A cheap generator would cost at least a thousand dollars, while expensive ones would cost more than ten thousand. The shop owner was naturally quite warm since it could be considered a huge deal.

But it was only then that he suddenly remembered—there was no cell signal…

Slapping himself in the forehead, the shop owner said embarrassedly, "No wonder you want to buy walkie-talkies. How about this? I'll give you my friend's address and you guys can head straight there. Just say that Huang Dasheng sent you—she would give you a discount and you'll be friends in no time."

The address, however, was of a location at the suburbs east of the city.

Chen Jing and Chen Yining traded glances upon hearing that it was in the suburbs, appearing hesitant just then.

The news they heard on their journey was why they were rather hesitant.

"We can't go there," Driver Wang quickly said.

Chen Yining mused to himself as he thought things through—while it was certainly dangerous to go to the suburbs, they were three men and they had a car.

Most importantly, they had the Summoner's Grimoire, and three people meant three summoned beasts. Moreover, since there was 'level' and 'EXP' on the summoned beast's data, it meant that there was a way for summoned beasts to gain EXP.

However, the first thing that came to mind would be hunting and killing monsters.

"Mister Wang..." Chen Yining said, turning to the taxi driver—he had caught Mister Wang's name since the taxi driver's ID had his photo and name.

"Why can't we go to the suburbs? What happened out there?" Boss Huang asked nervously then, and returned forty dollars to Chen Yining. "How about this? I'll round off the price on these walkie-talkies, and charge you two hundred instead of two hundred and forty." 

"Tell him, Old Wang." Chen Yining decided to tell the shop owner after musing to himself for a while. He was not about to save that piece of information like treasure anyway, and he was not the only one aware about it.

With so many taxi drivers and their passengers onboard learning about it, and with there being many who lived in the suburbs, how long could that information be hidden anyway?

Chen Yining promptly felt the urgency to buy and store food right then!

When the news spread, there would be major panic across the city once the citizens realized that there was no way out of the city, and a lot of people would be panic buying food.

Prices might skyrocket then, and the same thing would happen for other daily necessities as well…

Moreover, it was only power outage right now. If gas and water were out as well…

Chen Yining did not dare to imagine what would happen next.

At the same time, Boss Huang was left dumbstruck by Old Wang's story.

Would he still have the mood to keep working? He quickly packed up and was about to close shop.

"Thank you, thank you," he said nervously, before flashing an awkward smile. "May I ask for your help?"

Chen Jing frowned. He was finding the shop owner getting more demanding just then.

"I was hoping that you could accompany me to the suburbs. I absolutely would make it worth your while—with one free generator." Boss Huang said. "The quality assured type, too."

Noticing the looks on the other three men, he flashed a begrudging smile. "I'll come clean then—the one in the suburbs isn't my friend, but my wife. I own that shop too."

"…"

"…"

"I really wouldn't lie to you… the generator needs diesel, and I have some I could give to you for free. If what you've said is true, both the generator and the diesel would much more expensive and difficult to obtain."

Initially, Boss Huang had presumed that the power outage was only limited to the local subdistrict, and that the loss of network signals was a malfunction of local cell towers. There was no way he could imagine that the entire city was out of power and Internet.

Moreover, it was clear that he was really suffering a loss, what with him giving away a generator worth a few thousand dollars at the drop of a hat.

After thinking to himself for a while, Chen Yining then spoke frankly, "That's fine, but I have a condition too—should things get dangerous, we would absolutely not get out of our car, and we would drive off immediately."

In the end, he was not about to endanger himself and his younger brother over someone he did not even know.

Boss Huang was silent for a while, but then nodded.

"Okay."

He had his own car and he promptly ran to the parking lot to drive off.

Driver Wang's taxi tagged behind.

But even as he drove, Driver Wang muttered thoughtfully, "You two are being impulsive here… anyway, I really would drive off if there's any danger… it's not like I'm gutless—I'm actually quite brave, but I have a wife and children waiting for me to go home."

Nonetheless, they arrived at their destination an hour later.

It was a street near the suburbs and the landscape here was flat. The border of the city was visible there, and just like what they were told over the walkie-talkie, everything outside the border of the city was now forest.

There were giant trees that stood up to sixty meters into the air, forming a dense canopy that stretched on endlessly and appeared to be an emerald ocean from a single glance.

The sight left the four men incredibly shocked.

Furthermore, having specialized in garden design at university, Chen Yining had vast knowledge when it came to flora, but he recognized none of the trees in the forest.

"It really is a forest."

"It's so big."

Boss Huang finally believed what Chen Yining and the others told him about the city changing.

Then, his heart tightened when he saw that his other shop was closed!

He promptly ran to it and rapped the door, yelling his wife's name.

A reply could be heard from within, and Boss Huang held his wife once she walked out the door.

It was naturally a happy ending since she was fine.

After that, Boss Huang and his wife pushed out a red-black generator, which resembled a car engine, although there were many power sockets on its side and four wheels beneath.

"It's over a hundred kg," Boss Huang introduced. "It has two voltage outputs at 220v and 380v, and it doesn't make much noise."

After that, Boss Huang taught Chen Xiaoning how to work the generator, such as where to fill the diesel, its switches, and how to fix certain simple malfunctions.

Through it all, Boss Huang's wife was standing in a corner without saying a word with a terrible look on her face.

After all, that was hardware worth several grand.

Moreover, Boss Huang took out three large 18L cans of diesel.

The look on his wife's face turned darker then—those cans were worth two hundred dollars each!

However, she did not embarrass Boss Huang in front of outsiders, and merely made plans in her head to educate him that night because they should not be wasteful even if they were rich.

Meanwhile, Boss Huang warmly exchanged walkie-talkie frequencies with Chen Yining and the others.

On another note, the mileage of the generator he gave was 265g/kw.h, with 1L of diesel providing approximately 0.84 kg.

It meant that one liter of diesel could power the generator for over three hours, and each can of diesel could last it around 57 hours.

Naturally, they couldn't use the generator 24/7 and would only start it up in necessary situations, such as to use it to charge their walkie-talkies and boil water.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Yining decided to spend four hundred dollars to buy two more cans of diesel from Boss Huang.

The only issue was that the taxi could not carry any more—it was not a truck, and its trunk capacity was limited. Moreover, Chen Yining was going to buy food from a nearby supermarket.

"Ah, they're here… the monsters are returning." Boss Huang's wife pointed at the edge of a distant road then.

A group of goblins had stepped out of the forest and were looking in their direction.

They did not approach, however, since there were quite a lot of people around there.

Those goblins varied in height as well—the tall ones stood around 1.5 meters, while the shorter ones appeared juvenile and were just 1.2 meters tall. Their skin was all oily green, and they were carrying sticks and stones.

It was just like encountering a pack of wild dogs in the wild.

Wary but cunning, the wild dogs would always observe if their target was strong.

"They look a little wild and don't seem to be summoned," Chen Yining said, frowning.

If those were summoned beasts, that many goblins would have meant over ten summoners behind them.

However, there was no summoner to be seen nearby.

And the forests lay behind the goblins.