It was exactly 9:00 in the morning and the caravan departed on time. As black smoke was emitted from the steep exhaust pipe, 10 trucks that ran in tracks loaded with munitions set off in unison, heading towards the east.

According to the plan, after leaving Longevity Town, the caravan would travel eastward along the interprovincial highway, pass the deserted Highway Town and Chaowei Battery Factory, and then head southeast. After making a long detour to bypass the area controlled by the Bonechewer Clan, they would arrive in Garbage City. From there, they would head north to Red River Town.

Because the vehicles were full of goods, everyone else could only walk beside the trucks.

Well, it didn’t really make a difference. Even if there was space, no one would want to sit in them.

After getting off the interprovincial highway, they wouldn’t be traveling on proper roads. Even if the trucks could travel because of the tracks they ran on, no one would be able to withstand the bumpy ride.

In addition, all the trucks were loaded with ammunition. The drivers didn’t dare to drive too fast.

Even if those shells were generally safe, who could guarantee that there would be no accident during the bumpy ride? If they didn’t want to cause a major accident, they could only be extra careful.

In addition to the bumps on the road, the biggest threat was the birds, beasts, insects, and snakes lurking in the forest and mud.

Whether it was a burly monster or a beast that would keep its body close to the ground when sprinting, it could pose a substantial threat to the caravan guards who mainly used light weapons.

In addition to these dangerous species, there were also flies the size of washbasins and mosquitoes with long arms. Those mutant creatures that seemed to have no fighting power should not be taken lightly.

Some red-headed and green-headed flies had even evolved the ability to attack from long-range, spraying white eggs as thick as a thumb. Those eggs contained a lot of bacteria. Even though they didn’t do much damage directly, if they landed in wounds, it would most likely be infected. Maggots might even grow in them. If they weren’t treated in time, the victim would die a disgusting death.

Only God knew how many dangers were hidden in the wasteland.

"... After passing the snow field ahead, we will enter the deserted wilderness." Walking beside the caravan, Escaping Mole picked up the binoculars and looked towards the southeast. "It was probably a small town before, but the houses there are basically reduced to concrete scum. Only a half-collapsed opera house still remains... We encountered a Deathclaw there before, and there were bones on the ground. I don’t know if they belonged to marauders or mercenaries."

In fact, the snow had almost melted, leaving only a thin layer of ice on the ground.

There were puddles everywhere and a few pinches of green shoots had already emerged from the mud.

Life on the wasteland was far more tenacious than people imagined.

"Will we encounter it?" Elf Wang asked eagerly.

"No. We’re here to deliver goods, not to hunt," Mole put down the binoculars. "We’ll go around it later to avoid it. So we won’t meet it unless the beast takes the initiative to find us, but this possibility is very small."

A Deathclaw’s IQ was much higher than that of normal monsters, and its intuition for danger was far stronger than that of ordinary mutants.

A Deathclaw rarely took on a large group of people unless the group was intruding on its territory.

There was a high probability that it wouldn’t take the initiative to attack strong groups who wandered over.

Also, within a 1 kilometer radius around a Deathclaw’s lair, there was a high probability that they would not encounter particularly dangerous carnivorous mutants.

Hearing that they would not meet one, the faces of several nearby players showed signs of regret.

Irene sighed, "Speaking of which, I haven’t eaten the meat of a Deathclaw yet… Of course, it’s not that I want to eat it, I’m just curious about what it tastes like."

Eye Owe Money chuckled, "as expected of Irena. The wasteland gourmet, confirmed!"

Irene rolled his eyes and snapped, "Fuck off."

Eye Owe Money raised his head, looked at the clouds in the sky, and sighed, "100 kilometers... How long will it take us?"

Don’t they have things like a portal in this game?

Or a mechanism that can help players travel to the destinations with just one click on the mini-map?

Escaping Mole turned on the VM and glanced at the map. He pondered for a while and then said, "If it wasn’t for a detour, it might take us 2 or 3 days to get there. But now, it will take us 5 or 6 days." РÄƝóꞖΕ𝙎

Construction Boy protested, "Why don’t we just take out those marauders? I think we can absolutely do it!"

Eye Owe Money added, “Yeah! We’ve defeated them before."

Glancing at the two confident idiots, Sideline Slacking couldn’t help but complain, "That’s enough, we’re here to deliver goods, not kills for free."

There was not just 1 brigade, but 3 of them! They might have 5,000 to 6,000 people in total! Even if they were chickens, it would still take some to kill them all! Not to mention the fact that those people were seasoned marauders…

Not only did they have awakened squad leaders, but also the commanders of the Army. If the attackers didn’t exploit their weaknesses, it would be very difficult for the survivors of Red River Town to protect their territory.

A hint of excitement flashed in Sideline Slacking’s eyes.

A balanced fight?

Good.

This only makes the fight even more interesting!

Eye Owe Money and Construction Boy glanced at each other, the expressions on their faces suddenly becoming awkward.

"Are you anxious?"

"I wasn’t, but I am a little now…"

"By the way, if we die and go back... Doesn’t it mean that all our time will be wasted?"

"Fuck! Is it still too late to change teams now?"

"Maybe… Can we ask Escaping Mole if they still want more people?"

"???"

...

It was just past noon.

Less than 4 hours after the caravan headed for Red River Town left, the caravan returning from Boulder Town arrived at the south gate of the outpost.

Looking at Gale and Night Ten with bandages on their bodies, there was a surprised expression on Quit Smoking’s face. "Damn, are you two injured?"

Old White smiled. "When we came back, we were followed by marauders. There were about 20 of them, but it was not a big problem."

Although Old White said that it wasn’t serious, from the expressions of the ‘NPCs’ in the caravan, it was obviously not as easy as he described.

The leader, Qian Lai, still had a terrified expression on his face.

And the guard next to him was injured again. He remembered that before they set off, one of his arms was already wrapped in bandage. Now, the other arm was also wrapped up.

Quit Smoking was full of suspicion. "Really? Those marauders knew how to ambush you?"

Ample Time explained, "It can’t be counted as an ambush. We found them a long time ago. They obviously knew it and followed us all the way. We can’t move fast with the goods, and we can’t get rid of them. They probably weren’t sure about our strength, so they dared not to get too close. They just followed behind us to wait for the perfect opportunity to make a move."

"When we got to the edge of the fourth ring, they probably felt that if they didn’t make a move, they would have no more chances. So they finally couldn’t help but attack us, and then we fought with them in an alley."

Quit Smoking’s eyes sparkled with joy. "Ohhhh that’s exciting! How many did you kill?"

"Half of them. They ran away halfway through the fight." Old White raised his chin with a smile and pointed to the back of the caravan. "There, we also caught 2 alive."

Next to a two-headed ox, 2 dejected men in animal skin clothes were tied by chains and hung on the body of the beast, and there were two guards watching from the side, keeping a close eye on them.

On another ox not far away, there was seized equipment hanging. Except for a few iron-barrel rifles that were never used by newcomers, there were actually 2 assault rifles and a grenade launcher.

Night Ten, with a bandage wrapped around his shoulder, cursed, "Motherfucker, I knew there were marauders in the slums! As soon as we left, I could feel that we were targeted!"

Gale said calmly, "There is no doubt about it. If I were from the slums, and I saw a group of rich businessmen passing by my eyes every day, I would definitely find a way to get some money from them."

Unlike Night Ten, he was shot in the thigh. However, the opponent used a steel-core bullet, which passed directly through his leg, so the problem was not serious.

Ample Time nodded in agreement with what the two teammates continued, "Indeed, those marauders probably came out of the slums. I can even guess that as soon as we arrived, they were already on to us."

Where did the marauders in Boulder Town come from?

It was impossible for them to appear out of nowhere.

As the largest survivor settlement in the entire southern part of the River Valley Province, Boulder Town absorbed people from across the province and even from neighboring provinces.

It was impossible for so many people to flood into the city, and there were not so many places in the city to accommodate so many people, let alone so many jobs.

The vast majority of people could only build a shed outside the city and do some jobs that the city people didn’t want to do. Over time, slums were formed.

The sprawling slums were a hotbed of chaos and crime, not only rich in mercenaries, cannon fodder, and scavengers, but also marauders.

It was said that the gangs in the slums would even do business with marauders and help them sell stolen goods, and the black market there would always sell things that were not common in the city. So helping to keep an eye on some rich-looking caravans naturally would not be a problem for those people.

But why didn’t Boulder Town care?

That was a question that had a lot of implications, and it was also a no-brainer.

From the standpoint of Boulder Town, they could answer the question.

Why bother?

"Anyway, we finally came back alive." Old White looked at Night Ten, "You and Gale go back to the shelter to save your progress first. His injury is fine, but you have to go to the infirmary for minor surgery."

The nurturing cabin had the effect of accelerating recovery. Generally, small wounds would only take players a few hours of lying inside to heal. It was the same even if it was the intelligence type player. While waiting for their characters to recover, players could also save their progress, which could be said to be very convenient.

As for some non-disabling serious injuries, it would usually take a day or two. If it exceeded 3 days, most players would choose to save their progress and kill themselves.

A mere bullet wound was nothing as long as the bullet could be taken out.

At the beginning, Old White planned to use alcohol to clean Night Ten’s wound and help him take out the bullet by imitating those NPCs.

It was a shame the position of the bullet happened to be stuck on the subscapular joint.

Old White tried to take it out with tweezers but failed, and he didn’t dare to use too much force to turn a small problem into a big one, so he wrapped the wound with a bandage again.

Although Old White failed to get the bullet out, his action startled those NPCs nearby.

However, it was understandable.

One was rummaging over the wound with tweezers, and the other was impatiently urging the other guy to hurry up. The main point was that the 2 of them weren’t using anesthetic!

Such fearless behavior was somewhat incredible, even if the wounded was an ability user. Even until now, there was still admiration in the eyes of the caravan guards when they looked at them.

Night Ten nodded. "Okay, what about you and Ample Time?"

Old White chuckled, "We still have to deliver the things we ordered, and we have to submit the mission to the warehouse manager later."

Thanks to the great sales of Teng Teng’s products in Boulder Town, they didn’t make a trip in vain this time, and they also made a lot of money.

After some discussion, instead of exchanging the 2,000 chips they earned for an exoskeleton, they bought a second-hand hydraulic breaker at an auction house.

The hydraulic breaker could be used to process the coarse material of cement, and it could also be used to break up concrete block waste. If they ordered one from the steel plant, it would cost at least 5,000 chips, so being able to buy it with 2,000 chips could be considered a great deal.

Although there were magnetically confined plasma cutting machine tools that could produce some sophisticated instruments, the inert gas used as the cutting fluid and the fusion battery for energy were not cheap after all, and some heavy equipment was still very scarce in the outpost.

Exchanging the chips into commodities and shipping them back to sell to other players was just a one-time deal, and at most, they would make a difference in price. But if they bought production equipment and shipped them back, it would be a steady stream of income!