Chapter 20: Merchant Caravan? Can We Get It For Free?
Two giant double-headed camels, over 3 meters tall, slowly approached from the north, pulling a small yellow and blue train.
The bells tied to the camels' bodies made a "ding-dong" sound.
The echoes lingered in the four mountains.
The small train was painted with flags, which were the symbol of Giant Statue City.
The three people were stunned at first glance.
African Thin Dog: "What kind of creature is that?"
Ghost Face Fox: "What are those patterns?"
Lin Tang raised his crowbar: "I don't know what kind of mutant that is, nor do I know what those patterns represent, I only know that I want to smash woo woo woo!"
The two quickly covered Lin Tang's mouth.
"Damn it, don't get us in trouble! You can't even tell if they're friends or foes and you want to attack? This cutscene looks like it contains a lot of information, we need to think before we act. Let's see what the people on the small train are doing first. They're very likely to be plot-related characters that will lead to future storylines."
Ghost Face Fox added: "Besides, I don't think we can beat those people."
Lin Tang pouted: "But that small train looks like it has a lot of supplies."
African Thin Dog: "A lot of supplies? Then it's even less likely that we can touch it now! The game designers definitely won't let us get overpowered too much in the early stages. If we get such a big load of supplies right at the start, wouldn't we just steamroll through the rest of the game? So this is obviously a plot animation. Let's follow them and see if we can get a quest from an NPC or something."
"That makes sense."
The three moved closer to the front.
They saw the two camels stop, then bend their knees and kneel on the ground.
Boom~
The small train behind also stopped.
The yellow door of the first carriage opened, and two well-dressed Asians walked out, looking not at all post-apocalyptic.
One man and one woman called out to the three:
"This is the representative of wasteland integrity: the Giant Statue City merchant caravan. Do you have anything you want to trade with our caravan? As long as your items have value, you can exchange them for anything you want on our train!"
The three players looked at each other.
African Thin Dog: "Uh, they seem to be talking to us? But why can't I understand?"
Ghost Face Fox: "Based on my extensive language background, what they're speaking doesn't belong to any domestic, Japanese, Korean, or Western languages."
Lin Tang: "Yay!"
Ghost Face Fox: "But they don't seem to have any hostility. Lin Tang, go over and see if there's any danger."
Lin Tang: "??? Why me?"
"Because you have the least health and you're injured, so it's not a big loss if you die."
"So cold! When will the injured get to stand up!"
Although Lin Tang said this, he still walked over and tried to talk to the people who came down from the small train.
But after much effort, both sides failed to communicate successfully.
Lin Tang shrugged at his two teammates behind him: "Obviously, there's a language barrier. It should be a design flaw. We'll give feedback about this bug to the Sentinel later."
He was about to leave when his arm was grabbed by the man who came down from the small train.
He pointed at the two hyena carcasses carried by Ghost Face Fox and African Thin Dog, then pointed at the small train behind him.
Clank!
The last two sections of the small train opened up like a flip cover, revealing neatly stacked goods inside.
Food, clothing, materials.
Lin Tang suddenly understood.
"African Thin Dog! Ghost Face Fox! Bring the prey over, these should be merchants in the game! They want to exchange their goods for ours!"
The two had roughly guessed when the cargo box opened.
After a brief exchange of glances, they reached a unanimous decision.
"We can always hunt for more prey in the mountains, but we might not often encounter merchant caravans. This could be a tutorial quest in the game, teaching us how to trade with caravans."
"Let's go see what we can exchange!"
The two carried the mutant hyenas over. The man and woman from the caravan nodded, indicating to put the prey on the scale.
After weighing, the woman nodded.
She led the three to the last two sections of the small train, gesturing for them to choose.
Rice, beans, bread, salt, seasonings, jam, clothes of various sizes, lingerie... an entire carriage was packed full.
Ghost Face Fox said directly: "No need to look at these. I secretly checked the base leader's place this morning, and there are plenty of beans. We can go back and ask him for food, and he also gives food for doing quests. As long as we don't starve, it's fine. We can eat for taste and texture in real life, no need to waste this opportunity."
The other two nodded in agreement.
What's the difference in what you eat in the game!
Close your eyes, pour some boiled beans into your mouth, and it's like eating large caviar!
Ghost Face Fox's gaze followed the carriage and saw the third-to-last section that hadn't been opened. On the shelves were stacks of three-fan graphics cards.
"Electronic components!"
He quickly pointed at the graphics cards inside and said to the woman: "We want this! Just this!"
Quest items!
These things obviously can't be found in the wild.
However... the woman shook her head, waving her hand to indicate they couldn't be exchanged.
Ghost Face Fox: "Why? We're trading two such big hyenas for a few broken graphics cards, and it's not enough? This fresh dog meat would cost 30 yuan per jin in the market. The two add up to about 100 jin, so that's about 3000 yuan, right? With 3000 yuan, I could buy 10 jin of second-hand mining cards! You're ripping us off!"
But the woman still waved her hand, indicating they could only exchange items from the last two sections of the train.
"It seems these good electronic components are also valuable in the wasteland..."
African Thin Dog said.
Now the three could only look at the electronic components needed to complete the quest sitting in the third-to-last cargo box, unable to obtain them.
Lin Tang gripped his spiked club: "Brothers, have you played that urban game where you ride around causing destruction? The fastest way to get weapons and supplies in the early stages is called... '0 yuan purchase'.
I see these two don't have much combat power... we could ambush them, take control of the two, then make them operate the camels to bring this whole small train of supplies to our base. Then when the leader needs anything, we can just take it from the train! We'll max out our merits in one go!"
The other two were slightly moved, but before they could speak.
Four green-skinned raiders carrying big clubs rushed out from the raider camp to the east.
"Roar roar roar roar!"
They charged straight at the food carriage like four muscle tanks.
The raider camp also started to stir.
The three immediately gripped their weapons tightly. They would have to retreat even against two raiders side by side. These four raiders were definitely not something they could handle now.
Faced with the charge of four green-skinned muscle behemoths, the two from the caravan remained completely calm.
The man snapped his fingers.
Snap~
Bang bang bang bang!
Four gunshots rang out from inside the carriage. Blood splattered from the heads of the four raiders as they fell to the ground simultaneously.
Thud~
The next second, the commotion in the raider camp came to an abrupt halt. Looking from afar, the raiders inside had become civilized in their behavior.
The woman still smiled, gesturing for the three to select their items without being disturbed.
Gulp~
African Thin Dog swallowed: "Lin Tang, what was that plan you mentioned just now?"
Lin Tang looked at the raiders' strong bodies, then at his own thin frame.
"I said... we should look at the world with sustainable development in mind. It's not about blowing heads off or anything, the main thing is to maintain good relations with the caravan... Let's hurry up and pick our items!"
The three turned their gaze to the last carriage, which was piled with various miscellaneous items.
A talking silicone doll, a bag of well-preserved sealed plastic bags, a box of glass beads, a rusty tetanus knife...
It looked like a pile of scavenged garbage.
"This!"
Ghost Face Fox pulled out a box of broken and rusty circuit boards and leaking batteries.
Obviously, these things would be very difficult to repair. Who knows how long they had been weathered, but they certainly couldn't compare to the graphics cards displayed in that tightly closed carriage.
The woman glanced at it, then directly handed the box of broken materials to Ghost Face Fox and closed the carriage.
The two got on the train, the camels stood up, and pulled the small train continuing westward.
Ding ding dong~
The bells rang out again.
African Thin Dog asked: "Ghost Face Fox, do you think... we can complete the leader's quest with this stuff? It all looks broken."
Ghost Face Fox: "I'm also gambling... gambling that these materials can be utilized. If I lose the bet, we essentially lose two prey animals. But if I'm right, this box of stuff will provide enough electronic components for all three of our clones!"
"And regardless of whether we win or lose, we've already profited."
Ghost Face Fox's gaze turned to the bodies of the four raiders headshot by the caravan...
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(End of chapter)
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