Chapter 60 – The Black Market
A middle-aged man was dozing inside the hut.
After Li Xiaoming spoke the secret code, the man let them pass.
A hole was revealed under the bed.
“Go ahead. But you already understand the rules of the black market, right? This place is protected by the Big Four mercenary regiments so don’t even think about making problem.” The middle-aged man warned the four of them.
Only Li Xiaoming was trembling.
Tang Yu didn’t care.
Even without his warning, there’s no need to get into trouble.
The passage ran underground with stair steps.
At first it was narrow, but it gradually became spacious as they walked further.
After a while, the front suddenly brightened as if they just entered a dark tunnel and light was seen at the end of the tunnel. Near the end of the tunnel, they heard some noises.
Tang Yu looked up and observed his surrounding area.
This was an underground tunnel. Bright fluorescent lamp was hanging on both sides of the tunnel. A red arrow was painted on the wall, indicating the direction of the black market.
This was probably an abandoned fallout shelter. With this kind of place, no wonder the black market dared to operate in the shelter.
As they advanced forward, they gradually saw other survivors.
Most of them dressed just like them. With mask, and other things to hide their faces.
There were also some different, elegant and well-equipped people. They walked down the passage as the other survivors stared with an enviously.
They came from every directions. Tang Yu guessed there were other entrances to this place.
That’s rather reasonable. The tunnel would be too crowded if it only had one entrance.
An iron gate appeared at the end of the tunnel with the sign “Welcome to the Lindong Black Market.”
Tang Yu slightly twitched his mouth.
Were the black markets nowadays this arrogant?
The iron gate was open wide. Several guards in black clothes were standing nearby.
Tang Yu felt the guards had the power of a double awakening, with the leader was triple awakening. They must’ve been the man sent by the Big Four mercenary regiments to guard the place.
The Big Four mercenary regiments were the only large mercenary regiments in the entire Lindong shelter. Their mercenaries’ strengths were far superior in power. Just looking at the men sent to guard the black market, their full strength was enough to crush most of the mercenary regiments in the shelter.
They’re really good.
Tang Yu didn’t know how many gates the black market had.
Were the guards come from the Big Four mercenary regiments, or they just worked together? It seemed these guards were more than enough to force bosses to gather together and play Mahjong.
He shook off the thought.
As they walked pass the gate, the place became wider. Some merchants were seen everywhere.
Some people chose to sell things directly to the black market while others set up a stall. Of course, it’s not free. They had to pay a certain stall fee to the Big Four mercenary regiments.
This was also an easy way to get money. Tang Yu’s eyes flashed with determination.
“I’ll set a small goal for now. But later, I’ll open a black market in a large shelter!”
He carefully observed the stalls. It’s roughly similar to a normal market, but the sold goods are slightly different.
Weaponry were a common item here, there’re some powerful weapons such as a rocket launchers which weren’t sold by the Lindong officials.
Aside from exchanging task points, it’s only possible to buy them here in the black market.
No wonder the black market was so crowded.
There were also some improper and weird things on sale. But this was the black market. It’s also possible to buy worthless things. If there’s any fake things, it could become a trouble.
No matter what you bought, other people wouldn’t know it.
That was also the charm of the black market. That’s one of the reasons why people came here every day.
You could see many people cry in the entrance of the tunnel after they realized they bought fake things.
The unique landscape of the black market attracted people to stop by every day.
Tang Yu didn’t find anything he liked. He was a little bit disappointed because he hadn’t find Awakening Elixir and spirit power container yet.
Elaine and Gray Blade spent their spirit stones and bought some small objects.
Patrols earned money, as well as followers. They had savings of spirit stones.
Li Xiaoming was just sightseeing, but it also widened his mind.
They were scattered, each person following their own interest.
Tang Yu saw a stall and his eyes suddenly brightened.
The stall was relatively large and had many goods to sell. The highlighted item was the awakening elixir.
But the quality was not good.
This was a medium quality elixir. But it’s a popular item. Most of the products available in the market were low quality goods. At this time, if someone saw this item, they would directly buy them from the stall owner.
He approached the stall.
A burly man next to him smiled and greeted, “Brother, is this your first time?”
Tang Yu was stunned. “Yeah.”
The burly man continued, “I’ll tell you something, don’t be easily dazzled. You must be cautious not to get fooled.”
Tang Yu looked puzzled.
He wasn’t surprised to be seen by others. After all, they looked the same in this black market. But what’s with this enthusiastic aura?
Something was not right.
Tang Yu felt his voice was kind of familiar. When he thought about it carefully, he was the captain Zhou who rented a four-star house he had seen at the house management center!
No wonder so many hunters knew this person. It turned out he owned a stall in the black market.
Zhou Jianhong didn’t recognize Tang Yu but he saw his doubts.
“Do you think only bad people coming the black market? That’s not true! Just consider the black market as a normal market.”
“Why is that?”
“Anyway, this black market is located in the shelter. If only a few people know about it, it’s normal. But do you think the official won’t notice this with so many people coming in and going out every day? What I think is, even though the black market is not open for public, the official actually knows about this, they just don’t care. My guess is some high-rank figures had some kind of agreement about the black market.”
Tang Yu thought about it.
The black market wasn’t exactly a secret. Even an ordinary person like Li Xiaoming could get information and got in.
This old man, as a powerful hunter must’ve had broad knowledge. Tang Yu asked, “I heard this market is managed by the Big Four mercenary regiments.”
Zhou Jianhong replied enthusiastically, “That’s right. Even though the official government didn’t explicitly allow the black market’s existence. It’s impossible to intervene with the management. Except for some big bosses in Lindong, the remaining strongest forces are the Big Four mercenary regiments. By the way, their name is well feared here. I’ve been here for some time and nobody dared to make troubles under the Big Four’s inspection.”
The two continue chatted. Clearly, Zhou Jianhong knew a lot about the black market. Tang Yu asked if the man had information regarding the spirit power container.
“I can’t get that thing, brother. But since you’re here, there’s an auction today. Some valuable things will be available to bid tonight. Looking at the time, the auction will start soon.”
After that, Tang Yu bid Zhou Jianhong goodbye.
After circling around the entire black market, he finally found the venue for the auction deeper in the tunnel. There were some forks in the entire fallout shelter area so he had to check every part.
If he was unfortunate, Tang Yu estimated it would take him longer to find the venue.
At this time, the auction had just started. When he arrived, he saw so many hunters entered the auction venue.
He didn’t go in. Instead, he went to a hidden place and took out several standard sword from the space backpack.
Then, he glanced at the auction item identification office next to the venue.