Chapter 379 Meanwhile…

After a rather long and monotonous journey through the desert, a settlement finally appeared ahead of the Hell Front team.

Compared to the desert fortress which was the size of a small city, the place Feng Bujue and the others had arrived at could only be considered a small village.

The village was located in a mountain gorge, with towering rock walls on both sides protecting the inhabitants from wind and sun, and also shielding the village from the eyes of many bandits.

Various shacks, rock shelves, and caves, closely integrated with the terrain, formed the unique architectural style of this place.

The rabbits living here seemed to be the more settled type of residents. Most of them wore coarse cloth clothes or woven items, and their body size was noticeably different from that of the slave traders in the desert.

It wasn't that these villagers were a different species from the bandit rabbits, but because these people (rabbits) could barely make ends meet through hard work, their physique was naturally not as strong as those who could eat and dress well through robbery.

Dang dang dang dang dang—

"The slave traders are coming! Everyone, hide!"

As the Hell Front team approached the entrance of the mountain gorge on their motorcycles, the sound of metal being struck immediately rang out in the village, and someone could be clearly heard shouting a warning to the villagers.

"Jue-ge... it seems like we've been misunderstood..." Xiao Tan said, turning his head.

"It's probably because we're riding motorcycles," Feng Bujue replied.

"It's also possible that the people from the Second Division of Shidao entered the village ahead of us and told the villagers something," Xiao Ling added from the side.

"Eh?" Reminded by her, Xiao Tan exclaimed in surprise, "Then aren't we likely to be ambushed?"

"Don't be nervous..." Feng Bujue said in a relaxed tone, "Even if the people from Shidao really came to this village, at most they would have said some bad things about us to the villagers. An ambush is obviously you thinking too much... Unless the enemy knew in advance that we would definitely come to this village, who would they ambush?" He paused, then continued, "Taking a step back... Assuming they really knew we were coming and planned to ambush us here..." He turned his head and gestured with his eyes towards the front, "... then how could we see this 'startling the snake' scene before us?"

"Oh..." Xiao Tan understood quickly, "That's right..."

As they spoke, they had arrived at the entrance of the village, and the defensive line formed by the villagers was already in place.

A "mobile wall" made of a mixture of scrap metal, stones, and plastic products had been lowered, blocking the players' path. The wall also had many protruding sharp objects, making it look quite threatening.

Behind the wall was a row of "fully armed" villagers, both male and female. Their weapons were mainly sticks and homemade spears (usually just a sharpened stone or metal spearhead tied to the end of a long stick), and their armor consisted of various simple sports protective gear and homemade shields (including garbage can lids, manhole covers, plastic boards, etc., and some shields even had obvious holes). The few guys with crossbows should be considered the most combat-effective among these people (rabbits), but they were obviously no match for the players.

"Stop! You slave traders! Don't come near our village!" Before the players could even stop their motorcycles, they heard a delicate shout.

Feng Bujue took a closer look and saw that the person shouting was a female rabbit-star person holding a crossbow, standing in the center of the defensive line.

"Heh..." Jue-ge smiled slightly and replied in a relatively gentle tone, "Everyone, don't misunderstand, we are not slave traders." He pointed to the motorcycle under him, "We robbed this vehicle from a group of slave traders."

Who knew, the other party immediately followed up with a sentence: "Then you are robbers?"

In a sense... that logic was indeed correct...

"Nay~ Nay~" Feng Bujue still maintained that calmness and kindness, even though he was being glared at by dozens of hostile rabbit-star people with swords drawn and bows ready; and this calmness, this leisurely attitude... was undoubtedly part of his negotiation skills, "The four of us... are just travelers who came to your planet by accident. Since we were attacked by slave traders not long ago, we had to resist with force. As a result, those guys were no match for us, and they left their motorcycles and ran away."

"Who would believe your kind of talk?"

"Don't think we're easy to fool!"

"That's right! Get back where you came from! Don't come near our village!"

Obviously, these few words were not enough to convince these NPCs.

"Hehe..." Jue-ge naturally wouldn't turn around and leave just like that. He had enough courage, thick skin, and strong strength. Say whatever you want... he just wouldn't leave, "Everyone... you have no reason to doubt my words." He spread his hands, making a very sincere gesture, "Look... none of us are Rabbit-Star people at all. To put it bluntly... what reason do we have to specifically run to a deserted planet to be robbers?"

After these words were spoken, the villagers' clamor subsided a little, because what Feng Bujue said was common sense... Even if those villagers had deep prejudices against outsiders, they could not deny such an obvious fact.

"Everyone... we really don't have any malicious intentions. We just want to find a place to rest in your village." Seeing that the other party's attitude had softened slightly, Feng Bujue immediately seized the opportunity to continue, "If you are worried that we will plunder your food and water, then you can rest assured..." As he said this, he lowered his head and gave Xiao Tan a wink.

Xiao Tan immediately understood and took out a few packs of snacks from his backpack, "Yes, yes, we have plenty of food on us..." He seemed to have suddenly remembered something, and then took out a large bottle of mineral water from his backpack, raising it high and saying, "Look~ We also have water."

As soon as they saw the bottle of water in Xiao Tan's hand, the rabbit-star people's eyes turned red.

They hadn't... hadn't seen such clean, transparent water for a long time...

The water that the villagers usually used was 80% well water from deep underground. This water was more or less polluted, and the amount was not large. Most of it had to be used to irrigate crops, and only a small portion could be used for drinking. The remaining 20%... was treated recycled water. You can imagine how it was recycled... Anyway, this water could only be used for washing things, not for drinking.

In short... for these settled villagers living in the apocalypse, a bottle of clean water was a luxury item, far more valuable than gold.

And Xiao Tan didn't expect that his unintentional act would become the key to them entering the village...

"In that case... you wait..." The leading female rabbit-star person was stunned for a few seconds, then swallowed, and her attitude softened, "I need to ask the 'Elder' first."