans, it actually tasted quite good. As for the corn, it was even better.
Did they fry it with oil?
This is too extravagant!
There was as much white bread as they could eat, and when Liu Jiuyue ate the fourth one, he felt like he couldn’t eat anymore.
After taking a sip of hot water, he tried to swallow the food stuffed into his throat. Then he looked at Guo Bull, who was sitting across the table, with a surprised expression. "What’s this?"
Guo Bull was an honest person and he answered truthfully. "It’s steamed bun, salt and pepper corn, stewed soybeans with braised pork."
Liu Jiuyue looked blank. He had never heard of those dishes before. Unable to hide that envious look any longer, he couldn’t help asking. "You guys eat this every day?"
Guo Bull shook his head and said. "It depends on what’s available in the market."
The outpost had no cafeteria, and all the meals were prepared by the shelter residents.
Although the market at noon was not as lively at night, there were still many people setting up cauldrons and cooking some strange food.
The administrator had set the standard for lunch, with a budget of 3 silver coins per person. So Guo Bull took the money and went to the market to purchase lunch for everyone.
The shelter residents at the north gate were very kind. They rushed to drag him to their booth, and even said that large-scale purchases could be discounted.
Although Guo Bull didn’t understand why bulk purchases could be discounted, it was always a good thing to save money for the administrator. In the end, this meal only cost 70% of the total budget, which could be said to be very economical.
"Market?"
However, after listening to Guo Bull’s explanation, Liu Jiuyue’s expression became even more dazed.
It sounded very weird indeed.
There shouldn’t be such a thing as a market in a normal small survivor stronghold.
After all, trade was the product of prosperity. If more than half of the people in a place were slaves without private property, who were they going to sell things to on the market? They may not even own the flesh on their body, let alone anything worth exploiting.
Liu Jiuyue had heard that there was a grocery store in Baker Street before, which was run by the old town mayor, allowing the scavengers there to exchange some daily necessities. This could be considered a great act of kindness in the surrounding area, but that family had been driven away by these savages with guns, and now he didn’t know if that store was still there.
Liu Jiuyue had never been to that place. He had only heard from people that a group of scavengers were living there. They also occasionally scavenged near the farm, but they would usually be driven away, unless they had chips on them. Sometimes, the farm owner didn’t want to get into trouble with the neighbors, and would allow them to exchange some green wheat.
"Thank you for your hospitality." Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Liu Jiuyue took a moment to hold back his hiccups, got up, and said respectfully.
Guo Bull shook his head and corrected in a serious tone, "All this is the generosity of the administrator, you should thank him, not me."
Liu Jiuyue gave him an envious look.
This is strange.
He actually saw loyalty on the face of a slave!
However, what was even more strange was that he even wanted to curry favor with him...
After coming out of the dining room, Liu Jiuyue beckoned to the slaves he brought, and led the two-headed bull tied to the entrance.
He cracked the whip in his hand, as if he wanted to vent his suppressed emotions on these people. "Hurry up, lazy dogs, it’s time for us to hit the road."
The slaves didn’t dare to disobey him, nor did they dare to disobey the iron-barreled rifles on the backs of him and the guards. They untied the ropes on the two-headed bull quickly, and set out on the road at the urging of Liu Jiuyue.
However, people’s simple desire for a better life cannot be stopped by a whip alone. Several slaves whispered to each other while Liu Jiuyue and the two guards didn’t notice it.
"The food just now was too delicious."
"Yeah, even when we had a bumper harvest, we didn’t eat this well..."
"It’s almost like heaven here!"
"Speaking of which, that person earlier was... Guo Ba?"
"It seems so."
"Unbelievable, it was really him! I almost didn’t recognize him!"
"Say, if we defected... "
"Shh! Don’t let the guy with the gun hear this. I have to warn you. Last time, the brat who boasted about going on a trip with the caravan was hanged at the entrance for three days and three nights. When I put him down, half of his body was already eaten by mutants!"
The slaves became silent and dared not speak any more.
Watching the caravan disappear at the end of the woods, Chu Guang, who was standing by the window on the third floor of the nursing home, suddenly said with admiration. "It would be nice if he gave me a few more bulls."
Xia Yan, who came by to sponge a meal off Chu Guang, joked. "Does this count as eating the food in the bowl while thinking about the food in the pot?"
She learned the phrase from Chu Guang. It was said that this sentence was used to describe a person who was insatiable. Although she didn’t think it was accurate to use this sentence to describe Chu Guang, it was unexpectedly appropriate at this time.
"Of course not," Chu Guang glanced back at her and said with dissatisfaction, "I taught you this sentence, not for you to use it on me."
Xia Yan rolled her eyes, and continued to concentrate on dealing with the popcorn in her hand.
Although Chu Guang always said that this was junk food, she didn’t feel that way at all. After sprinkling a little sugar on top, its taste was simply unparalleled in the world!
Having silver coins is really great!
She has already started to calculate how to spend tomorrow’s salary.
...
Noon.
At the entrance of Flower Garden Street subway station, which was about 4 kilometers away from Linghu Wetland Park, the pungent smell of gunpowder permeated the street, and even the whistling north wind couldn’t blow it away.
A group of happy players skillfully repeated yesterday’s work, baiting the monsters, killing them together, and then counting the results.
Well, everyone looked happy, with the exception of 2 people.
One was Escaping Mole and the other was Mosquito.
In order to clear the passage from the entrance of the subway station to the gate of Shelter 117, these two contractors had already put in more than 400 silver coins, which was enough to buy two LD-47 rifles!
If their mission couldn’t be cleared on that day, it was difficult to say whether the reward of 1200 silver coins was worth it in terms of time and cost.
"Maybe we should learn from Ample Time," Mosquito said with a frown, looking at Escaping Mole standing beside him, "I’ve chatted with Old White yesterday. They didn’t hire so many people when they were clearing the Greenhouse Ruins. Although they did spend some money on the ammunition, their cost was not much higher than ours."
Escaping Mole shook his head and said, "Mosquito, you are wrong. You think they’re sharing their game experience with you, but you don’t know that they are simply showing off. Elite tactics? Don’t you know what kind of gear they have? The strongest mechanical compound bow in the entire server, a set of exoskeleton in the same style as the administrator’s, a mechanical hand that can max out the intelligence type’s damage output, and... They also have the player with the highest perception in the entire server."
"What is the point of discussing tactics with this kind of overpowered team? The output of any one of them is equivalent to three people. As long as they don’t die, they will definitely make a fortune. If we copy their style of play, we will not be able to complete this mission until next month. Just listen to me, if we don’t have good equipment, we have to use numbers to make up, there is no other way about it!”
I get what you are saying.
But I’m so damn envious of them!
With a look of envy on his face, Mosquito couldn’t help but yell, "Those damn lucky bastards!"
Escaping Mole nodded, agreeing. "See? Do you understand the importance of balance now?"
The output of that mechanical arm is simply unreasonable. Any projectile can almost be turned into cannonballs by it. Have the devs considered the feelings of strength type players? And that mechanical compound bow. It is even more powerful than a gun. Not only can it pierce armor, but it can also project explosives. In addition, its ammunition is also very cheap. So is it reasonable not to nerf it?
Although Escaping Mole complained in his heart, if he could be rewarded with a set of equipment of the same level or even better one after he finished clearing the mission of Shelter 117, he would not say a single word.
I don’t care. If they don’t give me anything good, I will definitely protest on the forum!
Zhang Hai, who was in charge of baiting monsters, finally finished checking his results. He just happened to hear the conversation between the two when he came over.
Although he didn’t understand what they were saying, he still excitedly butted in. "Running them down with our numbers advantage is awesome!"
"Get lost, you are just a newbie. Do you even understand how to play your own sequence?" Mosquito, who was still envious of other people’s weapons, was not in the mood to educate this newbie. He simply put a handful of coins in his hand and said, "Take it, and keep the change!"
Zhang Hai said with a foolish smile after counting the money. "Thank you boss! I wish you good fortune!"
Mosquito’s eyelids twitched violently when he heard the word fortune.
Good fortune?
If he continued to pay them that way, let alone making a fortune, he was about to go bankrupt!
Feeling Mosquito’s pain, Escaping Mole sighed and patted his shoulder lightly. "We can do it! Our victory is just around the corner. I have a hunch that the reward for this mission may not be less than that of the Greenhouse Ruins. We will definitely be able to make our money back!"
Mosquito looked at the sky and sighed. "Hopefully."
In fact, Escaping Mole wasn’t just to console him, victory was indeed at hand.
There were 67 Crunchers that were killed in this round, which was a lot less than the day before, and the agility type newbie named Zhang Hai spent more than twice as long as yesterday to lure monsters out. Obviously, the density of mutants was not as high as it was a few days ago.
Escaping Mole guessed in his heart that if everything went well, they would be able to finish the mission in 2 more rounds.
It happened to be lunch time after they cleared the monsters. The players who participated in the mission took a break, walked into the abandoned store on the side of the road, and burned a pot of boiling water with the charcoal they brought and the branches they picked up along the way.
Newbies needed to save money to buy equipment. Most of them were reluctant to buy expensive supplies, and the dry food they brought was mainly green wheat cakes, or pancakes made of shofar potatoes.
Although dry rations like that had no nutrition and tasted very ordinary, it was very convenient. Whether it was thrown into the pot to be boiled into a paste, or directly eaten, they could fill their stomachs.
There would be a debuff of low blood sugar on an empty stomach, which would affect the damage output, so players wanted to fill their stomach before starting the next wave of offensive.
However, at this moment, neither Escaping Mole nor Mosquito noticed that on the road just one block away from the Flower Garden Street subway station, a group of fully armed mercenaries was quietly entering the area.
There were not many of them, only eight people. Although their equipment was not of the most elite, it was more than a little bit stronger than the stragglers wandering in the wasteland. Not only were they equipped with automatic weapons, but two of them had thigh-thick rocket launchers on their backs. Clearly, they didn’t lack firepower.
It could be seen that their boss had put in a lot of money this time and learned the lessons of the last failure. He not only hired a stronger mercenary group, but also bought a round-trip ticket to the northern suburbs for this group of people.
Their mission was simple. It was to arrive at the Flower Garden Street subway station, clear the mutants below the subway station, then enter the Shelter 117, and return to the evacuation point with the contents inside.
In fact, if everything had gone smoothly, they should have completed this mission two days ago. However, no one expected that there was another group of people eyeing Shelter 117.
Those people seemed to be the newly emerging survivors from the northern suburbs of Clearspring City. According to the eloquent host of the Boulder Town radio station, these people not only took out Bloodhand Clan, but also wiped out the mutant humans on 76th Street. Recently, they even hooked up with Enterprise passing through the northern suburbs.
Although those people’s equipment was very weak, and those mercenaries had clear advantages, no one dared to take them lightly.
Especially the day before, the scout who had gone to the high-rise building to set up a sniper point came back with the news that he had discovered the target of the suspected ability user.
Ability user!
As the captain of a twelve people mercenary team, Pritt felt that things might not be as simple as he imagined.
Without fighting immediately, they occupied a half-collapsed building along the street, set up a radio station, established a temporary command post, and made contact with the scouts who arrived at the front line first.
"Carl, is the ability user from yesterday still there?"
After waiting for a while, the scout’s voice came from the communication channel.
"He’s gone... I suspect that he is not fully awakened, but there are signs of awakening."
Pritt asked solemnly. "What is his ability?"
Carl replied. "May be related to intuition or some kind of psychic power."
Intuition or psychic power.
Pritt’s brows furrowed.
The so-called awakening was the mutation of a part of the body, showing some characteristics that were different from ordinary people.
There were many triggers that may lead to awakening. The more common ones were the use of genetic modification agents, or the activation of survival instincts at the juncture of life and death, resulting in the dominant expression of inactive segments of gene segments.
Compared with the risk controllable mechanical prosthesis transformation, awakening was undoubtedly a path full of thorns. Although it could bring incredible power, it was not without cost.
However, it was undeniable that ability users were indeed difficult to deal with, especially the psychic and intuitive ones. Many abilities were simply unreasonable, making it hard to guard against.
Just like the energy weapons!
"That group of people is preparing for the second wave of offensive. I feel that the mutants under the subway station have been cleaned up by them... Boss, when are we going to take action?"
Pritt said calmly, "Don’t worry, wait for them to lead all the mutants out from below first."
It may be a genius idea to lead the mutants out of the subway station and kill them altogether at once, but those people obviously didn’t realize how large a commotion they caused.
Pritt’s thinking was clear.
They didn’t need to confront the survivors head-on. They just needed to wait quietly for the mutants to come out of their nests, and then take advantage of the situation.
So what if there is an ability user?
Taking these survivors and mutants out in one go is as easy as eating a sandwich cookie.
Thinking of this, a faint smile appeared on Pritt’s face.
He would soon teach those survivors a lesson, making them understand the meaning of how the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind him.
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