Chapter 170: Chapter 170: The Suddenly Disconnected Phone Call (Please Subscribe)
A team of about a dozen Scavengers, dressed in a somewhat punk style, were walking towards Qi Xinzhu.
As they looked Qi Xinzhu up and down, their eyes held no goodwill. Only greed, desire, and a measure of wariness.
But they didn’t make any rash moves, because the strength of Scavengers was just too uneven.
Some were First Tier Transcendents, others were novices, and there were also ordinary people—a common occurrence within the Scavenger hierarchy.
"I’m asking you, woman, why are you occupying our vehicle? This isn’t yours, is it?"
The other party’s tone was somewhat impatient but overall still polite. At least they didn’t make the foolish move of harassing Qi Xinzhu just because she was pretty.
It was precisely because of the other party’s rationality that Lu Luo, who was very tired at this point, didn’t take them all out right away.
"Ah! I didn’t!"
Being in the wrong is a mindset, Qi Xinzhu thought, having no experience in dealing with such situations.
Like now, she denied using the other party’s vehicle, but by denying it, she essentially admitted that the vehicle belonged to them.
As soon as she spoke, a Scavenger on the opposite side started to laugh.
However, the leader of the Scavengers didn’t do anything excessive and watched Lu Luo and Gu Fangyi with slight wariness.
"So, can you get down now? We’re just ordinary Scavengers, and we don’t want to have a conflict with you. But you need to realize, we’re not pushovers."
When the other Scavengers saw their boss acting so meek, they were clearly surprised. Isn’t this beautiful woman worth taking action for?
"Boss? This..."
"Shut up!" The leading Scavenger spoke with a stern tone; or rather, he was a very smart man.
No matter the place, those without ability could not become leaders of others. It was the same even with small Scavenger groups of a dozen people.
The Scavenger leader saw very clearly that Lu Luo was manually dragging a mecha. Not to mention anything else, just this strength was not something ordinary people could muster.
Three people dragging such a colossal mecha through the Sad Swamp... these guys are probably not simple at all! They might be high-level Transcendents!
There were many factors Scavengers analyzed to gauge another’s strength, but one of the simplest was to look at their area and numbers. If the other party had few people and the area they were in was very deep, then they were certainly a formidable team.
The fact that these three could walk out of the Sad Swamp, though they all looked quite bedraggled, suggested their strength would be astonishing.
However, the Scavenger leader had no thoughts of giving up, since the resource vehicle was worth a lot of money. The Homtu Military Supplies resource vehicle was indeed discovered by one of them.
Area C04 was a barren region with no urban areas. For Scavengers, no urban areas meant fewer valuable items and Corrosive Items. If it weren’t for the fact that the other two areas of the Southern Ring had too many people and were too dangerous, this particular Scavenger wouldn’t have come here. Having made his way here and discovering this resource vehicle was his biggest gain. But he didn’t know how to start it like Qi Xinzhu did, so he decided to take a gamble and went back to bring people over. This led to the scene where the Scavengers encountered Lu Luo.
"Shall we make a move?" Gu Fangyi’s voice was not soft, and he sounded quite casual.
As soon as he spoke, the Scavengers instantly tensed up. They all drew their handguns, but these were small-caliber, usually only capable of killing people.
[Host’s mental state is extremely poor and unsettled. It is recommended to remain calm and let Gu Fangyi and Qi Xinzhu handle the situation here.]
Lu Luo didn’t heed the Observer’s advice. He looked at the group of about a dozen people. Five continuous days of hauling had left him exhausted.
Exhaustion tormented his will, tempting him with the idea of simply finishing them all off. After some contemplation, Lu Luo rejected this idea because he didn’t want to be dominated by his desires. He preferred to control his body with his soul, rather than become a killing machine who only knew slaughter when faced with problems.
Under the muzzles of the Scavengers’ guns, Lu Luo slowly stepped forward. His weary and sluggish pace put a lot of psychological pressure on the Scavengers.
"Boss?"
"Nobody fire!"
The Scavenger leader noticed Lu Luo’s confidence. He wondered if some formidable Transcendents weren’t afraid of guns. Could it be they’ve run into one today?
"Lu Luo, what are you planning to do?"
Qi Xinzhu looked at Lu Luo with a bit of concern, worried he might just kill all these people. Although by now she had come to accept killing, such slaughter was meaningless.
Just as Qi Xinzhu was fretting over whether Lu Luo would take action, he surprisingly knocked calmly on the vehicle window.
"Relax, there’s nothing to worry about; we’ll be home soon."
[Host, that statement is ambiguous!]
"Ah? Home? Oh!"
Qi Xinzhu’s most vivid memory of Lu Luo’s home was the night she got drunk. So she sat there obediently, no longer saying anything.
Lu Luo continued to approach the Scavengers, who were trembling with nerves, and took a pistol from one of them.
"What are you doing? Don’t move, we will shoot."
"Don’t be nervous. I’ve been quite tired lately, so I wanted to resolve this matter using a gentler approach."
Lu Luo always had a benevolent appearance, right up to the point he aimed the gun barrel at his own eyeball.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Six shots emptied all the bullets in the revolver.
When Lu Luo removed the last bullet from his eyelid and returned it along with the pistol to the Scavenger it belonged to, the group was too scared to speak.
Your so-called ’gentle’ way of solving the problem was indeed gentle! The bullets were all flattened—how could it not be gentle?
"As I said, there’s no need to be so nervous. Help us transport the mecha back, and the rest of the items in the vehicle are yours."
"Why should we?"
Even now, there was still an idiot who couldn’t grasp the situation.
CLANG!
Lu Luo drew an alloy knife and casually performed a Slash Strike, cutting a rock in front of the Scavengers in two.
"That’s why."
[I’ll give you 82 points for that impressive act, with the remaining 18 awarded in a ’666’ format.]
Although Lu Luo was always smiling, his sudden move had frightened the foolish Scavenger witless.
Many ordinary people didn’t have a deep understanding of Transcendents. They knew Transcendents were powerful, but there was no concrete measure of how powerful. But Scavengers were different. They had some awareness of the strength of Transcendents.
The Lu Luo before them was clearly not someone they could afford to provoke.
"Fine, we’ll help you with the cargo."
"Thank you very much then!"
Lu Luo dragged the mecha onto the resource vehicle, and the Scavengers did what they could to help, shouting where necessary. Before long, they had loaded everything that Lu Luo and his companions brought back onto the resource vehicle. They also took what was originally there—items like luxury goods and food that belonged to Lin Zhiming—and packed them for themselves.
This group had some combat and transport capabilities. With their help, Lu Luo and his party would save a lot of effort getting back inside the wall.
Qi Xinzhu drove, with Gu Fangyi on lookout atop the vehicle. As for Lu Luo, he leaned back in the co-driver’s seat and fell into a deep sleep. He was exhausted.
Qi Xinzhu didn’t wake him, and Lu Luo’s sleep lasted nearly three days. When he woke up, they had already arrived at the foot of the Southern Ring wall.
"We’re finally back!"
"Let’s see how much we can make this time!"
Lu Luo looked at the mecha on the vehicle with satisfaction. Although it was broken, it marked the first step for Circle Studio to possess high-grade weaponry. With the mecha and the rest of the equipment from Homtu Military Supplies, the studio would take off in no time. And unlike the last batch of equipment from Lan Tian, this batch was completely clean.
Having saved Li Tanya and now bringing these items back, nobody from Homtu Military Supplies would dare to make a peep.
Due to the heavy weight of the resource vehicle and the mecha, the cost of the hooks had increased 195 times.
Lu Luo could understand and accept it, but still, it annoyed him. The Alliance is just blatantly exploiting the poor.
"Hey, look over there!"
"Damn, a mecha!"
"This guy has struck it rich!"
Lu Luo found these comments very pleasing. He was already tired of hearing how handsome he was, so a change of flavor was quite welcome.
Qi Xinzhu looked at Lu Luo’s proud face, not quite understanding why this usually mature and calm guy would be so happy about such a thing.
"Are you happy?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"If living isn’t about showing off, then there’s no meaning to it. Showboating brings happiness. Even if you aren’t anything special now, you still need to learn how to show off.
"For example, when you go home for the holidays, office workers have to tell their relatives that their income is decent, claiming their after-tax annual salary is less than 200,000 yuan. (Thirty thousand is also less than 200,000, no problem there.)
"Those who run small businesses must say they’re deeply cooperating with several major companies. (If they can’t get their debts repaid, isn’t that deep cooperation?)
"Even if someone’s truly a homebody with nothing to do, they can’t just admit they’re idle. They should say they’re doing mid-lane business in Ionia with remarkable achievements. (Half-step Silver.)
"Dreams make life splendid for everyone."
Qi Xinzhu fell silent for a while.
"What’s Ionia?"
「...」
In the East Ring, at the Circular Hunter’s Agency, Zhou Kai was lounging with his legs crossed, looking at a new report brought over by an employee.
He wore a Circular custom-made black trench coat and a brimmed hat. A cigar was in his mouth, and he had grown a beard, giving him quite the air of a boss.
Although he was only the third in command at Circular, the other two, Lu Luo and Gu Fangyi, were slackers. The one who genuinely worried and took care of matters was always him.
"A 20,000 yuan investigation job? Catching a petty thief stealing from someone’s home can really fetch 20,000 yuan? Did his ancestral tomb get robbed?"
"Well, it’s said that their family has been burglarized three times, with antiques stolen totaling over 150,000 yuan. The client wants to catch the person but doesn’t want to create panic, so they’re offering a high price for us to handle it. The other company members looked at the case and weren’t completely sure they could handle it, so that’s why the file ended up with you."
Zhou Kai nodded thoughtfully. This kind of situation indeed required certain skills and planning. There wouldn’t be any problem if he personally took on the job.
"Alright, call Xu Minglei over. I’ll go with him."
"Yes."
Xu Minglei had now become one of Circular’s top salesmen. After sending his father’s mistress to jail, his capabilities had grown even stronger. Now Xu Minglei could take on some Hunter liaison business. This was the highest level of business at Circle Studio; Zhou Kai wouldn’t give the opportunity without sufficient ability. This time, he allowed Xu Minglei to join him for two reasons: one, because the pay was good, and two, because Zhou Kai feared that if he went alone and failed to solve the case, he would lose face. It was better to have someone to blame.
Downstairs, Xu Minglei was already waiting for him in the company’s van. Besides Xu Minglei, there was also a man in his fifties, the client for this mission, who introduced himself as Mr. Wu.
Seeing Zhou Kai board the van, Xu Minglei nodded.
"Brother Kane."
"Mhm, let’s go."
After boarding, Zhou Kai glanced at the client, Mr. Wu, and also nodded. "Mr. Wu, right? Hello, I’m Zhou Kai."
Mr. Wu shook hands with Zhou Kai. "Hello, Mr. Zhou Kai. If you have any questions, ask them now."
"Alright, Mr. Wu, about the case of the antique thefts from your esteemed residence.
"I’d like to ask, how do you know it was done by someone from your household staff and not a case of burglary?"
"Because the security and protection levels in our home are very high, burglary would be a very foolish act."
"I see. Have you discovered any clues so far?"
"If we had any clues, why would we need you?"
Old Wu looked quite difficult to talk to, appearing somewhat arrogant. Zhou Kai didn’t like interacting with such people, but there was no helping it; the man was the employer. And the employer, well, as long as they pay, they’re the boss.
"Ha, no clues? No worries. I just wanted to remind Mr. Wu that, even if the task isn’t completed, we will collect one-fourth of the fee.
"Of course, before that, we will give it our all."
"I know, it’s only 5,000 yuan. There’s no need to stress it twice."
It seemed that the previous salesman had already mentioned this requirement to him. Looking at Old Wu’s impatient face, Zhou Kai also felt somewhat helpless. Judging by the client’s attitude, this was probably not a simple task.
After driving for quite a while, Xu Minglei suddenly said, "Brother Kane, ahead is Bogu Manor, an area composed of high-class villas."
Zhou Kai glanced at the location. Isn’t this where Qian Ming’s house was located before? Qian Ming’s place was already a villa, and there are manors further inside? Where in the Wasteland do these rich people find so much land to squander!
After entering the villa district, the car noticeably slowed down. Xu Minglei, following Old Wu’s instructions, drove the car to the deepest part of the villa district, where the words "Hequan Farmstead" appeared before them.
Security at the gate stopped the car, but they let it through as soon as they saw Old Wu. The car came to a stop in the private parking lot of Hequan Farmstead.
The three got out of the car, and Old Wu pointed to the large manor. "Let’s go, follow me to meet the master."
Zhou Kai didn’t move. Xu Minglei looked at him, somewhat puzzled. "Brother Kane, what’s wrong? Aren’t we going now?"
Zhou Kai smiled normally. "No problem, just wait a bit. I need to grab something, and then we can go."
Zhou Kai returned to the car and, from under the driver’s seat, pulled out a large-caliber handgun, tucking it into his jacket. Then he took a suitcase from the back seat and closed the car door again.
"Alright, let’s go."
Xu Minglei looked at Zhou Kai, who was calm, wanting to say something but was immediately stopped by Zhou Kai’s gesture.
Zhou Kai smiled. "Let’s go, what are we waiting for? If we don’t go now, our client might start getting anxious."
Old Wu glanced at Zhou Kai a few times, then said no more and turned to walk towards the depths of the manor.
「...」
At this moment, You Xiaoqi at the Hunters’ training ground suddenly received a call, which was quickly hung up. Then, the phone rang again, only to be hung up once more.
You Xiaoqi cursed as she stopped her training and moved towards her luggage. "Which SB is playing phone games? Are they out of their mind?"
When she checked to see who the call was from, the phone rang yet again. The situation remained the same; the call was disconnected the moment it connected.
Seeing the number on the caller ID, You Xiaoqi’s expression changed slightly. "Zhou Kai!"
She attempted to call Zhou Kai back, but halfway through dialing, You Xiaoqi deleted the number. After a few seconds of contemplation, she promptly called Ding Peng’s number.
"Hello, Seven Bro, what’s up? I’m in my promotion match."
"Fat Ding, Zhou Kai’s in trouble."
Ding Peng, who was playing cards, froze instantly, gazing at the four 2s and two jokers in his hand, and fell into a three-second-long reflection. I’m at 2 wins and 2 losses in my do-or-die game! Four 2s and two jokers—this is a guaranteed promotion to Silver!
Then, he slammed his cards down. "Damn it, no matter. I already have the skills of a Silver tier, so getting to Silver is just a matter of time.
"Rescuing someone is what’s important now. This game, I can let it go!"