Chapter 45: Three Against One, Counter-Kill One?

Feng Mu pushed his bicycle into the incineration plant, while Zhang Hao and the other two stood at the gate without leaving immediately.

Dark Area 1: "Can we trust what this kid said?"

Zhang Hao had no intention of calling 【the Lame Freak】 for the time being, as it would easily spook the snake.

"He doesn't look like he's lying. A cremation worker shouldn't have the ability to discover the secret of the Black Core. As for the lame man he mentioned, we'll have to use this kid to lure him out." He said.

Dark Area 1 nodded: "And what about Bin Ge of the Green Wolf Gang? What do we do about him?"

Zhang Hao was somewhat annoyed. The past few years had been very calm, but overnight, it seemed all sorts of demons and monsters were eyeing the Black Core.

Could the secret of the Black Core have already leaked on a large scale?

Zhang Hao frowned tightly and ordered the two: "Like this, we'll split up. One of you figure out Bin Ge of the Green Wolf Gang's background, and the other keep an eye on that kid just now. I'll try to send what happened back to the higher-ups."

Dark Area Two nodded in unison.

Zhang Hao added another word: "Act covertly, don't be discovered, and especially don't spook the snake. The Black Core is of great importance and cannot tolerate carelessness; we must investigate slowly and clearly."

After dividing the work, the three each took action.

Before leaving, Zhang Hao also went to the gate of the incineration plant, shared a few cigarettes with the security guard, and chatted about this and that for a few sentences.

……

A day of cremation work passed quickly, and today there was no harvest of Black Cores.

After getting off work and leaving the factory, while riding his bicycle past a patch of grass, Feng Mu's back tightened, and that feeling of being watched with malice came again.

"Even if you believed the lies I told, you're still sending someone to watch me? That's a bit impolite, isn't it~"

Feng Mu continued to ride his bicycle pretending not to know, while killing intent brewed in his heart.

He had too many secrets that couldn't see the light of day; how could he allow a lingering ghost of a tail to follow him behind, and how would he manage to stir up trouble next?

While riding his bicycle, Feng Mu calculated in his heart how to kill someone without god or ghost knowing.

After all, these people's ranks were higher; Feng Mu had to achieve a one-hit kill, otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable.

Along the way he temporarily couldn't think of a brilliant scheme, and his bicycle had already stopped at the gate of the hardware store.

Feng Mu entered the store, and under the shop owner's strange gaze, he caressed every iron metal on each shelf.

He caressed very carefully and gently, as if caressing his lover's skin. Several times when the shop owner looked over, goosebumps rose on his arms.

【Metal detected—Pig Iron, Edible, occupy new food slot*1?】

【Metal detected—Aluminum, Inedible.】

【Metal detected—Brass, Inedible.】

【Metal detected—Pig Iron, Edible, occupy new food slot*1?】

【……】

【Metal detected—Ten-Forged Iron, Edible, occupy new food slot*1?】

【Metal detected—Rusty Iron, Edible, occupy new food slot*1?】

【……】

After 40 minutes, Feng Mu meticulously caressed every metal on each shelf one by one, not missing any corner.

The owner in the corner initially had strange eyes, but 20 minutes later, the shop owner's forehead broke out in cold sweat, not daring to look again.

He couldn't quite say what Feng Mu was doing.

But precisely because he racked his brains and couldn't figure it out, he felt a vague creepiness in his heart.

If Feng Mu didn't look human from every angle, he would have reported to the police that a customer in the store showed signs of mutation.

Outside the store, directly opposite a hundred meters away, Dark Area 2 watched blankly, his left eyeball occasionally flickering with a strange light.

He didn't find it strange that the surveillance target was caressing metal; after all, he had a similar hobby himself—he liked caressing ant corpses.

It was roughly the same as what the target was doing now, both worthy personal hobbies, and besides, it had nothing to do with the Black Core.

Feng Mu naturally knew his behavior was a bit strange, but compared to other secrets, this little quirk didn't need to be hidden too much.

Blank Citizens are under great mental pressure; having a strange hobby to vent emotions is understandable, right?

He didn't go to the supermarket to squeeze instant noodles; the owner had no reason to call the police.

Feng Mu concluded in his heart: "There are four types of iron in the hardware store: Pig Iron, Rusty Iron, Misc Iron, and Ten-Forged Iron."

Fewer types than he initially expected.

There wasn't even Hundred-Forged Iron, Steel, or Alloy.

But upon second thought, Feng Mu understood: Hundred-Forged Iron, Steel, and Alloy were probably included in the resource control of the City System.

The hardware store definitely couldn't buy them; he'd have to go to higher-end places, and might even need a certain Citizen Grade.

Of course, he didn't need to think that far for now; four types of iron were enough to fill the food slots of a Second Stage Iron Eater.

Feng Mu bent down and picked up the rusty iron nails piled in a box on the bottom shelf like trash.

He wondered in his heart: "I can understand Pig Iron, Ten-Forged Iron, and even Misc Iron, but what the hell is Rusty Iron? Spoiled Pig Iron?"

"Is this stuff really edible? Won't it poison me?"

Feng Mu rubbed the rusty iron nail in his hand and suddenly had a whim: "Pig Iron's trait is 【Molding Embryo】. I can't guess the traits of Misc Iron and Ten-Forged Iron, but Rusty Iron's trait wouldn't be 【Tetanus】, would it?"

Feng Mu was startled by his own thought, but the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

If following conventional thinking to rank iron types from low to high, it should be Rusty Iron → Misc Iron → Pig Iron → Ten-Forged Iron → Hundred-Forged Iron → Steel → …… → Yin Sha Nine Nether Calamity Evil Iron.

Feng Mu originally intended to follow this line of thought to find the recipe for a Second Stage Iron Eater.

Now, he suddenly felt he had fallen into a misconception; that ranking was based on conventional factors like iron density and hardness, but absorbing traits was not a conventional matter at all.

So this ranking had to be sorted by imagination.

So…… Yin Sha Nine Nether Calamity Evil Iron must still be the most awesome.

Then, Rusty Iron was extremely unlikely to be the weakest; instead, it would probably unexpectedly rank in the upper tier?

Most importantly, Rusty Iron was much easier to get than fragments of Yin Sha Nine Nether Calamity Evil Iron—no danger, cheap, and plentiful.

"Thus, the Second Stage recipe can tentatively be set as pig iron plus rusty iron, unless those Black Market merchants can drop materials for me—hm, the difficulty coefficient is a bit high. Anyway, buy back all the rusty iron first."

A glint of sharpness flashed in Feng Mu's eyes as he walked back and forth between the shelves, pulling out every box of rusty iron nails hoarded in the corners.

"Boss, tally up how much?"

Feng Mu banged more than ten boxes of rusty iron nails onto the table.

The boss shivered, saw Feng Mu's serious expression, and hurriedly used a calculator to work out a super cheap price.

Naturally, the boss didn't lose out either—rusty iron nails were unwanted anyway; he'd just been too lazy to deal with them, leaving them piled in the corner. Someone buying them meant pure profit for him.

Over forty catties of rusty iron nails in total, awkward to carry, so they were finally stuffed into a sack, which Feng Mu lashed to the rear seat of his bicycle.

He rode all the way home.

While Wang Xiuli was cooking in the Kitchen, Feng Mu took the sack into the Bedroom and hid it in the Yi Tou.

Looking at the sack occupying half the Yi Tou and a basin of iron beads, clothes and trousers were squeezed into the corner, shivering.

Feng Mu's desire to find an opportunity to move out and live alone grew stronger.

"Mm, once I get the money from Ma Bin's side, I'll go find a house to rent. Of course, I must stay vigilant against him cheating and defaulting on the debt," Feng Mu calculated in his heart.

Thus,

He pondered for a moment, then used Hong Mao's phone to edit two text messages and send them to Ma Bin.

——Damn it, those Black Market merchants have found me. Was it you who betrayed me?

——I take back the previous text message. It probably wasn't you; you didn't have time.

Feng Mu looked at his phone, deliberately waited a quarter of an hour, then thought Ma Bin on the other end must be anxious by now—did he hope Feng Mu himself got taken out, or that the Black Market merchants got dealt with?

Really hard to guess~

The corner of Feng Mu's mouth curved into a mysterious arc, and he kindly edited a few more text messages to send over as a reminder to Ma Bin.

——Damn it, three against one, they have no martial virtue.

——I'm injured, but I also crippled the most dangerous one. Though I couldn't kill him, in the short term they'll only have two people able to move.

——I've escaped and am preparing to find a place to heal my injuries.

——They won't be able to find me again. The remaining two should come after you, so be careful and don't die.

——Hurry up and prepare what I want. The things must be given to me in advance.

Chapter End