Chapter 136: Paying Taxes, the Black-hearted Base

Wen Mingli left the mercenary hall, secretly patting her chest. Did she give herself away?

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. So what if she was found out? Was she supposed to be afraid of that woman? She glanced back at the bright, bustling hall, unable to suppress her irritation. Originally, she had planned to quietly buy up Five-Color Grass through those people working openly. In just half a month, before the weather turned bitterly cold, there would be a wave of poisonous snakes and insects causing countless casualties. At that time, Five-Color Grass would become extremely sought after, and she was all set to make a killing.

But after Liang Ziyin revealed the use of Five-Color Grass to Gu Xu, the news spread within just an hour or two. Not only did the word get out, but a bunch of people also rushed to collect it. Gu Xu must have done something!

Her perfect plan had fallen apart, and Wen Mingli felt as if she'd been punched in the chest—completely frustrated. If she’d known, she never would have let Liang Ziyin tell Gu Xu. No good deed goes unpunished!

She forgot that the main reason for this move was to get Liang Ziyin noticed by Gu Xu and infiltrate his circle. After all, in her previous life, during this year at the Sucheng Base, Liang Ziyin had become someone of note—her wood ability was leagues above Bian Changxi’s. She didn’t believe Bian Changxi could keep standing out in Gu Xu’s eyes.

She also forgot that even if Liang Ziyin didn’t mention it, there was still Bian Changxi. Others might not know the use of Five-Color Grass, but she certainly did.

Meanwhile, Bian Changxi, after struggling with her thoughts for a while, suddenly saw things clearly. Whatever—who cares who’s been reborn? As long as they weren’t targeting her, she didn’t care. Only those who tried to step on her or set her up were her enemies.

Given her current abilities, even the reborn ones might not dare mess with her, and the others weren’t necessarily friendly either. So what if someone had a bit of foreknowledge? Besides, she’d already changed some people’s fates, and the other side had introduced all sorts of advanced technology—the course of history had already shifted. That so-called foreknowledge wasn’t all that useful anymore. At most, they’d know she was a bit stubborn—so what?

Rather than wasting time worrying, it was better to focus her energy on getting stronger. Only by becoming powerful could she face any demon or monster without fear.

With that figured out, she no longer felt annoyed by the flood of missions on the screen and began to really read through them. Besides the many requests for Five-Color Grass, there were people looking for second-tier chipmunk teeth, mutant pheasant feathers and meat, mutant mammal pelts, teams to venture out to distant towns for supplies, certain herbs from specific mountains, and even people offering resources in exchange for a particular brand of bathtub or sports car.

Those last ones were definitely rich folks.

Bian Changxi noticed that she happened to have the same kind of sports car, which she’d gotten from breaking into a garage in Longyue Town. It was almost brand new, and the offer was five second-tier white cores. She asked, “Bian Kuang, is this a good price?”

She didn’t have a clear sense of the current purchasing power of crystal cores.

“A third-tier core equals ten second-tier, which equals a hundred first-tier. For the same tier, the exchange rate between colored and white cores is three to one. Right now, a normal adult working in the base earns between half and two white cores a day. You can make more outside the base, but rarely more than four or five. Ability users earn more, but they also need cores to train, so there aren’t many in circulation—the purchasing power is pretty high. To put it simply, one first-tier white core can buy eight pounds of rice, or twelve pounds of water from a water ability user, or two decent sets of clothes, or two nights in a regular inn, or rent a five-square-meter room for ten days.”

Chu Hao shared what he knew about the market: “It’s not like before the apocalypse—whatever’s rare and important is expensive. Food and water prices keep rising and have never dropped. Oh, and weapons are the priciest—a handgun can supposedly fetch several second-tier white cores.”

He looked at the car request and shook his head. “There are car rental shops in the base. People without cars rent, and those with cars only keep practical ones. Gas is more expensive than cars now, so no one can afford to buy, let alone a gas-guzzling, fragile sports car. That guy must be some spoiled rich kid.”

He thought for a moment and added, “Tao Fa probably has this kind of car. He’s got a whole row of sports cars and is always complaining they’re taking up space and wants to melt them down for steel. If he can get five second-tier cores, he’d be a fool not to. I’ll tell him later.”

The Tao family used to be importers of luxury cars.

Bian Changxi swallowed the rest of her words.

Bian Kuang started picking out missions for himself. “Hey, this one for hunting mutant piglets looks good.”

Bian Changxi looked over. Someone wanted two mutant piglets—the younger the better, ideally just born—and was offering seventy first-tier white cores as a reward.

Bian Kuang explained, “To get piglets, you have to get past their mother. Mutant sows nursing their young are vicious—one charge and you’re dead. If you’re unlucky, you might run into a whole herd. Then you don’t know if you’re hunting pigs or pigs are hunting you. That’s why the reward’s so high. I bet someone wants to get into the mutant meat business and is testing the waters.”

Two piglets would only weigh about twenty pounds—mutant ones a bit more—so seventy first-tier white cores was a lot. It was all hazard pay.

“And that’s not all. You can’t just wander around looking for mutant pigs. I know there’s a pig farm near a small town where we’re sure to find some. Plus, if we go to the town, we can pick up some supplies along the way. Aside from the two piglets, anything else we find is ours. I’ve been wanting to check it out anyway.”

Bian Kuang got excited. “Changxi, did you know? The base is super greedy. Every time you come back, you have to hand over thirty percent of whatever supplies you bring in. They don’t care how much you take out, but whatever you bring back gets taxed. The first time we left the base, Tao Fa was worried we’d run out of stuff and brought a ton of his treasures. We didn’t find much outside, didn’t use up what we brought, and ended up bringing most of it back. Guess what? They still took a huge chunk. He almost lay on the ground and cried his eyes out…”

“Who cried?!” A suppressed roar interrupted, and someone tackled Bian Kuang from behind, putting him in a headlock. “Big mouth! You never shut up, and you never tell the truth. Watch me sew your lips shut!”

The two started roughhousing, drawing several glances from the security guards in the hall. Xu Qingyang, who had just walked over, cleared his throat. “Watch yourselves. Want to be invited for some foot-washing water?”

Bian Changxi burst out laughing. With water so scarce, no one talked about being invited for tea anymore—now it was foot-washing water.

The two quickly separated and straightened their clothes. Tao Fa, not to be outdone, complained to Bian Changxi, “Kuangzi lost a bunch of good stuff too. The next day, guess what? He left the base empty-handed and came back with a sack full of disgusting little toads. He insisted they follow the rules and dumped the toads onto the pile of confiscated rice and flour. He got beaten up for it and spent two days in detention.”

Bian Kuang quickly said, “I was in a bad mood, okay? And those guys really were too rough—it was infuriating.” He hurried to change the subject. “But it’s different if you take on a mission. For each mission you accept, you get a certificate with a date and mission name. With that certificate, the amount of supplies you have to hand over when re-entering the base is reduced proportionally. The harder the mission, the less you have to pay. The base wants to encourage a private mercenary market.”

Bian Changxi said coolly, “Oh, so you always take missions when you go out, then do some ‘private’ business on the side to dodge taxes?”

This guy actually dared to mess with the soldiers guarding the base gates. Those people could be ruthless—some wouldn’t even blink at killing. The gate guards were no pushovers; if they weren’t tough, they couldn’t keep order.

“Heh heh heh.” Bian Kuang scratched his head. “I want to take this mission. What do you all think?”

Tao Fa shrugged. “I can’t help anyway, so asking me is pointless.” He wasn’t an ability user—he was fine hanging around the city walls, but not for going far.

Xu Qingyang shook his empty cigarette pack. “I’m only good for paperwork and running errands. Signing a little agreement cost me three cigarettes. If you can get me more, I’ll buy them at market price.”

Seeing how unreliable the two were, Bian Changxi asked herself, “Is that town dangerous? How sure are you that you’ll make it back in one piece?”

“See, only you care about me, Changxi. You really are my sister,” Bian Kuang said, wiping away fake tears. “I’ve been to that town. It’s not that dangerous—there aren’t many zombies. I’m confident.”

“Let me know before you go. If I have time, I’ll go with you.”

Bian Kuang went to pay a small processing fee, officially accepted the mission, and got a certificate. Each certificate was valid for three days, meaning the mission had to be completed within that time. If not, it would be considered a failure. Not only would you lose the processing fee, but you’d also have to pay five percent of the reward as a penalty to the mission issuer, since once a mission is accepted, no one else can take it. If you don’t complete it, it’s a waste of time for everyone.

Although Bian Changxi now had the ID card Qiu Feng gave her and could register, she figured Gu Xu would probably have something for her to do tomorrow, so she didn’t rush. The four of them left by car.

Their shopping trip lasted until noon. Bian Kuang wanted to take Bian Changxi to the family restaurant for lunch, but she refused, so he just drove her to the villa district.

Normally, cars weren’t allowed in the villa area, but Bian Changxi swiped her ID card at the security booth to prove she was a resident, and was allowed to bring people and vehicles in. When they reached the villa, Bian Kuang didn’t drive in, but Tao Fa rumbled in with a truckload of supplies, startling Anan, who came to open the door. Bian Kuang said grandly, “It’s all supplies in here. Brother, tell us where to stack them, or should we just park in the garage? It’ll just be a bit inconvenient to unload later.”

Anan was shocked. “Miss Bian, did you buy all this stuff yourself?”

Bian Changxi rubbed her forehead helplessly. “My brother gave it to me.”