Chapter 3

Old Fox Quark sat behind the counter in his own shop with half a cigarette dangling from his mouth . He appeared casual and his eyes revealed a trace of satisfaction .

The settlement was nothing stellar . Compared to Safety Sector No . 17, it was like a dumpster . With a dark environment and no daylight throughout the year, it reeked of corrupted stench . Most of its resentful citizens were greedy but cowardly like rats . It was no wonder they could only live underground .

Even so, Quark was unwilling to leave the settlement despite already having the qualifications to move into Safety Sector No . 17 .

Because he wanted to earn money, a lot of money . Then, he would find several reliable guys to send him away from this shit hole .

What was Safety Sector No . 17? This world was big and interesting . Quark had seen it before, and he had his own lofty ambitions and pursuits .

Spitting out a mouthful of smoke, Quark felt slightly bored . The tobacco left behind by the old civilization might have been good, but it could not cure his frustration for sitting here dumbly for almost the whole day . The ‘rats’ of the settlement barely showed any results lately from their outing . Should this continue, he would have to consider taking early leave .

Right at the moment, three long and one short knocks came from the iron door, sounding a little rushed .

Quark’s eyes gleamed, thinking that business had come by his doorstep .

He did not hire anyone, so he answered the door himself and when he saw it was Tang Ling in front of his door, a grin crossed his face .

Most of the citizens of the settlement were rats, but there were exceptions too, like this kid here who always surprised him .

Of course, Quark had always been investigating Tang Ling secretly . He wanted to know how this kid could always surprise him . His investigation up to this point was not entirely without a clue, but he dare not simply conclude it either .

Overall speaking, this kid was a lucky one . A lucky bastard was never resented wherever he went .

“Let me guess . What did you stumble upon this time? Is it some ‘stones’ that I need, or is it some miscellaneous things that I requested?” Quark eagerly asked Tang Ling .

Tang Ling did not answer . He quickly walked over and squeezed himself into Quark’s store, heading to the counter .

Understanding, Quark closed the iron door with a bang before he went around the counter .

Without waiting for Quark to speak, Tang Ling removed a robust tree trunk that seemed like a weapon .

“Do you want to exchange this?” Quark looked rather sour . This kid arrived so mysteriously but took out a normal looking tree trunk . He did not remember this thing having any value .

Tang Ling still did not say anything and removed the string tied around the tree trunk . It opened up into two pieces . One of the two pieces was empty . Then, Tang Ling took the bottle out and put it on Quark’s counter .

“Level 3 drinking water,” Tang Ling announced calmly .

Quark’s eyes shone . The area was suffering from a long drought, so water had become the most precious resources . Even the cheapest, barely drinkable Level 5 drinking water was in high demand, let alone Level 3 drinking water .

Normal people might not drink this kind of water, but the wealthy and honored lords in the Safety Sector needed it .

With the thought in mind, Quark twisted the cap open and carefully dipped his finger into the water, then put it into his mouth .

There was no contaminated stench and it was very clean . It was Level 3 drinking water that could reach the normal standard of drinking water in the old civilization .

“What are you exchanging it for?” Quark did not beat around the bush .

“The same old thing: food and meat!”

“The uncontaminated one? You know, water might be precious right now, but uncontaminated meat has always been the hard currency . A bottle of Level 3 drinking water like this can only get you, erm, at most, 2 . 5 kgs of meat . ” Quark winked .

Tang Ling looked down in silence . As a matter of fact, this bottle of Level 3 drinking water could be exchanged for at least 5 or even 6 kgs of uncontaminated meat .

However, Tang Ling did not have a choice . Throughout the entire settlement, trading at Quark’s was the safest . The man would not force a trade or rob others, and more importantly, his mouth was sealed tight .

He seemed to have a powerful background . No one in the settlement dared to have ill thoughts about him . No one dared to touch the things exchanged at his place either . Those who harbored ill-intentions against him were all dead, all of them .

“No, low contamination will be enough . ” Tang Ling only went quiet for two seconds and soon made up his mind . The feeling from his chest was getting stronger . He could not delay it any longer .

“Hmm?” Quark raised a brow but did not ask anything . He continued straightforwardly, “If it’s low contamination meat, you can get 10 kgs . ”

“Mm . ”

After getting an agreeable grunt from Tang Ling, Quark happily took the bottle of Level 3 drinking water and headed toward the secret door behind the counter . A while later, three dried black-toothed rats were tossed on the counter .

Tang Ling wanted to take the meat, yet he hesitated . He pushed one of them forward and said, “Change this to 1 kg of uncontaminated meat . ”

“I’m on the losing end here . ” Quark shook his head .

Tang Ling stubbornly looked at Quark . The cold sweat on his forehead had somehow accumulated into beads, dripping off his face .

“Fine, I’ll change it for you . ” Quark compromised in the end . Judging from his looks, the kid might have suffered some internal injuries to get his hands on the Level 3 drinking water . He could give him some clean meat just to patch him up so that he could stay alive until the next trade .

Soon enough, Quark had everything prepared . Tang Ling stuffed the clean meat into the empty trunk, grabbed the two dried black-toothed rats and strode out from the secret door at the side of Quark’s shop .

“This kid, can he even stay alive till the next time?” A trace of mercy flashed in Quark’s eyes, but soon he calmed down . He picked up his cigarette which he had not finished and continued smoking while sitting behind his counter casually .

**

The secret exit in Quark’s shop connected to an absolutely safe underground sewer . Under normal circumstances, other than the traders, no one would appear here .

There were a total of three of these underground sewers . Tang Ling was not worried about bumping into someone by simply choosing one .

Squatting down in a dark, secluded corner, Tang Ling sweated coldly . His hands quivered as he grabbed the dried black-toothed rat, gnawing away at it with huge bites .

The meat of the black-toothed rats was not tasty at all . Other than the distinctive taste of contamination, it also tasted like sewer water . The stench would remain no matter what .

On top of that, it was tough and dry . Even if he would to stew it, it would take him almost a whole day, let alone the dried meat .

However, Tang Ling gnawed greedily, even if blood started to seep out from his teeth, he didn’t slow down a bit . He even chewed and swallowed the bone whole .

It was not enough . More meat was required .

Tang Ling gnawed away half a black-toothed rat in the blink of an eye, yet he was still plagued by hunger .

He kept eating . A dried black-toothed rat would still have 3 to 3 . 5 kgs of meat, yet he gobbled it down in less than 10 minutes .

Blood dripped down the corner of his mouth, but in the next second, he continued to inhale the meat without a second thought . The hunger that came from his chest was like a furious spinning vortex .

It made Tang Ling feel that if he stopped, he would eat himself in the next second .

A few more minutes passed, and the quiet sewer had no other noises other than Tang Ling’s gnawing .

Until only about half of the two dried black-toothed rats were left, he finally stopped .

Tang Ling stood up after he finished eating . His eyes, however, did not show a sense of satisfaction, only doubts and fear that he could not brush away .