Chapter 241

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Chapter 241: Unknown Beast Core
It was called Warehouse No. 1, but it was actually just a separate little icehouse that was split off from a large icehouse.
As soon as Zhang Mu and Long Qi walked in, they were amazed by the number of workers in thick coats and gloves cutting mutant beast meat, neatly lined up in rows.
“Sure, this was originally an icehouse. The assembly line looks efficient, with clear division of labor.”
Zhang Mu and Long Qi stopped at the railing of the stairs, overlooking the scene below. The assembly line was separating mutant beast bodies, cutting meat chunks, and extracting beast cores piece by piece.
“Yes, this is an underground icehouse we stumbled upon while searching for usable resources. Like you said earlier, its high-power cooling system, like others after the apocalypse, had lost its original function. When we found it, the ice inside was just starting to melt. Luckily, we took over quickly and used an ice-type evolver to freeze the icehouse again, preserving the large amount of frozen pork stored inside.”
Long Qi gave Zhang Mu a look and said, “Otherwise, in this Shan Xi City overrun by zombies, where else could we find enough food to feed tens of thousands of hungry people? It all relies on this icehouse, but the daily consumption is just too high. The resources collected in the entire Shan Xi City that can still be consumed are like a drop in the bucket. That’s why I need to take over Jin Zhong City. If we delay any longer, we’ll really run out of food.”
“I was wondering why you were so eager to seize Jin Zhong City. I thought it was all for the future of humanity. You’re quite secretive. Do the people below, other than your soldiers, not know the true situation of the cold storage?”
“Of course, being a leader of a gathering place is indeed tough, especially when you are responsible for the people under you.”
While Zhang Mu was feeling thoughtful, Long Qi spoke to one of the soldiers who had already put down their work, “Give me the final statistics.”
“Yes, leader!”
The soldier, wrapped in a thick coat, clumsily saluted Long Qi and handed him a piece of A4-sized rough paper.
Long Qi took it in his hand and looked at the detailed list with Zhang Mu.
Oh my, the numbers, the types, Zhang Mu felt like this business deal would make them wealthy.
Long Qi wasn’t sure of the value of these beast cores yet, so he casually glanced over them without feeling much.
But in Zhang Mu’s mind, the numbers clearly written on the paper stirred up waves of excitement.
First-order fire-type beast cores, three hundred and seven pieces, first-order water-type beast cores, two hundred and seventy pieces, first-order earth-type beast cores, two hundred and thirty-one pieces, first-order metal-type beast cores, one hundred and seventy-nine pieces.
These four basic elemental beast cores indeed accounted for the largest quantity, which was more than half of the entire batch of beast cores. However, Zhang Mu mainly focused on those rare beast cores with fewer quantities below.
Because these are the ones he values the most, the rarer they are, the more precious they become. This principle has remained unchanged throughout the ages. Hoarding these rare beast cores can not only be sold to human “evolvers” in the future, but also Era Merchants will buy these types of rare attribute beast cores when opening the Junior Era Sub-merchant permissions. They might offer high prices, and the currency is even more attractive than selling to humans. It’s called “gold leaf.”
Zhang Mu started getting excited and as he continued to scan downwards slowly, his heart started beating fiercely and irregularly.
Ice-type beast cores, seventeen of them!
Wind-type beast cores, thirty-nine of them!
The rest are low-grade beast cores of mutant beasts without attributes, totaling about eight hundred. However, these types of beast cores are only useful for replenishing energy, otherwise they are useless for humans and generally looked down upon by mutant beasts. But during hard times, they can still be used as a dessert after a meal when desperate for food.
“According to our previous deal, these beast cores all belong to you,” Long Qi said as he saw Zhang Mu’s rapt attention. “Choose some now, and the rest will be sealed in this icehouse. Whenever you need them, just come to me and I will surely keep them for you.”
In fact, Long Qi felt a little guilty towards Zhang Mu. Among the two thousand mutant beasts, not a single mental-type mutant beast appeared, indicating their rarity. Yet, Zhang Mu had given him eight Soul Crystals.
All he got now were some beast cores with seemingly ordinary attributes, and half of them had no attributes. He felt a bit ashamed, but he was the one who had instructed his staff to count all the beast cores. It wasn’t their fault. Even Long Qi could only determine the quality of the beast cores by the purity of their energy.
Many specialized terms have not been standardized in this world yet, as large numbers of Era Sub-merchants have not appeared. They haven’t engaged in large-scale trades with the leaders of gathering places. Currently, they are all focused on completing tasks, as the cost of not completing a task is too high, scaring off newcomers.
But when they finally got promoted to Junior Sub-merchant, they would understand. Those who weren’t strong enough would become like an old hand, procrastinating until the last moment of completing the Era Merchant task. They would spend most of their time reveling and carousing because they lacked the guarantee of making profit at the end. It was common to see those who worked hard but ended up losing more. After gaining more experience, they wouldn’t run so eagerly and blindly.
Zhang Mu thought that exposing the Era Merchant Ring didn’t matter much. After all, he would definitely not cut off his connection with Long Qi Shan Xi City in the future. Since he would eventually have to reveal his identity as an Era Sub-merchant, he might as well openly use the Era Merchant Ring now. If Long Qi asked about it later, he could just choose not to explain.
Just as Zhang Mu was preparing to tell Long Qi to collect all the beast cores, the soldier who had been standing nearby hesitated slightly, but still whispered, “Leader, we actually found a very special beast core today, but we couldn’t determine its attributes. We also felt that it couldn’t be an attribute-less beast core, so we didn’t mark it in the records. We wanted to wait for you to arrive to make a decision.”
“An unidentified beast core? And even you can’t tell its attributes?”
Before Long Qi could speak, Zhang Mu became interested and eagerly said, “Young man, bring it here for me to see. It sounds intriguing.”
The soldier glanced at Long Qi with a questioning look, and Long Qi nodded helplessly, saying, “Bring it over, let him see it. This young man might know more than me.”
With Long Qi’s permission, the soldier hurried to the depths of Warehouse 1. When he reappeared in front of Zhang Mu and Long Qi, he had a small box containing a jade stone in his hand, which was delicately crafted.
When the ornate box was opened, Long Qi looked disgusted, and Zhang Mu was puzzled.
Even Zhang Mu himself had never seen this beast core before?