Chapter 218: Doomsday Monopoly (Revised)

"Stop!"

On the platform, everyone was speaking one after another, arguing because of this unprecedented cost-effectiveness, and even beginning to bid against each other.

Just as this argument was reaching a fever pitch, Lin Xian spoke up to call a halt.

At this moment, everyone quieted down.

Lin Xian stood in the middle, his gaze sweeping over the circle, and he said loudly: "The stock is more than just this; we have more on the train. There's no need to argue. Everyone is just trying to survive."

Lin Xian wasn't here to hold an auction, and these people were all ordinary survivors; he had no intention of squeezing them for profit.

These conditions were all thanks to his Mechanical Heart. He wasn't looking to do a one-time business either. Thinking of this, he began to feel that Kiki's idea was indeed very forward-thinking. If the Infinite's reputation spread, perhaps in the future, it could develop into an integrated center for weapons and resources. By then, whatever resources he needed would become very easy to obtain, and the team's survival would also be greatly guaranteed.

"Really?" Hearing this, Cao Hong looked at the few weapon boxes in front of Lin Xian with suspicion, while at the same time his gaze swept toward the train behind him, his expression turning somewhat complex.

The Infinite's aura looked ridiculously strong at a glance, covered in standard heavy armor, with over a dozen carriages stretching hundreds of meters, fully several times larger than his Night Charm. He subconsciously wanted to clamor, but hurriedly held back.

"What, you don't believe me?"

Lin Xian swept a glance at him, then looked at the middle-aged man: "You can both take the vehicle-mounted autocannon and that light machine gun. I have more than one set, but I need to exchange them for canned food or biscuits."

"That's no problem!"

Cao Hong immediately said generously, hurriedly greeting a female subordinate beside him: "Quick, bring the goods to trade for the guns!"

The few female team members of the Night Charm were suddenly energized. A group of them hurriedly went to open one of the green train's carriages used for storing supplies. With a clatter, it opened, and inside, various survival supplies collected were neatly stacked. Lin Xian noticed that among them were dozens of boxes of canned food whose outer packaging seemed to be military supplies.

The reason he noticed this detail was that the van belonging to the middle-aged man from earlier also contained canned food with this outer packaging.

"How do you have military rations?" Lin Xian asked directly, his gaze sweeping over them.

"You mean this... we bought it from the Fortune convoy." The middle-aged man wearing the hat was named Liao Ming, and he said bluntly: "Most of the survivors here exchange supplies with them, it's just that the price is a bit higher than yours."

"How much higher?" Kiki's eyes lit up.

"It's alright. They have a lot of supplies, almost everything, and most of them are standard official survival supplies."

The fatty Cao Hong of the Night Charm said sternly: "It's just that the price of weapons and bullets has always been relatively high, so many people nearby heard your radio broadcast and rushed over to see if it was really such a great value."

The middle-aged man Liao Ming picked up an automatic rifle, pulled the bolt, checked it, and nodded: "The condition of this gun is indeed good. At first, I also thought you were fishing, or that it was all broken goods."

"Every gun can be inspected on the spot," Lin Xian said: "Quality is guaranteed, but the stock is limited. Food, canned goods, biscuits, and medicine are prioritized. If that really doesn't work, blood crystals can be used for exchange."

"That's no problem."

Lin Xian narrowed his eyes and said to Chen Sixuan: "Chen Laoshi, let's follow what we just said and exchange what needs to be exchanged first."

"Mm." Chen Sixuan nodded and said to the crowd: "Those who want to buy guns, come to me. I'll register you one by one."

Personnel from countless convoys swarmed up at this moment, beginning to scramble to exchange supplies.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm first, we're locals!" Fatty Cao Hong, looking quite pushy, gritted his teeth hard and immediately had his men squeeze to the front, terrified of being beaten to the punch: "Quick, babies, buy up all the good stuff first!"

"We want to trade for three sets of guns, and I don't know if this detector can be repaired." Other survivors also swarmed up.

"We want two sets of guns, one shotgun, one light machine gun, bullets..."

"What are the prices for your Level 1 and Level 2 water purifiers?"

Besides food, there were various medicines and blood crystals. Lin Xian was prepared to clear out these idle weapons all at once. Even people from several large vehicle groups had taken a fancy to the light and heavy machine guns and the Roaring K23 electric rotary machine gun in Dalou's hands. He was also prepared to go back to the train to "get" the stock. Such heavy weapons could be exchanged for a lot of supplies; the only trouble was that the demand for bullets was too great.

As people swarmed up, Chen Sixuan became busy all at once. Kiki and Shu Qin also hurriedly went up to help. Dalou, Lv Chang, and Miao Lu were all helping to move weapons and ammunition.

Hum~

At this moment, a series of urgent roars of car engines suddenly broke the atmosphere of the trade. Because of caution, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked toward the rear with guarded gazes.

Only to see that outside the platform, more than a dozen off-road vehicles with camouflage paint, plus a transport truck, rushed through the wire gate set up by the survivors to block zombies and drove directly onto the platform.

Seeing this posture, everyone retreated to the side of their own vehicles one after another.

Swish, swish, swish. Soon, dozens of gun-toting people got off those dozen or so vehicles. Several vehicles even had vehicle-mounted autocannons on their roofs.

Bang.

At this moment, two people got off the domineering armored vehicle at the very front.

Leading them was a lean man wearing a plaid shirt and a deep red suit, with toad sunglasses on his face, looking somewhat ruffian-like.

As soon as the man got off the car, he immediately stretched his neck, lifted his sunglasses, and walked toward Lin Xian's side with a cocky expression. The people behind him also followed with guns, looking quite fierce.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"You're the convoy that's been making a fuss on the radio about trading one gun for one box of biscuits, right?"

The lean man walked over from the group of survivors who wanted to trade, looked at Lin Xian with a scrutinizing gaze, lifted his chin, and his tone was somewhat impatient.

"Right." Seeing that the other party was coming with ill intent, Lin Xian's expression also turned cold.

"So you're the boss of the convoy?" "It's me."

"What are you doing?" Kiki narrowed her eyes, walked directly to Lin Xian's side with her arms crossed: "Want to buy something? Get in line at the back!"

Lin Xian's gaze swept over. This convoy's strength was extremely impressive. Dozens of people all held high-powered guns, and there were vehicle-mounted autocannons on the cars. At the same time, behind this lean, ruffian-looking man, there stood... a woman.

With short red hair, distinct facial features, and a height of nearly 1.8 meters, the wheat-colored skin under her tight vest and the well-defined muscle lines gave people a sense of health and powerful impact. If it weren't for the bandages suppressing the waves on her chest, ordinary people wouldn't even be able to tell she was a woman.

Most importantly, the woman's right arm was a silver-black weapon-grade prosthetic limb, which looked very fierce.

Among everyone, the most eye-catching was this woman who looked like a mechanical Contra.

"Buy something?" The man said arrogantly: "Good kid, do you know who I am?"

"Don't know."

"They are the Fortune convoy." At this moment, the middle-aged man Liao Ming, who had just traded weapons with Lin Xian, helped speak up: "Most of our things were bought from them."

Seeing this scene, Cao Hong of the Night Charm convoy lost his blustering energy and signaled to a few subordinates. A few people began to retreat to the back of the crowd, fearing they would get into trouble.

And many other survivor convoy members also had complex expressions. Most of them had traded things with the Fortune convoy. Seeing this posture, many guessed that the Infinite selling weapons at such a cheap price must have annoyed the Fortune convoy.

!

Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan looked at each other. Good heavens, they had met their peers.

"Yo, where did you pop out from? Have you heard of our Fortune convoy? Do you understand the rules? Do you know that by giving out this kind of price at will, you are destroying the doomsday market? And how many broken guns do you have to dare to shout prices on the radio? You've destroyed the honest, friendly, and harmonious market environment. Can you afford to take responsibility for this?"

Lin Xian swept his gaze over the group of people behind the man and frowned: "Do we have to ask for your consent to trade between survivors?"

"Hey!"

The man in sunglasses raised his hand: "It's normal for survivors to trade what they need. Even if you trade one gun for one piece of biscuit, no one can manage it. But you advertised on the radio that you have this and that, and you set such a low price. That means you have a large amount of goods for sale. This is no longer an ordinary trade; it's breaking the rules, understand?"

Chen Sixuan walked up and said coldly: "That's too unreasonable, isn't it? Is it possible that we must sell at a high price?"

Hearing this, the man in sunglasses was immediately annoyed: "I'm asking if you're really stupid or pretending to be stupid. Today, you trade one Starfire Type 26 fully automatic tactical rifle plus 120 rounds of ammunition for just one box of biscuits. Then how can I sell my guns? Can my brothers eat? Other survivor teams could clearly trade for a box of canned food, but because of you, maybe they can only trade for half a box. You tell me, is this just your own business?"

Lin Xian reached out and pressed on Chen Sixuan's shoulder, looked forward, and said: "He means that we are newcomers, and we don't have many goods. Private trades are fine, but we can't set prices and shout sales on the radio. Otherwise, it's destroying the market price."

The man in sunglasses looked at Lin Xian, his nose pointing to the sky: "That's right!"

"Then what do you want? Want to threaten us?" Kiki was unhappy when she heard this and immediately walked up.

Dozens of Infinite team members behind them also immediately stopped what they were doing and surrounded them with cold expressions, standing behind Lin Xian, all holding weapons, waiting for Lin Xian's arrangements at any time.

Those survivors who came to trade things retreated one after another when they saw this scene. These people all had complex expressions. For them, buying from anyone was buying, but the cost-effective price on Lin Xian's side really made them quite tempted. From the perspective of interests, they certainly supported the Infinite. However, these people clearly knew and understood the strength of this Fortune convoy, so many people dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak, retreating far away.

At the same time, the dozens of people behind the man in sunglasses also raised their guns in unison, and the vehicle-mounted autocannons on the cars turned over, sounding a chorus of loading.

The red-haired woman behind him saw the change in the scene and also remained silent, slowly clenching her fists. The independent servo system of her right arm's prosthetic limb started, and the finger joints of her wrist emitted a slight hiss under the gear transmission.

The surge of electrical energy caused blue electric light to flicker on her knuckles.

"No! No! No! I'm a businessman, not a bandit!"

Seeing the tense atmosphere, the man in sunglasses gave a disdainful laugh and directly clapped his hands. Whoosh~ The younger brother behind him opened the truck's carriage door, and immediately, supplies that filled the entire truck carriage appeared, neatly stacked. Those people from other survivor convoys immediately widened their eyes and gasped.

Generous, absolutely generous!

The man in sunglasses clearly liked this gaze of everyone focusing on him and said very arrogantly to Lin Xian: "Since you shouted this price today, well, however many guns you have, I'll take them all at your price. And then, get the hell out of here, quick!"

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of everyone on the Infinite side changed. This wasn't just looking down on people; most importantly, this was actually engaging in clearing the market and monopolizing in front of so many survivor convoys. It was really too arrogant. The people from those survivor convoys also had black faces.

Hearing this, Lin Xian almost laughed. He didn't expect this to be a group of principled doomsday profiteers. He then nodded and said: "Oh, I see. You're here for wholesale, right? Fine."

"May I ask, how should I address this boss?"

"The name of the convoy is my name. I am Fortune!" the man in sunglasses replied lightly.

"Is your surname Fu?" Shasha poked her head out from behind Lin Xian, looking surprised.

"None of your business if I'm happy or not!"

"No, I mean your surname is Fu. This surname is very rare."

"My surname is Fu. Fu as in 'Fu' of 'Mountains and Rivers, Fortune and Sea', Lu as in 'walking', Shou as in 'longevity'." The man in sunglasses felt somewhat insulted and immediately got anxious.

"Mountains and Rivers, Fortune and Sea?"

"Is there a problem?"

The red-haired woman behind him couldn't stand it anymore and said in a low voice: "His surname is Hu, Hu as in 'mouth-moon Hu', Hu Lushou."

"Gourd Beast, what a strange name," Shasha frowned and said. Kiki, beside her, immediately covered her mouth upon hearing this, almost laughing out loud.

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 219 =====