Ch 116: TGCIR

The large truck stopped in a courtyard within the base.

The man skillfully opened the driver’s door and stepped out. Several people who had been chatting in small groups came over. The man immediately nodded and bowed to them, smiling, “Gentlemen and ladies, today’s fresh goods have arrived.”

At this moment, a new task popped up in the game.

Please select the main character’s purchase target:

a) Strong woman
b) Strong man
c) Butler-type man

Countdown: 30 seconds. If the host does not make a choice, the system will randomly select.

“Damn,” Shen Cheng almost let out a curse.

Why wasn’t there an option for “No one can buy the main character”? This cub was hers. Why should someone else be allowed to buy him? This game was getting worse and worse.

But with the countdown ticking down by three seconds, Shen Cheng feared she might not choose in time, and the system would automatically select the most annoying option. She quickly glanced at the descriptions of the three options: the strong woman, the strong man, and the butler-type man.

The strong woman had well-developed arm muscles and a robust abdomen, clearly a warrior of high status among the group, surrounded by others like a star. The strong man, on the other hand, had a gloomy expression, even his cartoonish face couldn’t hide the sense of darkness and cunning. As for the last option, the butler-type man looked debonair, but Shen Cheng thought to herself, in this post-apocalyptic world, did they really need a butler? Most likely, whether male or female, they were the kind of extravagant people. Rich people were usually twisted, but what about rich people in the apocalypse? Were they even more twisted?

After a moment of hesitation, she ultimately chose option a.

The host has selected option a: strong woman.

“I’ll pick first today,” the tall and sturdy woman said, clicking her tongue as she smiled and glanced around.

Initially, it seemed like she was still hesitating, but when she suddenly spoke up, saying, “I’ll pick first,” it wasn’t a request but a direct command. Clearly, among this group, she held a position of authority.

“Chen Jie, of course, you go first,” the man nodded and bowed, smiling. Others seemed to have no objections. However, someone couldn’t help but ask, “But Chen Jie, didn’t you just pick one yesterday? Why is the damage rate for your team so high this time?”

Chen Jie gave him a cold glance. “I’m buying a backup. Our team’s business. None of your business.”

Shen Cheng frowned at the mention of the damage rate, finding it cruel as if they were talking about machines, not people.

She clicked on Chen Jie’s profile.

Since it was a neutral yellow, the information displayed was not comprehensive.

Chen Jie, intermediate strength-type esper, third in command of the Storm Team.

By now, Chen Jie had already boarded the vehicle and opened the barrels one by one, scanning each person with her eyes.

Li Weilan was sleeping soundly, and Shen Cheng, looking at the “zzzzzz” icon above his head, couldn’t help but remember the first time she entered the game and saw Li Weilan pretending to sleep. Don’t think she didn’t notice it; the moment before this woman lifted the lid, Li Weilan even blinked at her.

Chen Jie’s gaze lingered on Li Weilan’s face for a moment, as if examining him carefully. She even seemed to almost reach out her hand to touch him. Shen Cheng was infuriated and pushed her back. “Don’t covet my man.”

“Oops,” Chen Jie stumbled.

She immediately turned around, her sharp and indifferent gaze scanning the faces of the others. The only person relatively close to her was a man with a gloomy expression. But seeing the white robe he was wearing, Chen Jie frowned and suppressed her anger. She didn’t need to provoke people from the Institute.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

But with this, her previous idea of feeling the muscles under the clothes faded. She apathetically said to the man in front of her, “Alright, it’s him. The young man looks decent and energetic. He might last a few more days.”

“Chen, jie, this…” The man hesitated as he saw which can Chen Jie had picked, feeling a bit regretful.

This batch of goods had the best-looking one. It wasn’t easy to look this good in the wasteland. He had originally planned to keep him for the young lady. Who knew the Storm Team would pick him first? Now, they could only sell him at the price of regular consumables. It was a big loss.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Jie immediately frowned. “Now, you don’t even fancy the people on our list?”

“How could that be?” The man immediately smiled awkwardly. He suppressed all his thoughts. Let’s not talk about whether the young lady would fancy him or not. Even if she did, he didn’t want to cause trouble with the Storm Team over this matter. Since Chen Jie had spoken up to this extent, not giving face would mean offending her, not just her alone.

After they agreed on the price, Chen Jie took Li Weilan away in the car.

As the door closed, Li Weilan opened his eyes expressionlessly in the darkness. This time, it seemed there was some deviation from his plan.

He had originally thought that, out of habit as a middleman, the person would leave those who could fetch a high price for the famous young lady in J City and give the leftovers to the Institute. But as soon as Chen Jie from the Storm Team spoke up, the middleman immediately backed off.

Now, it seemed like he had to change his plan.

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Shen Cheng’s worried and nervous voice in his ear. “Lanlan, what are they buying you for?”

She thought for a moment. “What’s the Storm Team doing? It can’t be that they’re buying slaves to replenish their team, right?”

It felt a bit strange.

It sounded like the Storm Team had some status. For a team with status, did they still need to buy people?

Couldn’t they just put up a notice and attract a bunch of people?

Li Weilan suddenly smiled. He knew. It wasn’t his plan that had gone wrong. It was probably because of her intervention that this transaction deviated from its normal course.

It seemed that Chen Jie wasn’t planning to be the first one to pick. Now that she had spoken up first, perhaps even she wasn’t clear about why.

Of course, the team lacked people, but what they lacked wasn’t people; it was another kind of bait.

People with status and connections in the base couldn’t be treated as consumables. Even picking up someone randomly on the roadside could cause unnecessary trouble and disputes, and might even provoke powerful individuals. After several disputes like this in the past, the practice of forcibly seizing people stopped. But the market still existed. Therefore, people without a foundation, brought in from the outside and confirmed to have no connections, became the only way to satisfy this need.

People disappeared silently in the base.

Outside the base too.

This was just one of the destinations, and not even the worst one he knew of.

As Li Weilan thought this, he nodded. “You could say they need people.”

Shen Cheng scratched her head, feeling a sense of foreboding. She seemed to have chosen the wrong target just now.

Perhaps, compared to the seemingly easier-going opposite sex, option b or c would have been a better choice.

She felt like she had messed things up for Li Weilan.

Before she could get disheartened, the car had already stopped.

The woman got out of the car and opened the door, beckoning to the few people standing in the corner. “You, come over here and carry this barrel.”

“Chen Jie,” two of the men seemed to have a bit more vitality, flattering around the woman. They probably wanted to say something. However, Chen Jie just glanced at them disdainfully, crossed her arms, and let them fawn over her for a few words before snorting, “Save your energy. We have missions tomorrow.”

Shen Cheng saw everyone’s faces change when they heard about the mission tomorrow.

Even those who had been indifferent and expressionless had pale faces as they glanced over.

Chen Jie’s gaze flickered, but she didn’t say anything. She just coldly said, “When he wakes up, you guys tell him the situation. I’m going to rest.” With that, she pointed to the large barrel.

These people lived in the houses of the Storm Team.

There were many members in the Storm Team, but they lived in the small two-story villas, while the seven or eight people were accommodated in the small tin shacks that the migrant workers had lived in before the apocalypse. They were called houses, but in reality, they were just surrounded by tin and covered with a roof to prevent them from being blown away by the wind.

There wasn’t much in the house, and the lighting was very poor. As per Chen Jie’s instructions, the big barrel was dragged into the house by those people. They all sat down in their respective places. Some just stared blankly at the ground, some began to cry silently with their faces in their hands, and most just sat numbly. Even those who had been flattering around Chen Jie instantly showed signs of collapse. It seemed like the sentence “we have missions tomorrow” had shattered all their hopes.

Li Weilan silently opened his eyes.

Here, no one even noticed his abnormality.

Their eyes were numb.

Li Weilan climbed out of the barrel.

Silently, he followed this group of people to get dinner. While eating, he saw a younger boy next to him looking at the porridge in his hand with eager eyes.

His eyes were bright, but he silently swallowed his saliva.

This was the only person Li Weilan saw among them whose eyes still had some light. He frowned, looking at the boy’s face full of longing. He paused for a moment and poured some of his porridge into the boy’s bowl.

The boy drank it all up in a hurry.

He wiped his mouth and smiled gratefully at Li Weilan. This made Li Weilan, who was clear about what these people were doing, couldn’t help but feel a little surprised. Among a group of people who were collapsing, this boy’s mentality was quite good.

“Thank you,” the boy lowered his voice. “Tomorrow, you follow me. I’ve already been through six rounds. Tomorrow, I’ll cover for you.”

Li Weilan silently smiled, staring at the young and lively face, tasting his six rounds, and nodded. “Alright.”

“Has no one told you what we’re doing here?” The boy glanced sympathetically at him and whispered, “Here, we’re all bait for the team.”

Li Weilan certainly knew what bait was used for. He had been a bait a few times before. It’s just that what used to be a matter of mutual agreement had now evolved to this point, becoming increasingly innovative.

He didn’t want those words to dirty Shen Cheng’s ears.

So he just nodded and said to the boy, “I know.”

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