Chapter 247: Market Research

The towering walls have made Boulder Town a well-known paradise, and compared to the distant Among Clouds Province and Ideal City, it seemed to be within reach.

However, its majesty did not benefit everyone there.

On the way to the main entrance of Boulder Town, the first thing that would catch people's eye was a huge slum.

The tattered shacks were like psoriasis, growing under the feet of the giant wall, looking like a boundless stinky ditch from a distance.

Most of the people who lived here were scrawny and had a sallow complexion. They either sat in a daze at the door wrapped in a piece of clothes that no one knew how long they had been wearing, or prepared to go out to scavenge waste.

There was no garbage to pick up in the nearby area. If they wanted to have a good harvest, they could only go to a taller ruined skyscraper or go to a farther place.

The sewage and excrement that could be seen everywhere dyed the snow that should be white into other colors, and it would definitely get worse when the snow melted; it would be a miracle that no plague broke out.

Ample Time had never seen so many NPCs in the game before. He couldn't help asking blankly while looking at the scene in front of him, "How many people are here?"

Xu Shun passed the question, and Qian Lai answered in a nonchalant tone. "10,000, 20,000, maybe 100,000. Anyway, there has never been a decrease in the number of people here. Who would bother to count such things, it's meaningless after all."

A surprised expression appeared on Xu Shun's face.

Thousands?!

This is incredible.

At this moment, Ample Time, who was staring at the VM screen and watching the subtitles, was thinking about something completely different.

"Thousands of people?!"

"... Where do they get food to feed so many people?!"

It was definitely not by farming, because it didn't look like there was a place to farm here.

The end of the slum was of a crooked utility pole with several speakers attached around it, playing several boring channels in turn.

100 meters ahead was the main entrance of Boulder Town.

There were clean concrete roads, militiamen on guard, caravans ready to leave, and poor people looking for work; many of them were even small children.

For the vast majority of people here, there were only two things they could hope for.

The first was to be hired by caravans or merchants, and the other was to be recruited by factories.

If they didn't want to rely on those, and they couldn't let go of their pride, the only valuable thing they had left, to beg or sell their souls, they could only become mercenaries.

If it happened that a Tide broke out, they might not even be able to buy a gun to defend themselves.

Due to carrying the goods from the outpost, Ample Time and the others were quickly mistakened as merchants.

A little boy with curly hair and a dirty face followed Qian Lai step by step and said in a high-pitched voice, "Sir, do you need a servant? I can count, do laundry, move things... I can smell mice and cockroaches hiding in cracks. I can do anything."

His judgment was great and he could see at a glance who in the group was most like a merchant.

However, plenty of people in the slum had the same ability.

"We don't need it."

"Sir..." The boy still tried to persuade, but Qian Lai interrupted him impatiently. "I’ll only say it once."

Looking at his unfriendly eyes and the pistol on his waist, the boy took a step back, not daring to persuade him anymore, and ran to the side to look for the next target.

Xu Shun glanced at the boy's disappointed expression and said nothing.

He was not an overly sympathetic person, and certainly wouldn't naively think about helping children or anything. Once he helped one kid, the troubles that followed would never end.

Was there anyone who wasn’t pitiful in the wasteland?

For him, the mission given to him by the administrator was the first priority, and everything else had to be put aside.

But...

Looking at the majestic giant wall, Xu Shun couldn't help but sigh.

The giant wall was very high, and it looked very safe.

However, the northern suburbs ruled by the administrator still made him feel warmer...

Across the street from the main entrance of Boulder Town was the Wind From Afar Hotel. It was very easy to recognize it because its sign was hanging directly on its magnificent entrance.

However, some guests seemed to be quarreling with the hotel staff at the moment.

In front of a hotel staff member, a man in an old leather jacket blushed with anger. There was a suitcase lying next to him. Judging from the scattered luggage, the man should have been kicked out by the hotel.

Behind him, stood the guests who had also been kicked out like him.

"Didn't we agree on only 1 chip a day already?"

The hotel staff scratched his ears and said impatiently, "Yes, that's what our manager said, but that was during the winter, and now the prices have gone up. We didn't stop you from renewing the lease, did we?"

"10 chips a day? Are you robbers? Why is it more expensive than during the winter?!"

"It's of course to make room for guests from afar. Why do you think it's cheaper in winter?" The hotel staff mocked, "Okay, take your luggage and you can get out."

"What if I say no?" The man glared at him angrily.

"What does that have to do with me?" The hotel staff turned around yawning and walked towards the main entrance without looking at him.

While passing the main entrance, he gave the security guard at the door a look and said. "I’ll leave them to you."

The fully armed security guard nodded expressionlessly and stood there motionlessly, their eyes looking straight ahead, like statues.

The man who was ignored looked furious and reached out his hand to his waist.

However, just as the man’s hand touched his waist, a gunshot rang out, and he fell backward with a bloody hole between his eyebrows.

The woman next to him screamed in horror. Several other guests instinctively took several steps back in fear, then hurriedly packed their luggage and left.

Witnessing the whole scene, Ample Time couldn’t help looking at the guards at the city gate in surprise. However, what he noticed was that the militia didn’t seem to even bother to look at what happened before the hotel.

Xu Shun, who was walking beside him, asked the question he had in his heart for him. "Those people... Are they just going to ignore it?"

Qian Lai gave him a strange look. "Those people? You mean the militia?"

Xu Shun gulped nervously. "Mhm."

Qian Lai said with a smile, "The militia don’t care about the disputes outside Boulder Town. They’re only responsible for guarding the gate. The wasteland is a very big place, they don’t have the time and energy to deal with disputes that are happening on every street. But the reputation of this hotel is still not that bad. The owner of this hotel is a nobleman in the inner city, and the manager is a very capable person. He has a good relationship with several gangs in the slum. If you are here for business, they will introduce customers to you... With only 10% commission, and they’ll only take it once.”

Taking out his rusted pocket watch and looking at the time, Qian Lai continued, "It's noon now, so there are not many people. If it's night, it will be more lively here, but I don't recommend you to have fun here."

"Have fun?"

"It's nothing, it's fine if you're not interested. But if you're interested, you can ask the staff member at the door just now, and he'll introduce some people to you."

"...?" Xu Shun looked bewildered.

Not planning to explain it in detail, Qian Lai urged, "Let's go, it's time for us to line up at the city gate... By the way, have you prepared the city entry tax?"

Xu Shun was stunned. "City entry tax? Do you have to pay tax when you go in?"

The administrator told him that once the goods he bought were sold, he could give the caravan a share, and use part of the remaining profits for their task fund.

But those goods hadn't been sold yet, and he had no chips in his pocket.

He couldn’t help but wonder if those people accept silver coins or not...

Qian Lai said with a smile, "Of course. You need to pay 3 chips every time you enter the city, so most people won't go in and out of the city for no reason. It's fine if you didn’t bring any. I'll pay for you this time."

There would be more opportunities for them to do business with this group of people in the future.

Judging from his boss's reaction that night and the administrator's attitude afterward, Qian Lai felt that it was necessary for him to build a good relationship with them.

It was a long-term investment.

6 chips were a small number for him and his boss.

The queue didn't take long, and the guards at the gate mainly checked whether there were dangerous items among what was brought in.

It was worth noting that explosives above 300 grams were contraband, but bullets and rifles were not. Perhaps the guards had absolute confidence that they could kill the troublemaker first, so they didn’t seem to care whether they brought weapons with them or not.

It kind of makes sense after thinking about it. After all, the barrels of several heavy machine guns could be seen on this huge wall, and it was logical to think that there should be some snipers or similar things hidden in places that couldn’t be seen.

However, when they checked Ample Time, several militiamen unexpectedly looked at him and the bow behind him a few more times, and after speaking to each other in a low voice, they added a note to a book full of words.

Of course, Ample Time was also doing the same thing, calmly holding a pen and writing in a small notebook.

[... The militia leader at the gate of Boulder Town is very strong. I can sense the aura of danger from him. He’s probably an ability user, but I’m not sure what level he is.]

[In addition, ability users will be registered when entering the survivor's stronghold.]

[Judging from the reactions of people around, ordinary ability users would not get special treatment, and registration is just a regular routine.]

The militia soon let the group pass.

Looking at the majestic gate passing overhead, Xu Shun, who was carrying his luggage, couldn't help sighing to himself.

They had finally stepped into Boulder Town.

...

Ample Time: ... We followed the caravan into Boulder Town, and the head of the caravan paid the entry tax, a total of 6 chips, for us.

That night, after going offline, Ample Time immediately went to the official website to create a post, bringing first-hand information about Boulder Town to the forum.

Not only were the players curious about the new map created by the development team, but even the ‘developer’ himself was curious about Boulder Town.

To be honest, in order to go there from Baker Street, Chu Guang used to save up chips for 5 months.

If he hadn’t found shelter 404, he would’ve already gone there.

Since it was a serialized post, and Old Brother Ample Time's typing speed was not very fast, Chu Guang, who was sitting in front of the computer, clicked the option of

[Original Poster Only]

and temporarily filtered the comments out.

- The situation in the city is completely different from that outside the city. The streets here have been renovated, and the buildings are rebuilt on the ruins that were knocked down. The closer it is to the city center, the taller the buildings are, but none of them are higher than the huge wall.

- Good hotels are very expensive, and cheap hotels, pubs, and taverns are tucked away in intricate alleys. The situations in those cheap places there are not much better than the slums outside. But it is worth mentioning that due to the construction of the drainage system, it does not smell as bad as the slums

- Perhaps the development team is hinting at us that we should also consider adding some municipal facilities to the stronghold on the surface.

- In terms of clothing, the residents' clothes here are mainly made of cotton and linen, and the weaving industry here should be very developed; the citizens who work in the city can basically all afford clothes. Mercenaries prefer to choose clothes made of leather, or body armor made of special materials, so even if they hide their guns, it is still very easy to distinguish them.

- There are a handful of hospitals and schools scattered in several neighborhoods on the fringes of the inner city. The people living there have a completely different mental outlook than those outside, and have greater spending power.

- There is also a wall in the city center, which surrounds the inner city of Boulder Town. More than a dozen high-rise buildings before the war have been renovated to form the top of the pyramid of Boulder Town. The ruler who dominates all this is a man named Fang Ming. He seldom appears in public, and is mostly shown in holograms. Most people are in awe of him, but there’s also a considerable number of people who don’t care about him.

- It is worth mentioning that the materials in Boulder Town are not lacking, the productivity is not low, and many technologies have even reached the realm of science fiction, but the vast majority of people are still very poor. Especially for the uneducated lower class people, there are only two ways for them to get rich, either join a caravan or become a mercenary.

- After we settled down where we stayed, the caravan and us took the devil cloth and psychoid leaves to the trading station. Commodities from Boulder Town are traded there, and there are hundreds of stalls and it’s like a huge market. The stall owners there were amazed at our weaving craftsmanship, and I have to give Miss Teng Teng a thumbs up here... But I can feel that they are obviously more interested in psychoid leaves.

- In the end, 10 pieces of devil cloth were sold for 5,000 chips, and 100 kilograms of psychoid leaves were also sold for 5,000 chips... This is also after we bargained with them. Initially, they planned to give only half of this number. In my personal opinion, the latter is less difficult to obtain and obviously more profitable.

- After the transaction was completed, the guard NPC and I walked around the market and conducted a simple survey of the market. We found that the demand for rubber and biomass oil here is very stable, the purchase volume is surprisingly large, and the most important thing is that its price is open and transparent. The only downside is that its price is not high and where to get so much rubber and oil is a problem.

- It is also the same for cotton, flax, and grain. In addition, other materials like steel, aluminum, and even precious metals like silver and gold can also be traded here.

- The following is only my speculation!

- Considering that Boulder Town focuses on the characteristics of the two professions, Merchant and Mercenary, the next version of the game may launch new ways of playing the game such as Escort and Trading.

- If you plan to trade between the outpost and Boulder Town, you must pay attention to the weak spending power of the residents here, and it is estimated that it is difficult to make money from selling delicious food!

- But relatively, mercenaries here have strong spending power and clear demand. Cheap weapons, protective gear, auxiliary equipment, stress-releasing alcohol, and even psychoid leaves, as well as medical gauze and dry food. All of them can be sold well here at a good price!

- Maybe we should run a shop in Boulder Town? We clearly have too many weapons!

- Of course, if there are brothers of the strength type who are interested, you can also work for the factories here to make screws. However, the trigger method of the quest to enter their factory is currently unknown, and the income is very low. The process seems to be extremely tedious.

- Unless you have never worked in a factory in real life, it is strongly not recommended!