Chapter 117: Transaction on the Dark Fields -1

In Pivot Township, Zhuyin, just back from his own city, stood before the brass typewriter.
Beside him in a chair, an employee staring at several rows of protruding-screen monitors yawned and asked,
“Deputy Mayor, no losses in your city at the end of this month, right?”
Zhuyin held paper resembling newsprint in his hand and casually acknowledged with a “mm-hmm,” reading as he replied,
“It’s fine, the newcomers are settling in well.”
The fine typeface on the paper recorded some recent breaking news, already a week old.
To qualify as breaking news, it had to be something that emerged by chance on the Frequency-Lost Land or carry massive impact—like the sudden appearance of a Panoramic-Ground stretching for kilometers or, within it, a Moon Shadow Summon Bug.
Now, he was reading about events he already knew through the Mental Link.
— The Crane Garden Fort Construction Team had developed a new element-based egg-milk crunch; a single piece could cover the entire day’s calorie needs for Great Figures.
“Nice stuff. You could order some of this egg-milk crunch.”
The neighboring duty employee nodded in acknowledgment.
Zhuyin’s gaze skimmed over print that had been sitting for days, finally settling on the last two lines.
— The famed thief, Timer, stole the underwear of tenners from ten large gathering plazas’ tent masters in a single night; motive unknown.
“Hmph, this guy’s attempt to get famous is way too obvious.”
He moved his gaze further down.
—Rose Creek has built a new, efficient loom, so the big shots in Rose Creek will have more stylish clothes to wear from now on.
—Zorro, alone on a motorcycle, stormed into a notorious bandit lair in the southern wasteland, wiped them out, and rescued several abducted big shots.
—Jia Zijian and the newcomer Luo Bin eliminated more than half of the effective forces of the Desert Cart Convoy, wiping out 237 men besides the leader and a few weak small-time convoy leaders, while 18 escaped.
Upon reading this, Zhuyin’s gaze paused.
“Impressive,” the man muttered.
He had already learned of the annihilation of the Desert Cart Convoy as soon as it happened. But now, seeing the brief descriptions of previous sudden events on this news sheet, he still felt a shock.
That guy had only been in the Lost Frequencies for how long, and he’d already wiped out the infamous Desert Cart Convoy.
Usually, that convoy kept its identity hidden, scattering in many places. To wipe them out clean in one go required not only knowing the specific distribution of their numbers, but also figuring out how to lure all of them together, and then prepare sufficient power to crush them. And such a deployment to annihilate two to three hundred scumbags couldn’t possibly be concealed in the Lost Frequencies from people with all kinds of strange abilities.
For hundreds of people to face off like that, if word got out, it could lead to an even larger chaos. Therefore, in the Lost Frequency Land, even for idealistic big-shed owners who aim to achieve this, it’s extremely difficult; they might go out themselves only to have their own base immediately raided by another shed.
Yet Yang Zicang arrived at the gathering point of the Wasteland Truck Convoy within just a few hours of receiving the news, and with merely a handful of people, wiped out this lingering tumor in the Lost Frequency Land—it’s undeniable how formidable he is.
Zhu Yin thought to himself, what a shame that this Yang Zicang wasn’t from his own city, or he could have recruited him into his team. Then, whether in the city or at the hub town, it would have been a tremendous asset.
“I only wish you, this guy… forget it, it’s already too late.”
After muttering this, he was about to put down the newspaper when the keys of the brass typewriter suddenly began pressing themselves down with a series of clicks. The keys bounced rapidly, the paper slid left and right as lines emerged, and a new row of text appeared.
Zhu Yin turned to look, and the writing above slowly came into view.
—Spectacular. Given the many unexpected incidents last month, the editor-in-chief will send a representative to the Lost Frequency Land to explore the source of its ever-growing influence and vitality.
“The editor-in-chief?” Zhu Yin’s brows furrowed together.
“Deputy town mayor, who is this editor-in-chief?”
Turning to the person in the room who noticed this line of text, he asked.
“Yeah, we’ve never heard of them. Do those little ones even have an editor-in-chief?”
Zhu Yin hesitated for a moment: “I’m not sure either.”
A crease of light shot toward him.
{Elder Silver, please help us.}
Before long, Zhu Yin directly appeared where those who were looking for him were located.
Seeing the Deputy Mayor suddenly appear over a dozen meters away, the four somewhat anxious individuals were first startled, then quickly hurried over as something dawned on them.
“Good evening, Deputy Mayor. We’re sorry to trouble you to come here in person so late.”
“No problem. As long as I’m within the town, it’s just a few steps for me. Anyway, what’s the situation with you all?”
The people in front of him belonged to a team from one of the cities ranked around twentieth. At the moment, frustration showed on their faces.
“Earlier, one of our teammates was invited to help stabilize an A-level area. After the landmass merger occurred, a mental illusion manifested within the sudden vast terrain, completely different from what they had expected—fighting monsters. Anyway, by now they should have arrived at the Lost Frequency Zone. We just don’t know if they’re still alive.”
“We want to ask the town chief for help, to see if we can find our teammate,” said Qiao Ming, the vice-captain of the Ruins Storm Group.
Zhu Yin forcefully exhaled two puffs of air. He raised his hand, which was shoved into one of his pockets, and said:
“Hey, hey, brothers, I think you should know this too. First, even if my friends in the Lost Frequency Zone really find that interleaved space of lost frequencies, and second, even if your teammate and those who asked him for help are still alive…”
Zhu Yin raised two fingers:
“…It would still be hard for them to return to your city, wouldn’t it?”
The girl among the four said:
“As long as they’re alive, at least we’ve got one of our own in the Lost Frequencies now. Who knows, if we manage to scrape together enough time to rent a shop, we’ll have someone to supply us, haha.”
Seeing her rather awkward smile, Deputy Mayor Zhuyin responded with a fake grin.
“If you don’t lay your cards on the table, there’s no way I can help you.”
The four exchanged glances, and the man in front said helplessly:
“Alright, we’ll come clean. First off, we’re giving this information about the crossover spot to you, Deputy Mayor Zhuyin, for free. Within this Lost Frequencies zone, there might be psychic-related items or abilities about to emerge.”
By the time Qiao Ming brought up psychic attacks, Zhuyin had already made a guess.
Whenever abilities related to mental attacks or illusions appear, that crossover space is bound to have either a monster or a plant with such abilities… or a related item.
An item would be incredibly valuable; a plant is the second most desirable prize.
The most disappointing scenario is when the psychic attack ability comes from a monster—dead monsters are nearly useless except for crafting Alien Magic Arrays and potions. But in most cases, all we run into are monsters anyway.
As for crafting arrays or even potions, no one here can pull that off.
“So your teammate took some valuable item in there with him, right?”
“Uh…”
“No kidding. It’s a sharp, cone-shaped sword. Sigh, that old Xue Lao’er brought a 80N-chronology war implement comatron after mutated creatures inside. And the result? Well, yeah— exactly this situation.”
Zhuyin let out a snort.
They had assumed the battle scene would be against a monster-type, but after the terrain converged, a psychic attack appeared—truly a tragic turn of events.
“OK, how much are you willing to pay to retrieve that weapon?” Zhuyin said.
Qiao Ming and the others felt somewhat embarrassed.
“We… we don’t have that much Chrono. So, we intend to exchange three thousand Chrono and three Chrono Weapons of about forty years’ caliber for that weapon.”
Zhuyin flashed a malicious grin and said, “Do you think that’s possible?”
“We’ve already offered you information about Telekinesis for free, which itself is quite valuable,” one of them said urgently.
“Oh, I almost forgot, haha, sorry about that. Well then, I’ll do my best to find it. But! If your teammate is still alive and unwilling to hand over the weapon, then there’s nothing I can do.”
……
Under the overcast sky, Zuo Feixian looked up and down at the short fellow, who stood with his arms crossed, chest puffed out, and chin raised.
After gesturing the other’s height, he placed a hand horizontally across his chest:
“You only come up to here—are you really… an expert?”
“Of course, I’m a master with unparalleled skills.”
Liang Xi kicked his foot, causing the wooden stick stuck in the ground to hum, spin into the air, and be caught firmly in the boy’s hand.
Boom!
The wooden rod burst into red flames, which then flickered with a golden light.
“Hiyah!”
He brandished the wooden rod with fierce momentum, the flames roaring and swaying, leaving the few people in front of the tent wide-eyed.
“I remember, Brother Jiazi knows that move too.”
“Can you all do it? Can we learn it too?” The few people looked at the boy with envy.
Yang Zicang walked over from the edge of the distant woods and wheat fields:
“Of course. He was called over to teach you all this. Also, Liang Xi, you need to learn other secret techniques.”
Liang Xi’s head drooped the moment he heard that.
“And, what grade are you in for middle school? You can’t fall behind in your cultural classes either.” Yang Zicang added.
“Wha—what?!”
This sentence struck Liang Xi like a bolt from the blue.
“Heh heh heh.”
Teacher Chen, who was making molds with others behind the crowd, stood up and pushed up his glasses upon hearing this.
“My teacher here is at the professor level. Yang Zicang, leave this little brat to us from now on.”
Little Liu rejoiced inwardly; he never expected he’d get an extra junior apprentice after hanging around here for so long.
Liang Xi looked up with a terrified expression:
“Bro, can I go back? I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“No!”
Yang Zicang waved at Zuo Feixian, and the two of them walked into the tent next door.
“Have these tents shown any signs of turning into Nightmares in the past couple of days?”
“No. Everyone has models, and the items we create take a long time to give birth to Nightmares—several months or even a year before any signs appear.”
The young man, now changed into a casual jacket, sat down on a stool and took out a notebook.
“That’s good. You’ll need to keep an eye on things here from now on.”
As long as there are no ordinary people, the speed at which Nightmares are born will be greatly extended. As long as you respond as soon as signs appear, there’s generally not much of a problem—unless you fail to notice them all along.
“Don’t worry, here these plank sheds won’t be dismantled and rebuilt for months or even a year. Our sheds have only been up for a few days, so Old Jia, you have nothing to worry about.”
Yang Zicang automatically associated the words “Old Jia” with the little turtles Li Mi had sent him.
He shook his head, reached out his arm, and placed a few sheets of paper on the table of spliced planks.
“This is the map I’ve drawn over the past few days. Ask it if there are any errors.”
Zuo Feixian now knew that his own hand had assigned Jiadi Sector the task of collecting his body parts; an unexpected discovery that also made him faintly uneasy.
But he had no way to stop it and could only remind Yang Zicang circuitously that monsters could not be trusted.
Yang Zicang, of course, understood this principle. For now, he was just doing the preliminary preparation work.
“If the map’s correct, we… our construction goods team is ready to start the business as well.”
He had struggled for a long time but still couldn’t bring himself to say the words ‘Big Jiafang’.
If he could go back a few days, Yang Zicang would certainly never have held this so-called public name selection and anonymous vote thing. Even now, he has no idea who came up with the name ‘Big Jiafang’ and who voted for it.