In the wilderness, several demonized beasts suddenly sprang out from the human-height weeds.
"Corrosive Claw Wolves, One-eyed Beasts, and Ghost Faces, Ghost Faces have quite formidable long-range lethality, take out the Ghost Faces first!"
An experienced member of the patrol team immediately assessed the situation.
On the side, several other patrol team members, armed with swords and shields, quickly drew the attention of the Corrosive Claw Wolves and One-eyed Beasts. Then, an Awakener skilled in speed, moving in a serpentine pattern, while dodging the Ghost Face's targeting, quickly closed in, and soon took down the very threatening Ghost Face demonized beast.
The other demonized beasts didn't cause much of a stir.
This was a very standard wilderness encounter, and the response of the patrol team members was quite good, utilizing the characteristics of the demonized beasts to separate the melee and ranged attackers and then prioritizing the most threatening one.
It was an extremely standard response tactic.
He had seen the progress of the patrol team members during this period, of course, their proper response this time was also due to the fact that the several kinds of demonized beasts encountered, were all detailed in the Sanctuary's collected bestiary, allowing patrol team members to combat them with targeted strategies.
If they had encountered some brand new type of demonized beast, which happened to have rather bizarre abilities, with the experience of these patrol team members right now, handling them would have still been quite difficult.
Just like the first time they encountered Ghost Face, a demonized beast that looked like a ghost face floating in mid-air, the patrol team members had taken significant losses.
The member who had killed the Ghost Face let out a sigh of relief, and upon looking up, their gaze crossed the weeds and fell on the distant building.
It was a high-speed train station, with four red characters faintly visible above, Lindongbei Station.
"Is that Lindongbei Sanctuary? A sanctuary built around the high-speed train station?"
"Correct." Luo Zhe nodded, "The scale of this Sanctuary is rather large, housing thousands of survivors, they should have some items worth trading, let's go take a look."
Lindongbei Sanctuary, where most survivors lived in the main building of the high-speed train station, relied on the station's structure and the surrounding wilderness for an open field of vision, allowing the inhabitants to spot any danger immediately.
At that moment, an Awakener responsible for vigilance widened his eyes as he watched from afar.
Suddenly he shouted, "Alert, someone's coming!"
The other nearby Awakeners or combat personnel, upon hearing him, showed faces of indifference, "It's just survivors, what's so strange about that?"
"No, it's not; there are a lot of people and big trucks!" exclaimed the man in surprise.
The others were also stunned and began peering through telescopes to observe the approaching group.
After a moment, a team leader-looking Awakener said to the others, "Continue to keep watch here, I'll go report to the Sanctuary leader."
He glanced at the distant group and hurried away.
The big truck moved forward slowly, with the patrol team members clearing the obstacles ahead, pushing aside any vehicles and rocks blocking the way.
The group was gradually approaching the high-speed train station and by now could clearly see some of the simple traps laid around it, some still with the blood of demonized beasts on them.
"Let's stop here," Luo Zhe said.
In the group, Ma Jiazze asked puzzledly, "Aren't we going to keep going?"
"Idiots!" Ma Jiafeng slapped his hand down, "Obviously, we've been discovered by the people of the Sanctuary, and moreover, they definitely won't welcome us in."
"Why wouldn't they welcome us? Do you think it was easy for us to come all this way?"
The chubby Ma Jiazze clearly did not understand.
Ma Jiafeng shook his head with an expression that intelligence couldn't save, "Think about it, our group here, not a small number, well-equipped, and guarding a big truck, we obviously don't look like ordinary survivors. Any Sanctuary with a lick of sense wouldn't just let us walk in."
"So that's how it is." Ma Jiazze nodded his head as though he suddenly understood, but his expression was still one of confusion.
At that moment, quite a few survivors came out from inside Lindongbei Station.
Most of these people were Awakeners, and some of them were even armed with firearms, though their types were not uniform—some had pistols, others rifles, and some shotguns.
The one leading was a middle-aged Awakener, distinctly authoritative.
Yan Tao walked at the very front of the squad, looking at the opposing group with their uniform equipment and firearms, clearly surpassing the combat personnel of his Sanctuary in terms of momentum.
Where did these people come from?
As he pondered, his steps did not halt, and he approached not far from the Patrol Team, "I'm not sure what brings you all to Lindongbei. Is there something you need?"
Yan Tao slightly lowered his stance while also staying on guard.
He soon saw the iron tower of a big man clad in armor raise his hand, and a few Awakeners immediately began to move several crates from the truck.
"Our purpose here is simple, we'd like to propose a trade, and the items in these crates are our goods."
Yan Tao paused for a moment, then quickly caught on, "What are you planning to put up for trade, and what are you hoping to get in return?"
"Let's take a look at our trade items first." Luo Zhe said, gesturing for the others to open the crates.
The contents of the crates were quickly revealed to everyone.
From behind Yan Tao, some survivors widened their eyes, "Are these real guns?"
The crate, at a glance, held at least a dozen firearms, apparently all brand new; even Yan Tao was somewhat surprised.
"Of course." A member of the Patrol Team, dressed in a black Combat Uniform, received Luo Zhe's signal and picked up one of the assault rifles, aimed it at the ground far away, and fired off a burst.
"You can try them out as well." Luo Zhe suggested.
Yan Tao hesitated a moment, then also picked up an automatic rifle from the crate, inspected it, and tried firing a shot.
"These are indeed real guns," he confirmed, "So what exactly do you want in return?"
After some discussion, the personnel responsible for negotiations from the Patrol Team laid out the already prepared valuations.
"A pistol is valued at two Source Crystals units, an automatic rifle at five Source Crystal units, and a light machine gun at twelve Source Crystal units. Of course, more than Source Crystals, we prefer some strange and unusual items, such as odd metals, minerals, herbs, etc. These can all be converted into Source Crystals value."
Yan Tao silently pondered over the price.
Behind him, someone suddenly spoke up with a disagreeable tone, "Two Source Crystals for just one pistol! Are you trying to rob us? To get two Source Crystals, you'd need to kill at least twenty Demonized Beasts! And one pistol plus two magazines, can it kill that many Demonized Beasts? I think you all don't really want to do business at all!"