Start a Core Pod

 Fortunately, with Aiden's explanation, the guards finally let them in. Of course, even though they said they were letting them in, they also said...

“If you dare to do anything dangerous, we will shoot you immediately!”

At the beginning, everyone didn’t quite understand why the atmosphere in this gathering place was so tense, but when they walked into the gathering place, they immediately understood the source of the tense atmosphere.

I saw dozens of corpses piled up in the open space inside the gathering place. Some guards were holding firewood and gasoline nearby, and some people were crying in pain...

“It seems that a lot of people were lost here last night.”

Gaocheng Saya observed carefully, and then spoke in a low voice. Her expression was somewhat stiff, but it was normal if she thought about it carefully. After all, under the circumstances of Blood Moon, not everywhere has the power of the Tribunal. Especially the larger the gathering place, the more likely it is to suffer heavy losses.

 “Well, that’s interesting.”

Duanmu Huai stood there, turning a blind eye to the frightened looks cast by those around him, and just looked around curiously. These survivors occupy a large factory as their base. From the outside, it should be a food processing factory. Well, in this way, it is understandable why people in this city choose this place as a gathering place.

 “Why is it so expensive?”

Just as Duanmuhuai was curiously looking at the gathering place, Joel's voice came from not far away. He turned his head and saw Joel arguing with a man who looked like a guard, with a red face. He looked very impatient.

"What's wrong?"

Duanmu Huai walked over curiously and asked. Seeing his arrival, the guard's expression changed and he didn't speak. Instead, Joel complained.

"The things in this gathering place are too expensive. I originally just wanted to exchange for some stored dry food, but I didn't expect that he actually asked me for a hundred bullets!"

 As the apocalypse approaches, money will of course have no role. As for the bottle cap currency, it is even more nonsense. According to Aiden and Joel, general transactions in this world are barter. For example, you have medicine and I have food. Both parties need each other and can exchange a little.

 Joel came to the gathering place this time to buy some dry food for himself and Ellie, and to exchange for some supplies. But what he didn't expect was that what this gathering place mainly needed was energy reserves such as gasoline and diesel, and then medicine... Although the equipment and parts used to repair machinery that Joel searched for on the road were also in demand. , but the demand is not very big.

If Joel hadn't been lucky enough to get a few boxes of cigarettes and other wasteland hard currency, I'm afraid the other party wouldn't even want to look at Joel.

“Even if you say so, our requirements in this regard are indeed not high.”

Although the guard was a little timid when he saw Duanmuhuai, he still insisted on fighting with reason. After all, this is the end of the world, and every resource is almost life-threatening. How can it be easily traded?

Joel and the other party argued for a long time, but the guard refused to let go. After all, the medicines Joel needed were hard currency, and cigarettes could only relieve boredom, but medicines could save lives...

“It’s useless for you to argue here.”

Duanmu Huai stood aside and listened for a while, and felt that this was actually no different from bargaining at a roadside vegetable stall: "This dish is too expensive for one dollar and a half, give it to me for one dollar," "If you don't sell it for one dollar, at least one dollar for three dollars," etc., he decided to lose it. interested.

“Since we can’t agree on the transaction price, is there no other way?”

 “Any other way?”

 Joel and the guard, who were arguing endlessly, were stunned when they heard Duanmuhuai's proposal, while Duanmuhuai nodded.

"I remember that Aiden is not that... a wanderer or something. He can accept some commissions and be paid... Can't you do the same? Since we can't agree on the price, do you have any tasks? Leave it to him to complete. If he helps you with it, wouldn’t it be okay if you give him some medicines as a reward?”

"this………"

Hearing this, both the guard and Joel were stunned. The former thought for a moment, then looked at Joel and then at Duanmuhuai.

"If this is the case, then I really have a task for you. If you can complete it, then we can provide you with some supplies you need."

 “So generous? It’s dangerous.”

 “Of course it’s dangerous.”

The guard didn't make any nonsense, but nodded.

“When you entered the gathering place, did you see those corpses?”

 “Yes, I saw it.”

“Actually, they were originally tasked with important tasks...”

Soon, the guards also explained to Duanmu Huai and Joel that it turned out that after the doomsday, this gathering place had been gradually expanding and many refugees had been gathered. But there is a problem, that is, their energy supply is not much. The entire food processing plant does have several backup emergency generators, but there is not enough fuel.

 Before this, the gathering place sent people to nearby gas stations and other places to collect fuel, but now the surrounding gas stations have also been collected.

However, the scouts dispatched by the gathering area did bring good news. They discovered a fuel pipeline that had not been damaged and an oil product warehouse on the other side of the city. Although it is only a small warehouse, if we can occupy it and open a transportation line to the food factory, then the fuel problem of the gathering place can be solved for a long time.

So a team of people gathered at this gathering place to try to capture the oil warehouse and open a road.

  However...     Failed in the end.

 The reason is simple: lack of time.

If this world didn't have a blood moon every seven days, then if they pushed forward slowly, they might really succeed. But unfortunately, a blood moon craze breaks out in this world every seven days. Under such circumstances, there is no way for the gathering place to advance slowly.

 But if they want to speed up, they don't have that much power.

 The final result was that they did not have time to open the road to the oil warehouse before the arrival of the blood moon, so they suffered heavy losses.

so………

“If you can open the road to the oil warehouse and eliminate the zombies occupying there, then we can indeed provide you with supplies.”

"this………"

Hearing the guard's request, Joel frowned. He knew that it was impossible for him to do this. Of course, if you asked him to go there and get a few barrels of fuel back, it would be more or less... although it would be difficult.

"Um………"

On the contrary, Duanmu Huai thought for a while after listening.

 “Okay, no problem.”

"Why?"

I have to say that after hearing Duanmuhuai's answer, both Joel and Ellie were stunned.

This is obviously their matter and has nothing to do with the Tribunal, right?

Soon, Duanmuhuai called everyone together and explained to them.

After listening to Duanmuhuai’s explanation, the survivors were quite unbelievable, of course, from their perspective. They do hope to get some support from this gathering place in terms of supplies, but - to put it bluntly, this is also their own business. Like Joel and Ellie, they need supplies to continue their journey, so they naturally have to take risks. This is natural. of.

But...the Inquisition doesn't need to take risks with them, does it?

“We do need supplies, and for now, this is very important to us, but...”

Gaocheng Saya frowned and looked at Duanmuhuai.

“Mr. Duanmu, the Inquisition does not need these supplies. Is your help purely out of... goodwill?”

"of course not."

 Duanmu Huai shook his head.

"The duty of the Tribunal is to protect the continuation of mankind and eliminate all existences that threaten mankind. For this gathering place, at least for now, it is one of the fires for the continuation of human civilization. Since they need help, then Out of duty, the Inquisition will naturally be willing to assist them. Of course, the choice of how to do this is ours."

 Speaking of this, Duanmuhuai glanced at Gaocheng Saya.

“Just like you, for the Tribunal, it is our duty to save you. After all, civilization and existence can only continue as long as humans survive. Do you understand?”

　　“That’s…well, I think I can understand it, but it’s just a little…”

I have to say that the survivors were very surprised when they heard Duanmuhuai's answer. You know, in this era and in this world, such big words as saving mankind are almost impossible to hear. Almost everyone is fighting for their own interests. Organizations like the Tribunal are really unimaginable to everyone.

Of course, what’s more important is that the Inquisition didn’t just talk the talk, they actually did it.

However, these survivors didn't know that the reason why Duanmu Huai did this was, on the one hand, it was indeed the responsibility of the Tribunal, and on the other hand, he was chasing rabbits. After all, he didn't know where the main plot of the world was, so he started to do tasks one by one. Just do it, maybe you’ll find the main thread while doing it.

The commander of this gathering place also talked with Duanmu Huai just now, and the two parties have reached an agreement. For now, this should be the main mission of this gathering place. Opening up transportation channels, occupying oil product warehouses... Well, how can I put it, the wasteland is really troublesome.

Duanmu Huai scratched his head when he thought of this. If it were a normal fragmented world, at least he could find a core civilization point. There was no place like this world, which was almost destroyed. There was no telling where there would be a core civilization gathering place. If not, then he... …

　　Hey, that’s why sandbox games are not good at all. There are branch lines everywhere and no main line.

Duanmuhuai feels as if he has just crawled out of the shelter, looking at the devastated radioactive wasteland outside, with a confused look of "who am I, where am I, and what am I going to do?"

 What’s more, there’s no BB boy to guide you, right?

 You can’t be obsessed with picking up trash.

“Forget it, in short, side missions are also missions. Do it or not.”

Duanmu Huai thought about it for a moment, then asked directly. The survivors discussed it and finally agreed to participate in this mission. After all, the boss of the gathering place has said that if they can really complete the task, then all good things will be given to them. Duanmuhuai seems not to want it, but they still need some capital to walk in the wasteland. What's more, this kind of mission would definitely be suicidal in normal times, but now Duanmu Huai is taking the lead - they have seen the combat power of the Tribunal, so if they don't embrace it, it will be useless, right?

So everyone discussed it, if you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't get the tiger's cubs, so let's do it!