Chapter 47: The Bustling Wanderers' Town

Having safely left Black Rock City without incident, Tang Zhen set off for the Wanderer Town.

On the way back to the Wanderer Town, Tang Zhen witnessed seven battles between cultivators and corpse-monsters. In all of them, Black Rock City's forces formed the main vanguard while rogue wanderers from the wasteland provided auxiliary support. From this, it was evident that Black Rock City had truly made up its mind.

Both sides harbored great ambitions. Black Rock City was the veteran overlord of this region, while the goal of the Corpse Tribe was to conquer the entire World of Towers, with Black Rock City standing as the first obstacle on their path of conquest.

In the end, only one ruler could remain in this region, which was why both sides were sparing no effort to wipe out the other.

Although the chaos of war made life miserable for the common folk, it also harbored immense business opportunities. Could he perhaps capitalize on this situation?

When Tang Zhen reached the Wanderer Town, he noticed that the number of wanderers entering and leaving had suddenly increased several times over, with an occasional resident of Black Rock City mixed among them.

The entrance to the Wanderer Town was chaotic, with fights breaking out from time to time. However, the combatants exercised some restraint, and no fatalities had occurred.

After making some inquiries, Tang Zhen learned that those residents of Black Rock City had arrived just the day before. They were primarily responsible for issuing quests to exterminate the corpse-monsters, tallying the monster tokens brought back by the wanderers, and distributing the corresponding rewards.

This administrative outpost, set up near the entrance of the Wanderer Town, appeared bustling and extraordinarily lively.

Every now and then, murderous rogue wanderers and members of exploration teams would walk over to turn in their quests, then select the rewards they needed—either food, or accumulated credits to exchange for weapons and armor.

Those rogue wanderers whose weapons and armor were severely damaged would enter the town to have them repaired or directly exchange them for a brand-new set of equipment.

Compared to ordinary wanderers, these rogue wanderers were relatively well-funded, and at the very least, they did not constantly worry about missing meals.

Of course, these brain-cores were traded with their lives. Who knew, one day they might die out in the wasteland; if they were lucky, their bodies would remain intact, but if they were unlucky, they would directly become food for the monsters.

Tang Zhen paused to watch for a moment before heading in the direction of the cave.

Looking from afar, everything outside the cave was as usual.

Little Murong Ziyue was squatting at the cave entrance, watching the bugs on the ground, accompanied by the massive Big Bear. The two of them were pointing at the ground while emitting bursts of happy laughter.

"Little girl, what are you looking at?"

Tang Zhen smiled and called out.

"Brother Tang Zhen, you're back!"

The moment the little girl saw Tang Zhen, she immediately stood up, ran over dancing with joy, and was scooped straight into Tang Zhen's embrace.

Big Bear looked foolishly at Tang Zhen, seemingly wanting to run over as well, though he didn't move and merely wore an expectant expression on his face.

Tang Zhen looked at the drooling Big Bear, then at the little girl who was also looking at him with wide, watery eyes. How could he possibly fail to guess their little thoughts?

He reached behind his back, and when he pulled his hand out, he was holding a handful of delicate candies.

The colorful candies were dazzling under the sunlight, as if radiating a sacred glow. Upon seeing this, the little girl and Big Bear immediately cheered, then cradled the candies off to the side to savor them carefully.

Murong Ziyan and Qian Long also heard the noise by now and walked out of the cave together. Upon seeing Tang Zhen, expressions of profound relief appeared on both of their faces.

Tang Zhen specifically checked and found that both Big Bear and Qian Long's injuries were healing quite well.

For a wanderer, getting injured was a routine occurrence. Both of them possessed great resilience, and coupled with Murong Ziyan's evergreen vine ointment, their recovery speed was even faster.

"How is it? Are you feeling better?"

Tang Zhen patted Qian Long on the chest and asked with a concerned tone.

"There's no problem anymore. This little injury is nothing at all to me.

It's just that this whole business left a bad taste in my mouth. I've secretly inquired about it—that fellow is a minor leader of an exploration team and holds considerable influence, so if we want to take revenge on him, we'd better do it more covertly."

Qian Long smiled and said to Tang Zhen.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing! Let's not talk about this for now."

Tang Zhen already had a plan in mind regarding how to deal with the bearded man. Seeing Tang Zhen steer away from the topic, Qian Long stopped pressing the matter.

Murong Ziyan kept her gaze fixed on Tang Zhen with deep concern. When she noticed Tang Zhen turning his gaze toward her, she revealed a shy, girlish demeanor with a hint of bashfulness on her face.

This time, Tang Zhen had indeed bought quite a few things for the four of them. After giving a shout, he carried the bags he used as camouflage into the cave, dumped the contents out, and distributed them among the four.

The four of them were used to living through hard times; when had they ever seen so much delicious food and so many clothes?

Their expressions all showed a trace of excitement. Qian Long and Murong Ziyan managed to keep their composure, but the little girl had already gone wild with joy, clutching a large bag of candy while hopping up and down on the ground.

Big Bear looked on with envy, squatting there and drooling. Seeing this, Tang Zhen smiled and handed another bag to Big Bear.

The big fellow immediately let out an excited roar. That sound was extremely piercing, making their eardrums ache and prompting Tang Zhen to give him a kick right on the backside.

Murong Ziyan looked at the clothes and small items Tang Zhen had given her, unable to help smiling secretly as a trace of joy and sweetness painted her face.

"Brother Tang, where on earth did you manage to get all these things?"

Qian Long finally couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart and asked a question.

Tang Zhen exuded an air of profound mystery. The longer time went on, the stronger this feeling became. Even though Qian Long was a discreet and tactful person, he still couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked.

Tang Zhen smiled and replied, "It's not yet time to tell you. You just need to know that following me will definitely lead you right!"

Tang Zhen's reply was perfunctory, but Qian Long didn't mind. He merely nodded slightly and began tinkering with the wolf-eye flashlight and military dagger Tang Zhen had given him, wearing a look of sheer joy.

After distributing the brought items, Murong Ziyan went to prepare food and cook. Tang Zhen and Qian Long walked out of the cave, found a boulder to sit on, and began discussing the events of the past few days.

Tang Zhen listened quietly to the recent occurrences, nodding slightly while pondering inwardly.

According to what Qian Long said, this wave of corpse-monsters was indeed different from previous monsters. Not only were they numerous and fiercely combative, but they also possessed rudimentary intelligence, making them entirely incomparable to the mindless killing machines of the wasteland in the past.

The cultivator strike team dispatched by Black Rock City suffered heavy casualties, and the wanderers suffered even worse losses. Yet, despite paying such a heavy price, the number of corpse-monsters did not decrease; instead, it showed a growing trend.

The sky-high stench of blood on the battlefield further attracted an increasing variety of wasteland monsters.

A few days ago, some wanderers even caught sight of a level-five Black-Winged Azure Dragon lingering far off on the horizon.

It was said that this Black-Winged Azure Dragon reached over twenty meters in length and usually only entrenched itself in hazardous areas of the wasteland, yet this time it too had been lured by the pungent smell of blood piercing the sky.

Word had it that Black Rock City had already sent out requests for assistance to other towers, though whether they would receive support remained unclear.

Meanwhile, over the past few days, wanderers from various other places had been continually gathering here, their sole purpose being to take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune from the war.

The equipment of fallen wanderers, the brain-cores of monsters, quest bounties, and the trade of supplies were all viewed by the wanderers as golden opportunities to get rich.

Even some mobile merchant caravans were hurrying toward Black Rock City, bringing with them massive quantities of wartime necessities.

Upon hearing this, Tang Zhen's eyes immediately lit up. These wanderers coming from elsewhere might just bring him massive amounts of cash, gold, and jewelry.

Even without those, he could easily run a wholesale department store and harvest a vast quantity of brain-cores from the hands of these wanderers.