Chapter 183: Chapter 127: Linchuan Ruins, Another Realm Breakthrough

"Bread, crackers, compressed jerky! Clean drinking water, too! Selling cheap!"

"Buying Black-Scaled Iguana spines at high prices! Steel-backed Wolf fangs! Bulk offers welcome!"

As Lin Ye walked past, a cacophony of hawkers’ cries rose and fell. Some eyed him, eager to sell their wares.

Lin Ye ignored this motley crew, but he already had a clear guess as to who they were.

They were ordinary Martial Artists, also known as Hunters.

Their strength was lacking, and their talent was mediocre.

They weren’t good enough to meet the standards for joining the Martial Hall or the army, so they could only eke out a living in this precarious fallen zone by hunting mutated beasts and gathering materials and Spiritual Objects.

If they were lucky enough to find even a single low-rank Spiritual Object, it would be enough to keep them fed and comfortable for more than half a year.

In their eyes, a sheltered flower from a greenhouse like Lin Ye was just a walking wallet.

"Hey, young man! Young man! Don’t be in such a hurry!"

A scrawny, middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache, seeing potential business, quickly ducked out from behind his stall and hurried toward Lin Ye.

"Looking at you, I’d say you’re heading into the Linchuan Ruins, right? It’s real dangerous in there!"

He pointed to the faintly glowing Source Crystals in the distance and continued.

"See those Source Crystals? The radiation is nasty! Even if your Qi and Blood are strong and you have high resistance, just a few hours in there will make you dizzy, nauseous, and want to puke! Trying to get back out then will be a real problem!"

As he spoke, he proudly pulled a one-piece protective suit from behind his back and unfurled it in front of Lin Ye.

"Look! This is my ’Vajra Generation III’ protective suit. Made with polymer memory fiber, it’s comfortable and form-fitting. The inner lining is a lead-tin composite layer that can block over 90% of Source Crystal radiation! Wear this, and forget one day—you’ll still be full of energy after three whole days and nights in there!"

"We hit it off right away, it must be fate! This suit retails for fifty thousand Alliance coins, but I’ll give you a 20% discount. Take it for forty thousand! How about it?"

Lin Ye’s gaze swept over the protective suit.

Shoddy fabric, crude stitching, a faded imitation of military camouflage...

Even if it did offer some protection, it would be barely better than nothing.

’Forty thousand Alliance coins? He’d feel ripped off at four hundred.’

Lin Ye was no fool. He shook his head, his expression blank, and turned to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey, don’t go!"

Seeing that Lin Ye wasn’t falling for it, the man quickly blocked his path again. His tune changed as he started pitching food and water.

"It’s fine if you don’t want the suit, young man! But you’ve got to stock up on some food and water, right? All the water sources in the city are contaminated. One sip and you’ll be poisoned!"

"What I’ve got here is pure water filtered with a military-grade purifier! Only 500 Alliance coins a bottle! It’s a bit pricey, I know, but this is a fallen zone, after all. It could save your life in a pinch!"

Lin Ye was growing impatient with the peddler’s incessant chatter.

He cut him off directly.

"I don’t want your water, and I don’t want your food."

"I just want information."

"What powerful mutated beasts are in there, where are the Source Crystals most concentrated, are there any factions formed by you Hunters in the city, and what are the rules."

"Tell me everything you know, and these 500 coins are yours."

The peddler’s eyes lit up the instant he saw the money, and his smile immediately became incredibly sincere.

He deftly moved two small folding stools from behind his stall.

"Oh! Young man, you’ve definitely come to the right person!"

He rubbed his hands together, enthusiastically inviting Lin Ye to sit.

"I’m Zhang Fu. I don’t have many strengths, but I am well-informed! Inside and outside these Linchuan Ruins, there’s nothing I don’t know! My friends on the street do me the honor of calling me by a nickname: Zhang Wantong!"

"It’s a coincidence, actually. I’m originally from Linchuan. My home is gone, my wife and kid are gone... I’m all alone with no one to worry about, so I had to come back to these ruins to scrape by."

As Zhang Fu spoke, he pulled a folded, yellowed map from his clothes and carefully spread it open.

"Take a look, young man. This is a municipal map of Linchuan City from before the fall. It’s a bit old, but the general street layout and district divisions are still there. It should give you some reference."

He pointed to the central area of the map.

"Back then, the Celestial Abyss Rift opened right in the platform hall of Yong’an Station, on subway line 12 in the city center."

"That place now has the highest concentration of Source Crystals in the entire Linchuan Ruins, and it’s also the most dangerous! The mutated beasts inside are incredibly savage. Even some veteran Hunters don’t dare get close! You absolutely must not go there!"

Lin Ye nodded, his expression unchanged, but he silently made a mental note. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

’Good. I definitely have to go.’

"As for the factions..."

Zhang Fu lowered his voice and leaned in conspiratorially.

"You just need to know that right now, in these Linchuan Ruins, Hao calls the shots. He sets all the rules for the entire camp."

"We’ve heard he has some kind of official backing, but the details are unknown. What is certain is that his strength is unrivaled among all the Hunters. He also founded the largest group, the Cyan Blade Association, so naturally, many people are willing to listen to him."

"Basically, he provides us with a relatively safe place to trade, stabilizes prices, and punishes those who don’t follow the rules—the ones who prey on their own. In return, we have to give him a portion of our earnings each month as a ’protection fee’."

"As an outsider, as long as you don’t go looking for trouble or start any fights, no one will generally give you a hard time."

"Finally, let’s talk about the mutated beasts in the city."

"There are too many types to count; no one has been able to keep a full tally. Their general threat index is between 150 and 200, which makes them all tricky to deal with."