Chapter 88: Yu Hu and Skins

Once the snow started to fall, it never stopped.

The northern wind blew, the woods rustled, and the woods outside the outpost were pitch black. Every tree looked like there was a person hiding behind it, and every blade of grass seemed to be alive.

The guards on the wall tensed their nerves, fearing that they would be killed by the plot, just like the player who went fishing by the lake.

It was too torturous to wait on the official website for three days.

The players on duty weren’t the only ones who were nervous. Chu Guang was also feeling pretty anxious at the moment.

He had already taken out the two squads of the Bloodhand Clan. It was impossible for the other party to let him go. Even if their force suffered heavy losses, they would definitely want to seek revenge.

However, the marauders in the north still made no move. Chu Guang was very anxious. He wore his exoskeleton and sat upstairs for half the night. He didn't get down until after 1:00 in the morning and did not get up until 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning.

However, those players were full of energy. Working in shifts, the heavy snow outside didn't seem to affect them much.

Chu Guang was really envious.

After all, that was not their real bodies, and they couldn't feel the pain when it passed a limit. Even if they suffered frostbite, they just needed to eat some meat and drink some hot water, and then they would recover completely after lying down in the nurturing cabin for a few hours.

Of course, that was just the beginning of the winter, and the coldest time of the year had not yet arrived.

Otherwise, there was no need to mention it being minus ten degrees, but even a single gust of wind in winter in real life could blow half of their lives away.

"A heating tube should be added to this exoskeleton. Forget it, I should wait for them to make the armor linings."

Watching trucks and trucks of bricks being transported from the warehouse into the industrial zone, a smile appeared on Chu Guang's face and he nodded in satisfaction.

Good... They’re doing a good job.

Bathroom Goer and Athlete Foot, who got a pretty big budget, were no longer that restrained when it came to spending. As soon as they went online the next day, they used the budget given by Chu Guang and bought five thousand bricks and five hundred kilograms of cement from the warehouse. Under the envious gazes of a group of players, they dragged the material to the industrial zone.

Since the silver coins used were all from the corporate account, it was easy to transfer the money directly to the account books. Old Luca was already able to do the job skillfully, and Chu Guang didn't even need to worry about it.

As for the sand used for plastering, there was not much stock in the warehouse, and it was almost used up when repairing the walls.

Well, it wasn’t really a problem. They just needed to spend some silver coins to rent a cart and hire two people to go to the abandoned construction site in the north to transport some back. The task reward would be 1 silver coin per cart, and if five carts of sand were about one cubic meter, then nine carts should be enough for the time being.

Anyway, it was only about two kilometers away, and the terrain was mostly flat; the journey was not difficult, so people would rush to do this work.

There were piles and piles of sand and stone over the construction site, all used to build hundred-meter-tall buildings. Chu Guang couldn't tell what kind of building materials they were, but the quality of things that came from the pre-war era should not be bad.

Although part of the sand was washed into the foundation of the construction site by the rain, the part buried in the soil on the surface alone was enough for them to use for many years.

It would need ninety six bricks, ten kilograms of cement, and more than fifty kilograms of sand to build each square meter of a wall that was eighteen millimeters thick.

Based on that, a ten by ten meter steel factory would need thirty to forty thousand bricks and four to five tons of cement. Even if all the stock in the warehouse was taken out, it would not be able to meet this demand.

Actually, that wasn’t really a problem either.

There was no need to pay attention to the safety standards on the wasteland. If they really didn’t have enough material, they could just build the north wall first, then pick up some scrap metal and plastic sheds, and build a semi-open factory building. They could save more than half of the materials.

It was a wasteland after all. There should be a wasteland atmosphere. Chu Guang's shack on Baker Street didn't even have a pound of cement, but he could still live there.

It was called the post-apocalyptic style.

At least the two factory managers, Bathroom Goer, and Athlete Foot, didn't care.

The most urgent task was to first build the steel-making converter, use scrap metal to smelt and cast two rolls, and then create a powerful armor for the great administrator!

That was their top priority.

In addition to hiring two people to transport sand, they also hired three players who had worked on the construction site to help build the walls and build the base of the converter.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.

However, compared with the smooth progress of Steel Plant 81, the progress of the Bull and Horse Brick Factory was not so smooth.

Old White and Ample Time, who were a step slower, were dumbfounded as soon as they arrived at the warehouse.

My goodness, where are the building materials?!

The day before, there was still a pile of materials in front of the warehouse, but when they arrived, everything was sold out!

"Huh!"

"Why did they act so fast?!"

"Tsk, we made a huge mistake."

"Sigh, they are professionals after all... Forget it, brothers don't panic, let's go to investigate the terrain first and then think of a solution."

The four of them checked the tools available in the warehouse. In the end, they only bought a wooden cart, a shovel, an axe, and a hatchet for land reclamation, and set off under the heavy snow with dry rations that was enough for four people.

It was not that they wanted to save money for the shelter.

But there was really no money they could spend freely...

By the way, since the money in the corporate account could only be used in the warehouse, it could not be used to buy guns in the Weapon Shop.

In order to verify that point, Ample Time also made a special trip to try it, but the Weapon Shop Owner completely ignored him, so he had no choice but to give up.

The snow outside the outpost was heavy, and the north wind howled.

Night Ten, who was holding the iron-barreled rifle in his hand, gritted his teeth, freed his arms, and wiped the snow on his hair and eyebrows.

"The wind is so damn harsh; it's just the end of September, is it really necessary for the wind to be so exaggerated?"

Old White was quite optimistic about it. He said with a smile. "It's probably to test whether the weather system is stable. To be honest, I'm not even surprised that it snows in summer. After all, it's just a game, the weather can be switched with just one press of a button."

Ample Time glanced at the only perception-type player on the team and reminded, "We still have to be careful. We are now at war with the Bloodhand Clan. Although this river is in the Linghu Wetland Park, it is not far from the north gate. If marauders attack us, we might be the first to meet the enemy."

Night Ten grinned. "So? We aren't scared of them! In the forest, it's our home ground! When the marauders arrive, I'll- Hold on a second, something isn't right. There seems to be someone in front of us."

"What the fuck? Really?!"

Although Night Ten was not very reliable, this guy's perception was currently the highest among all players.

After being alerted by Night Ten, the other three players dared not hesitate. They quickly left the cart, took the weapons, and scattered around.

It wasn’t the first time they had teamed up to hunt. It was not their first time facing marauders either.

Night Ten leaned against the tree, the usual carefree and smiling expression gone. Only seriousness and alertness remained.

He poked his head out carefully, and glanced around the snowy forest, before his eyes suddenly locked in a single direction.

Gesturing in a general direction with his hands, Night Ten threw an affirmative look at the other three teammates.

"Flank them."

"Roger."

Old White, who stood the furthest, acted first, and the four people moved forward in a tacit manner, spreading out in a four man formation.

Ten meters.

Fifteen meters.

Twenty meters!

In the vast snowy fog, a sneaky figure finally emerged.

The man wore a gray overcoat and had a thick felt hat on his head. He held an iron-barreled rifle on his back. While pressing down the brim of his hat that was constantly being blown by the wind with his right hand, he walked towards the direction of the outpost.

He didn’t look like he was there on friendly terms!

Ample Time quickly made a decision. Before the person discovered them, he immediately pulled the bowstring, nocked an arrow, aimed directly at the person's right arm, and loosened the string.

After a whistling sound, the man was shot in the thigh without having enough time to react, and fell to the ground with a howl of pain.

"Don't move if you don't want to die!" Old White rushed forward first, kicked away the gun he was holding, and pointed the javelin against his head aggressively.

The man was screaming, clearly terrified. He didn't know what Old White was talking about.

Ample Time suggested, "One of us can take him back."

"Let me do it." Gale lowered the crossbow in his hand.

Although he was an intelligence type, the crossbow in his hand did not require too many attributes to use.

The other three also trusted how careful Gale was and had no objections.

Old White returned to the cart, found the rope to tie up the man, and poked his back with a javelin as a threat. "If you dare to escape, we will remove your other leg!"

After that, regardless of whether the person understood him or not, Old White handed him over to Gale and watched Gale escort the limping captive away towards the outpost.

...

Earlier, after watching Bull and Horse Squad leave the outpost, Chu Guang realized that it was already time for food, so he went to the warehouse to get a crab leg, and then found a room in the nursing home to grill and eat it.

In the cold, food didn’t rot easily, and the crab leg could be eaten until two or three days later without much concern.

The stuff was high-quality protein, so he should eat more for muscle gain.

Nowadays, whenever Chu Guang was free, he would walk around the base while wearing the exoskeleton without the power turned on, or do push-ups and bench presses with the Nitrogen-Powered Hammer on his back.

Every time he finished training, he would take a shower in the bathroom, dry the clothes he changed from, and get some food when it was meal time. His life now was much more comfortable than when he was on Baker Street.

Although his training results were not obvious, and the attribute panel has not changed due to exercise, he could still clearly feel that his strength and muscle coordination had improved slightly.

Chu Guang speculated that the data scanned and summarized by the physical examination equipment mainly measured the basic hardware that was the body, and exercise might provide a slight bonus to the hardware in the form of a buff.

For example, strength +3% or strength +5%.

When the basic value of the attribute was larger, the effect of exercise was more obvious.

For players of the strength type genetic sequence, training could also accumulate the development progress of the genetic sequence and allow them to break through their limits.

Chu Guang currently had 10 strength attribute, and it was almost double the adult male’s strength, which would be ranked at 5 points.

Even without any skills, and even when the coordination of the muscles could not be maximized, he could still easily crush opponents of the same weight class by virtue of attributes.

If he met a Creeper again, he may not be able to defeat it easily even with an exoskeleton and the Nitrogen-Powered Hammer, but at least he wouldn't fall into a difficult situation like before.

But...

That assumption was also unlikely to hold.

After all, he wasn’t even heading out to look for trouble at the moment. He would walk around with his exoskeleton in the outpost when he had nothing to do. He would treat it like a weighted vest with its power off most of the time.

Half of the two kilograms crab legs were shells, but the remaining half that was filled with crab meat was still enough for Chu Guang. After Chu Guang finished eating, he clapped his hands and put out the fire.

The next moment moment, a player walked in from the outside while pushing a native wearing a coat forward.

The captive was taken to the main building of the nursing home. Gale stood upright and reported, "Dear administrator... We caught a marauder scout!"

"A captive?" Chu Guang wiped his mouth and looked at the person in front of him.

The man was covered with snow, mud, and dead leaves. A broken arrow was embedded in his thigh, and half of his pants were stained with dark red blood, making him look terribly battered.

He gritted his teeth and asked, "Is this your way of hospitality?"

"Our hospitality is reserved for our guests." Chu Guang felt that the man didn't look like a marauder, but he also didn't look like a scavenger nearby, so he continued to question, "Who are you? Why did you enter our territory? There are signs at the three entrances of the wetland park, all clearly written that people are strictly prohibited from entering. Even if you can’t read the characters, you should recognize the skull sign."

"I'm here to meditate!"

"Mediate?" Chu Guang squinted his eyes, his tone a little unkind, "Are you from the Bloodhand Clan?"

"No! I don't belong to any clan!" Feeling the underlying hostility in his tone, the person’s body tensed up and he clarified quickly. However, the wound was too painful, and tensing his muscles affected the wound again. It caused him to stop talking as he gnashed his teeth in pain.

It took him a while to finally be able to endure the pain. The man tried to stay awake and said with difficulty. "... Can you let me treat my wound first? I may die if I don’t do something about my wound."

Hmmm... He looks so calm, so he probably won’t die that quickly.

Chu Guang thought to himself, but he didn't give the man a hard time either.

Giving 5 silver coins to Gale, he sent the player away, then he took out a roll of bandages he got from the loot box from his pocket and threw it to the man.

He had never tried the effect of the bandages, so he could conduct an experiment on the man.

The man obviously knew how to use it. After taking it apart expertly, he broke the arrow shaft first, then took out the arrow using a tool while enduring the pain.

Blood instantly flowed out like the water from a faucet, running down the trouser leg.

Chu Guang frowned as he watched from the side and couldn't help being speechless, but the man was relieved after gritting his teeth and tying the bandage as if nothing had happened.

"Feeling better?"

"Mhm," the man nodded, took a deep breath, and continued the topic, "My name is Hein, and I’m a merchant from Red River Town."

"Why does a merchant of Red River Town mix with a group of marauders?" Chu Guang looked at him with interest, and continued, "And it’s at least 50 kilometers from Red River Town, right?"

"Fifty? Hehe, that's if you walk in a straight line. If you want to go around the city cluster, you have to walk at least one hundred and thirty kilometers! Of course, if you want to be safe, you have to go around the highways and bridges... It will take almost one hundred and fifty kilometers. "

"So?" Chu Guang looked at him and lifted his chin. "You didn't answer my question. Why did you involve yourself with marauders?"

"Ah, we’re not mixed in with them, per se. It's just... We’ve done some business with them." Hein's gaze drifted a little, and he continued to speak after a moment of embarrassment. "Okay, let me put it straight. I am a merchant... Or, you can call me an employee of the Red River Town Horseshoe Merchants Association. Because of my boss, we occasionally do some business related to human trafficking with some trusted marauder tribes in the southern River Valley province. Don’t look at me like that. Without us, those captives wouldn't be able to survive the winter. At least we gave them a chance to live!"

"So you are in the slave trade?" Chu Guang stroked his chin with interest, but did not visibly show it on his face.

"Yes!" Hein nodded and continued, "This time, I was sent to Clearspring City by my boss to buy some slaves from them. But when I got here, I heard that you were at war with each other."

Chu Guang smiled kindly and said, "Yes, and the enemy of your trading partner is considering one thing at the moment. Suppose your boss doesn't know that you've been here..."

Haien swallowed and interrupted Chu Guang nervously. "I know what you want to say, but it's useless. People die every day in the wasteland, and my death will mean nothing to my boss"

"Oh yeah?"

"Rather than how to kill me, don't you want to listen to my proposal first?"

"Go on."

Hein continued quickly. "The Bloodhand Clan wants to have a truce with you. They are willing to pay a ransom of twenty chips for each prisoner... Of course, if the captives are mutilated, they are only willing to pay half of that..."

"Oh, where's the contract they gave you?"

"Me? Contract? What contract?"

"Okay, stop pretending," Chu Guang said, impatiently looking at Hein who was pretending to be stupid. "Do you think you can fool me? You said that people die every day in the wasteland. Without any benefits, why would someone risk their lives to do this? Or is it that our truce is good for your business?"

Hein forced a smile. "I didn't deliberately conceal anything... I don't really have a contract with them...”

Chu Guang stared at him blankly without saying anything.

“Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Their leader promised me that as long as I could bring their people back, they would be willing to sell the wounded to me at a cheaper price. But it's actually good for you, isn't it?"

"No one wants to be at war during winter, and your neighbors are also very troubled by the horrible weather. It's better to sit down and talk about it peacefully. In fact, this is not a conflict that must require bloodshed. The misunderstandings here can definitely be resolved."

"I can take the prisoners back for business, and you can receive a sum of compensation and be at peace with them... It’ll be a win-win situation!"

Chu Guang smiled, but it was a cold one.

Misunderstanding? Resolving their differences?

Hahaha. It was the greatest joke he had heard.

If it were other survivors' strongholds, not to mention what would happen to the captives, even their bones would have been sucked clean by those bandits long ago.

Make peace? Those people are just waiting for an opportunity.

For example... They were just waiting for the snow to stop.

"Mr. Hein, I think you are trying to make me laugh. Reconcile with marauders? Do you really believe what you just said?"

Hein's expression shifted into something a bit more awkward.

In fact, he already had a hunch before he walked into the outpost. The group wasn’t the same as the survivor strongholds he had seen before.

Walls, trenches, sentries on duty, sentries for hunting...

No one looked like a professional soldier, but everyone seemed to be able to fight very well. Most importantly, they weren’t afraid of combat at all!

They were wearing blue coats, but they didn't have any illusions about the kindness of this world.

This negotiation will probably fail...

"I understand, you have your problems. Since you don't want to negotiate, I won't force it... But can you let me go? I will be tight-lipped about everything I saw here." Hein understood the intention of Chu Guang in less than a second.

However, Chu Guang did not speak, instead holding eye contact motionlessly for a long time.

The latter's heart palpitated faster as he was stared at, feeling like he was being stared down by a Creeper as sweat gradually oozed from his back. Unable to bear the pressure, he spoke with trembling lips. "Even if you kill me, it won't do any good to you... Why bother? You and I have no grievances with each other. You can continue to fight with those marauders, and I promise that we will not get involved."

"Yeah, killing you will do me no good, but I won’t lose anything by killing you either."

For a moment, Hein felt that his heartbeat was about to stop.

However, Chu Guang's next sentence reignited his hope to live. "You mentioned that you are in the slave trade?"

"Yes, yes!" As if grasping the life-saving straw, Hein nodded in a panic, "Do you need a slave? We do not only import slaves, but we also export. We also provide door-to-door delivery. If you need..."

"Follow me."

Seeing the man walking outside, Hein was forced to stop talking. He swallowed, dragged his injured leg, and limped to follow Chu Guang.

The snow outside was piled on thicker and thicker, and the wind that blew on his face felt like knives sinking into his skin, especially on the wound. Hein felt that his blood was about to be frozen.

Fortunately, the guy didn’t walk too far.

The man took him to a simple shed and then said a few words to the old man on duty at the door. The old man nodded, turned back to the shed, and took out a wooden box.

Chu Guang weighed the box, and handed it to Hein.

Hein looked at the man who handed him the box in confusion.

"... This...?"

"Open it and take a look."

There was an ominous premonition in his heart, but Hein still freed a hand and opened the box.

When he saw the jewelry made of finger bones in the box, the blood in his body seemed to freeze, and his face instantly paled.

Obviously, he knew what those things were.

Those people would treat the index finger of their prey as a trophy. They would use it to make jewelry and hang it on their necks like it was a symbol of their honor.

This blue-skinned demon! They didn't keep anyone alive...

"Winter is coming, and I don't have so many cells here. I'm afraid you can only find the prisoners you want in there." Looking at Hein who was terrified, Chu Guang smiled casually. "Let's make a deal."

"I promise, you will get a number... A large number of prisoners. If you are lucky, you can even bid farewell to your dangerous career."

"And I can solve the trouble in the north once and for all."