The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 167: A Key Figure

This time, Zhang Mu felt that he was making a fool of himself for trying to be smart. At first, he arranged for him and Yuan Rui the identity of a first-ranked evolver so that there would not be much attention drawn to them. This way, he could easily approach the era merchant shop at Shan Xi city and then quietly leave the place once he had completed the era merchant task successfully.

But the problem fell on the awakening ability that he had chosen. For some reason, the evolvers with the tamer ability were crucial in Long Qi’s plan for recovering Jin Zhong city. As a result, they were qualified to have a conversation with the base leader.

Whereas the most absurd part was that the leader of Shan Xi city that Zhang Mu met this time, was not the Ice Queen that could freeze people with a look from his memory, but it was the fat bald-man that he met when the Cataclysm was about to begin.

Because of his action, it had changed Long Qi’s entire fate. It turns out that Long Qi, who was supposed to become one of the members of the walking dead herd, had escaped from this fate. Coupled with the adventure that he did not reveal, he managed to advance to the second rank and reached such status and strength he had now.

Despite that, Zhang Mu quickly adjusted his mindset. Although he was in a hurry to complete the era merchant’s task and leave after that, he knew that Long Qi would not let him off that easily. Furthermore, the most important thing was that he, himself, was interested in the matter of recovering the city. In the past, he existed like a cannon fodder, but now it seems that he could participate in some of the most advanced decision makings and complete the essential segment.

Thinking about this, Zhang Mu slowly became excited. There was a blaze of fiery in his eye.

Do you want to recover the prefecture-level city with less than two months into the Cataclysm? You got guts! I like it!

Furthermore, Zhang Mu was not attracted to the rewards of the era merchant’s task this time, as he knew that the amount of profit he could earn was limited. And the most important fact was that even if he completed the deal, he would not be able to promote his status to an entry-level sub-merchant too. Therefore, it was just a typical era merchant task.

The reward of a trainee sub-merchant was not attractive for Zhang Mu, who was a first-ranked evolver previously. Now that he was a second-ranked evolver, he completely disregards those era goods that those evolvers valued as a jewel.

Right now, he was more interested in Long Qi’s idea. He believed that if the plan had plotted adequately, then he could obtain a vast profit from there. He stared at Long Qi and said, “You have to tell me how can I help you first.”

Earlier, Long Qi was waiting for Zhang Mu’s decision. In fact, he knew that the three thousand dollars that Zhang Mu stole was only a small favor, and he still needs to see whether Zhang Mu would acknowledge that debt.

However, he wanted to implement his plan successfully this time, with no mistake. So he needed those mutated animals that were tamed, to become his scout. With Zhang Mu’s identity as the descendant of the Thieves Sect, his bodily movement would be better than a normal human being. That was why Long Qi paid more attention to Zhang Mu.

Sure enough, from Zhang Mu and his master, he could see that their training was more focus on their hands, as the strength and stability of the lower body were not crucial. Additionally, their reaction speed was beyond ordinary people.

Earlier, he had heard reports from his civil servant that Zhang Mu’s mutated animal was a mutated wolfdog comparable to Thunder. And this time, his plan required those with keen smell, vision, and hearing.

However, there were too little evolvers with this ability in his base.

Including Li Hu’s Thunder, there were only three people at the most as the others were too weak.

Long Qi looked at Zhang Mu with a burning gaze. When he saw that Zhang Mu had agreed, a smile appeared on his face. “I will tell you the details when the time comes. Not that it was classified, but I haven’t come out with a safe plan according to the strength of the base yet.”

Afraid that Zhang Mu would misunderstand him as an impulsive person, Long Qi continued his sentence immediately, “It is not that I’m not ready, but I want to present a perfect plan that would minimize the loss. After all, there is not much human left.

My group of civilian is getting the strength statistic of the base now. However, we could only get a small fraction of the most external data about Jin Zhong city strength. Hence, we had no way to make an accurate calculation. Therefore, this is what I need you to do, and the plan would change according to the data that you gave us.”

He appears to feel a little emotional as he said, “In the past, people always complained about the large population. And now, there were only a few people left. I always felt a sense of danger, which was the reason why I was so eager to recover the cities. Right now, we are evolving. But who knows whether if those walking dead and those creatures that mutated from animals, would continue to evolve further too.”

Zhang Mu nodded his head in agreement. In fact, Long Qi already had a very strategic vision. That was where he felt the most impressive about Long Qi. After the debugging time, now was the period where the human would have the upper hand.

However, a base leader would usually think of how to protect their own life. When they faced dangers that they couldn’t avoid, it was normal for them to abandon their base first.

Zhang Mu said with a gloomy face, “Even Thunder couldn’t enter the main core of Jin Zhong city?”

The expression of Long Qi became solemn this time. He looked at Zhang Mu while thinking, “Yes. I had let Li Hu tried it once. After Thunder broke through the first two lines of defenses, consisted of the walking dead, it couldn’t move any further.

According to Thunder from Li Hu, the walking dead and the mutated animals were coexisting, and both parties minded their own business. When Thunder entered, it was forced out by the mutated animal from that direction. We tried to approach from the outside once, and they seem to reach an agreement as they would tackle us together. The walking dead would defend, and the mutated animal would attack. We paid quite a high price before we decided to retreat.”

“So you want me to find a way to attack into Jin Zhong city?” The grim expression on Zhang Mu’s face did not deplete as he continued to ask, “Even if I found a weak spot in the walking dead herd or those small mutated animals, but what if we went to the center and got surrounded? What should we do?”

Long Qi curled up the corner of his lips, “I have my backup plan for that. Furthermore, those group of mutated animals stopped chasing us after we ran three kilometers out of Jin Zhong city.”

At this moment, his eye shone brighter as he said confidently, “Therefore, I feel that the city is not that simple. At the center of that city, there must be something that they were afraid or desire, that they were unable to leave it behind.

Then the main focus for recovering Jin Zhong city, will be at the center of that city!

With that, I need you and your little girlfriend to cooperate with three of my evolvers, and use your mutated animal to infiltrate from five directions. Only with mutated animal, then those walking dead from the outside wouldn’t react much because of the agreement they had between the mutated animals. Thus, they would not notify the mutated animal nearby. Only when your mutated animal met the ones at the center of the city, they would be exposed.”

From the news that Long Qi revealed to him, Zhang Mu confirmed a fact.

In this Jin Zhong city, there must be an intellectual type of walking dead there, for it to reach an agreement with the mutated animal. Hence, there must be something wrong!

Zhang Mu felt that this time, he would be able to reap some profit for himself.

Scouting? I hadn’t done that for a long time!

There was still a little excitement when he recalled back the feeling. He stared at Long Qi with fire in his eye as he replied.

“Sure. This debt I, Zhang Mu, will pay you back.”