Chapter 673: This Place Really Is Covered in Gold!

Chapter 673: So This Place Really Is Paved with Gold!

In most areas of the wasteland, the Alliance had a decent reputation.

Especially the Alliance’s army—its image of strict discipline was deeply ingrained, and no one had ever heard of a caravan or settlement being robbed by Alliance soldiers.

So Mojave wasn’t the least bit flustered. He boarded the inflatable boat with only two nimble mercenaries, urging the man at the helm to speed toward the beach.

After sailing two or three kilometers, the inflatable boat quickly reached the shore.

“You two, secure the boat! Come find me as soon as you’re done!”

Mojave ordered the two mercenaries to drag the inflatable boat ashore and beach it, while he himself hurried toward the camp on the coast.

The beach was nothing like the sea.

Their inflatable boat was coated with tree oil boiled from black ironwood, giving off a rotting stench to drive away sea mutants, but once ashore, he was on his own.

He hastily stepped out of the sandy edge, and the moment his soles hit the soft soil, he was stunned wide-eyed by the sight before him.

On a platform built of logs, furs of various sizes and colors were stacked like a deck of cards.

Probably to save space, they were tied into tofu-like blocks with hemp ropes, tightly piled together, and the only protection was a crude thatched shed.

These raw hides seemed freshly skinned from prey, still stained with unwashed blood and grease, emitting a faint stench under the high temperature.

“Spirit of the Sand Sea above…”

Mojave’s mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg.

What shocked him wasn’t the cruelty of the scene.

On the wasteland, unless you had nothing better to do, no one would be so overflowing with sympathy as to pity some mutant.

What truly stunned him was the barbarism and crudeness of these people!

They were treating these priceless treasures so abominably, piling them here like dirty rags!

Didn’t these wanton wastrels fear divine retribution!?

“Spirit of the Sand Sea above! Pure-blooded sable fur! Wait, is that a mutated leopard?! Emerald python, mutated rhino hide…”

“Hiss—”

“You just leave these treasures here to rot in the heat!? You might as well give them to me!”

The noisy commotion quickly drew the attention of nearby players.

Some players working at the butchering spot put down their tasks and gathered around him curiously.

“Well, well, an NPC showed up?”

“There’s a cargo ship docked over there; this guy seems to have come off it.”

“What’s he babbling about?”

“Who knows, I turned on the translator too late.”

Wiping the blood off his boning knife, Qingdeng Guyue, wearing a leather apron, eyed the NPC, squinted, and spoke in non-standard Common.

“Who are you?”

The man quickly turned to him, fumbled a wet business card from his shirt, and handed it over with an excited expression.

“I am Mojave! A merchant from Silver Moon Bay! Are these furs yours?”

Without answering his question, Qingdeng Guyue took the card, glanced at it, casually pocketed it, and sized the guy up again.

“You know your stuff?”

Mojave nodded quickly, barely suppressing his excitement.

“Of course! Name your price—I’ll take the whole lot!”

Not to mention anything else, those sable furs he’d just seen, if properly processed into fur coats and shipped to the Bolo Province, could fetch at least a hundred slaves!

And if he went a bit further west, selling them at a port near Triumph City, that would be at least a hundred thousand denarii!

Not to mention that those sable furs were just the tip of the iceberg.

As for less rare mutants like rhinos and leopards, their hides might not fetch a high unit price, but the demand was huge—every port had people scrambling for them, and he’d never have to worry about being stuck with unsold goods.

It was no exaggeration to say that the profit from his entire cargo ship couldn’t match a few haphazardly stacked piles of pelts here.

After all, a whole container of iron ore earned him less than a thousand denarii, but a relatively intact hide here could easily sell for that much!

Thinking of this massive profit, Mojave’s heart pounded, and his breath quickened involuntarily.

This place was practically paved with gold!

Praise the Spirit of the Sand Sea!!

Seeing the merchant’s eager, impatient haggling, Qingdeng Guyue raised an eyebrow with a strange expression.

Was this guy new to business?

He might as well have “Fleece me” written all over his face.

His eyes shifted slightly, and he spoke.

“…These hides haven’t been processed yet. We plan to treat them before selling.”

Mojave said with a pained tone.

“Too late! With your method, even a piece of wood would rot! Believe me, by tomorrow morning, if even half of this batch is left, I’ll eat my hat!”

Qingdeng Guyue was taken aback and retorted instinctively.

“How could it be that fast!”

You’ve got to be kidding.

He wasn’t a first-time butcher. Back in Dawn City, skins left for two or three days before processing still got buyers.

How could they rot in a single day?

Seeing this guy who had no clue about the severity, Mojave said with a mix of laughter and exasperation.

“Are you joking? This is the tropics! You don’t think it rots as slowly as back home, do you? I smelled the stench from miles away as soon as I came ashore!”

Qingdeng instinctively sniffed, but maybe he’d gotten used to the smell—he caught nothing.

Still, he understood what the guy meant, and his calm expression gradually faded.

“Then name your price.”

Hiding his inner glee, Mojave spread five fingers and pointed at the pile of goods, speaking with feigned sincerity.

“For the sake of fate bringing us together, I’ll give you 50,000 denarii for this stack! I want all five stacks—250,000 total.”

That included those “unremarkable” sable furs.

Mojave thought the price was fairly sincere.

After all, if he left these goods alone, they’d just rot on the beach, fetching not a single coin.

But to his surprise, upon hearing his earnest offer, the brother in front of him rolled his eyes without hesitation and flatly refused without a second thought.

"Get lost! Don't try to fool me—do you think I don't know the price of dinars? This stack has at least two hundred pieces, and you say fifty thousand dinars? What a joke!"

Mogavi was taken aback, his face twisting into a grimace as he spoke.

"Friend, this is untreated raw hide. Offering over two hundred dinars per piece is already a fair deal. Even if you dragged it to Silvermoon Bay right now, you wouldn't find a more generous buyer than me."

Qingdeng Gujiu shook his head like a rattle-drum.

"Don't even think about it. At worst, I'll just process what I can. If you're serious about buying, it's at least fifty thousand silver coins per stack."

"Fifty thousand silver coins?!" Mogavi's eyes bulged. "What a joke?! That's enough to buy a truck!"

Qingdeng Gujiu chuckled coldly, speaking without restraint.

"Guess how many trucks I could trade these for back in Dawnbreak City?"

Mogavi looked at him, torn between laughter and tears.

"You can't even take them back! With the way you're handling them, this whole batch will rot on the way!"

Qingdeng Gujiu shrugged with feigned indifference.

"Come on, it's hot here, but won't the temperature drop once we're in the sky? We've already packed up a thousand pelts. After a little processing back in Dawnbreak City, they'll fetch at least five hundred thousand silver coins. We can even ship seafood from here, so a few pelts are nothing."

To be honest, there was a bit of bluff in his words—air freight wasn't without cost.

Besides, the Ox-Horse airship wasn't a specialized cold-chain transport. Hauling a few foam boxes of seafood was fine; the folks in Dawnbreak City might buy some out of novelty, enough to cover the ticket cost.

But these pelts were different—they were bulk goods. Setting aside the lack of refrigeration, even if they were shipped back by weight, it was uncertain whether they'd recoup the cost.

On the flip side, the price of two hundred and fifty dinars per piece was absolutely unacceptable to him—he'd paid more than that just to acquire the kills.

If he sold them off at that price, he'd be the fool.

Mogavi shook his head and started to leave, but seeing no one stop him, he stomped his foot and turned back, gritting his teeth.

"Fine, for the sake of the help you once gave us, I'll take a loss... Let's say a thousand pieces here, a total of one hundred and thirty thousand silver coins—I'll take the lot!"

There was no stable exchange rate between silver coins and dinars; in some places it was 1:3, in others 1:10, depending on the distance from Triumph City and Dawnbreak City, as well as the prevalence of the slave trade in the area.

Though dinars were precious metal currency, their value wasn't anchored to gold but to slaves and the output slaves could produce.

But one thing was beyond doubt.

In most regions, silver coins had greater purchasing power than dinars, even if their circulation was lower—at least east of the Great Desert.

Qingdeng Gujiu's heart stirred at the offer.

One hundred and thirty thousand silver coins!

That averaged one hundred and thirty silver per piece!

The price wasn't beautiful, but it was far better than two hundred and fifty dinars!

Still, despite his excitement, he put on a hesitant expression and said,

"One hundred and thirty thousand... that's still too low. I need to consult with the others."

Hearing this, Mogavi's eyes went wide, and he nearly spat blood.

Good grief.

So this guy had been haggling all this time, and the goods weren't even his!

Catching the murderous look in the NPC's eyes, Qingdeng Gujiu gave an awkward smile, feeling a bit embarrassed, and cleared his throat.

"...Most of it is mine, most of it is..."

Not giving the man time to back out, Qingdeng Gujiu immediately ran to the nearby slaughter point, gathered the life-profession players running the butcher stalls, and laid out the whole story to them.

He told them about the NPC who had taken a liking to the pile of untreated raw hides at the port, and about the deal he'd negotiated.

"...I've figured it out—one hundred and thirty thousand silver coins is a decent price. It saves us the freight back to Dawnbreak City, the labor cost for processing the hides, and any losses during transport... If we tried to haul them back to Dawnbreak City, we might end up losing money. Better to sell them in bulk to that guy, split the money, and everyone makes a good profit."

The life-profession players mulled it over, and it did seem to make sense.

The waves of aberrants kept coming, and the prey piled up on their stalls was almost overflowing; who knew when they'd find time to deal with those pelts.

Having someone willing to buy them all was convenient.

As for Brother Qingdeng's character, they trusted him—no risk of him quoting one price openly and another secretly.

"You handle the negotiations."

"We trust you, bro."

"Wholesale means less profit, but it's fine—getting rid of them quickly is good too. It'd be a shame if they rotted on the beach."

Seeing so many brothers trusting him, Qingdeng was deeply moved, his expression softening as he looked at them.

"Good brothers! For your trust, I, Qingdeng Gujiu, will not let you down!"

"Hey, what thanks are you talking about? You found us a buyer—we should be thanking you," said one life-profession player, patting his shoulder with a smile.

Another player suddenly had an idea and suggested,

"By the way, there'll definitely be more NPCs coming here to buy pelts. Why don't we register some kind of organization or association? We can agree on prices and sell together, set different prices for different types of pelts—we'd definitely earn more than selling them all at one price. Plus, it'll stop the NPCs from picking us off one by one and driving prices down."

The idea was met with immediate approval from many.

"Great idea!"

"Agreed!"

"Can't let the NPCs harvest us!"

Qingdeng suddenly realized why the NPC had nearly flipped out when he heard the goods weren't all his.

So that was the trick behind it.

But now wasn't the time to discuss this.

Clearing his throat, he gestured for everyone to look at him and said,

"Listen up, everyone. Let's talk this over later—we can discuss it in detail on the forum after we log off. For now, let's deal with this batch first."

The player who made the suggestion nodded.

"Right, let's handle the goods first."

With everyone's approval, Qingdeng returned to the pile of goods and found Mogavi pacing back and forth.

This time, backed by his brothers, he had the confidence to haggle, and he argued fiercely with Mogavi.

In the end, after some back-and-forth, the total of 1,131 pelts was finally sold for 140,000 silver coins.

Though it fell short of his expected 150,000 silver coins, it seemed this price was the limit the NPC merchant could bear.

When the word "deal" left his mouth, the man looked as if he'd been drained dry, his pockets thoroughly emptied.

Even though this guy was an NPC, the game's NPCs were virtually indistinguishable from real people, and Qingdeng Gujiu didn't have the heart to squeeze him dry.

He still hoped to keep this trade going long-term.

As part of the deal for 140,000 silver coins, the players at Fries Port had to help load the thousand-plus packed pelts onto the deck of the cargo ship, the "Northwest Wind."

Without a dock, loading ten to twenty tons of cargo onto the ship wasn't easy, but Qingdeng Gujiu agreed readily.

"As you wish—one hundred and forty thousand silver coins! I'll go fetch the money from the ship... You bring the goods to the deck, and we'll exchange payment for delivery."

After making a verbal agreement, Mogavi walked to the southern edge of the camp, stopped by the gate, and stared at Qingdeng Gujiu, reiterating his instructions over and over.

Seeing the man’s face, which looked like he’d just lost money, Qingdeng chuckled and waved a hand.

“Got it. Go on back. Tell your captain to keep the ship steady—we’ll send the goods over soon.”

“It’s a deal…”

Mogavi didn’t want to dawdle on the beach any longer; he turned and headed toward where the inflatable boat had run aground.

Just then, two armed mercenaries came walking over, and seeing their boss hurrying back, they froze in confusion.

“Boss?”

“What’s… going on?”

“It’s done!” Mogavi slapped the shoulder of the mercenary in front and urged them on impatiently. “Time to go. Time is money—we need to get back to the ship quickly.”

The pile of goods stacked on the cargo heap was now his. Every minute he wasted here could mean damage to a pelt.

That was something he simply couldn’t bear.

Especially the few blood marten furs he had his eye on—they were tied up with a stack of tanned mutant rhino hides. Seeing the blood and grease stuck to those beautiful pelts made his heart clench in pain.

What a bunch of wastrels!

Hearing the boss say they were leaving, the two mercenaries nearly spat out blood in frustration.

After all the huffing and puffing to drag the speedboat ashore and beach it, they’d been hoping to grab a drink in the Alliance settlement—but they hadn’t even set foot through the gate before being rushed back.

“What are you staring at me for?” Mogavi glared at the two mercenaries standing there dumbly. “Get moving!”

“Yes, sir…”

Not daring to cross their employer, the mercenaries swallowed their irritation and trudged back toward the inflatable boat.

Eager to get back on deck, Mogavi didn’t care about soaking his trouser legs in seawater as he joined the mercenaries in pushing the inflatable boat.

The three of them struggled for nearly half an hour before finally getting the speedboat back to the anchored cargo ship.

The two speedboats moored alongside the cargo ship hadn’t left. The patrol leader was smoking impatiently at the bow, as if he’d been waiting for them a long time.

Without wasting a moment, Mogavi grabbed the ladder and climbed onto the deck.

Seeing her employer back on deck, Song Haining immediately walked over and asked.

“What’s the situation on shore?”

“The prophecy is real! A land flowing with gold! Hahaha! I’ve actually found it!” Gone was the dejected look from the shore deal; Mogavi was so excited he could barely speak, grabbing Captain Song by the shoulders.

Song Haining was taken aback, utterly baffled by the words. It took her a moment to come to her senses and speak.

“What land flowing with gold…”

“I bought a batch of goods from them. Wait here a bit—they’ll deliver it soon. I’m going to get the money.”

With that, Mogavi headed toward the cabin. Song Haining immediately reached out and grabbed his arm, asking urgently.

“Wait, what goods? Delivered to the deck? How are they getting it here?”

She hadn’t planned to dock here, and there wasn’t even a pier for them to moor.

If they had to ferry it over by small boat, how long would that take?

And if the submarine from Vault 70 took notice, she doubted two patrol speedboats could protect them.

Seeing Captain Song’s anxious questioning, Mogavi grinned and patted her hand.

“Relax, they said it’ll be quick. Won’t take long. We just wait a little.”

Song Haining glared at him.

“We can’t wait that long. The Federation patrol is still waiting for us—without their guidance, we can’t get through the minefield. And there’s Vault 70—”

“Then do me a favor and tell them to wait a bit longer! For the two speedboats… I’ll pay them an extra 2,000 dinars!”

Watching Mogavi shake off her arm and rush toward the cabin in a panic, Song Haining’s face wrinkled with worry.

Just then, a sailor ran down the gangway and called out anxiously.

“Captain! That airship on shore—it’s heading our way!”

Airship?!

Song Haining froze, then instinctively looked up toward the north shore of the strait. There, the hovering airship was dangling a rope and slowly flying toward them.

Seeing what was hanging from the rope, her eyes widened so much they nearly popped out.

Good grief.

That actually works?!

Mogavi, coming out of the cargo hold with a briefcase, was also stunned by the Alliance’s maneuver.

But he wasn’t stunned for long. In less than a quarter of an hour, the airship had drifted directly above the cargo ship and slowly stopped.

The sea wind howled as the “tofu blocks” hanging from the rope swung like pendulums, trying several times before finally settling onto the deck.

Watching this hair-raising spectacle, Song Haining felt her heart leap into her throat.

Especially when that “pendulum” swung toward her Northwest Wind—she turned pale with fright.

Luckily, everyone’s luck held. This series of absurd maneuvers somehow ended without casualties.

From one stack of “tofu blocks,” a man in a leather jacket jumped down.

He looked around, quickly spotted Mogavi standing dumbfounded by the cabin, and his eyes lit up as he walked over with a smile.

“Goods delivered. Where’s the money?”

It took Mogavi a moment to come to his senses. He closed his gaping mouth, gave an admiring thumbs-up, and then handed over the briefcase.

“140,000 silver coins, all here.”

Qingdeng Gujiu took the briefcase, glanced inside, saw the neat stacks of hundred-note bills, and closed the lid with a smile.

“Pleasure doing business.”

“Pleasure doing business… I’ll be back here in a few days. Save any good stuff for me,” Mogavi said, glancing at his glaring captain. He cleared his throat and added, “And you folks… you’d better figure out how to build a dock soon. I’m afraid no ship will take me back if this keeps up.”

Qingdeng Gujiu’s eyes lit up.

“That’s easy—I can hook you up!”

Mogavi blinked, giving him a strange look.

“You… have a ship?”

“Of course!” Qingdeng laughed. “If you need one, when you get to Ring Harbor, look for a guy named Tail. He’s on the ship flying the white bear flag.”

Mogavi nodded. “I’ll check it out if I need to… By the way, how are you getting back?”

“Easy—same way I came. See you!”

Qingdeng grinned, made a gesture, turned back to the stack of goods, unhooked the ropes securing the fur bales, and hooked them onto himself.

Everyone watched as the man, clutching a briefcase, was lifted off the deck by the airship, swaying as it drifted back toward the shore.

Watching his figure disappear from sight, Song Haining swallowed hard and stared fixedly at Mogavi beside her.

Knowing what he was about to say, Mogavi coughed awkwardly and explained.

"Actually, these guys are pretty decent—much easier to get along with than most survivors in the settlements... just a bit reckless sometimes."

"I don't care about reckless or not, don't you dare drag me into your recklessness. This ship has been with me for twenty years!" Song Haining stared at him intently and continued, "This is the last time... on the way back, I will absolutely not stop near here—don't even think about it!"

Mogavi forced a smile and nodded.

"O... okay!"

It was impossible not to stop here.

The money he had just made from that deal was almost equal to the profit from his entire cargo.

Not only would he come back, but he would also stay here for a while.

Perhaps when he reached the port of Ring Island, he could ask that tail recommended by the cargo owner, see if that guy was willing to take this job...

But come to think of it.

Why did that name sound so familiar...

Mogavi felt he had heard it somewhere before.