37: Chapter 37 Trading Waste Paper for a Top-Tier Bed?

Chen Chen's knuckles tapped against the solid wood bar counter.

"Do you take blueprints?"

The fox-eared proprietress's furry ears immediately perked up.

"Blueprint trades are strictly equivalent exchange."

She toyed with her freshly painted red nails, looking uninterested. "Common for common, high-grade for high-grade. What top-tier goods do you have, honored guest?"

Chen Chen naturally wouldn't be a sucker and take out the A-rank RV external armor blueprint.

With a flick of his wrist,

over a dozen basic white and green quality blueprints he'd picked up along the way were slapped casually onto the greasy wooden table.

The proprietress glanced at them, not even having the desire to pick them up for a closer look.

To this shelter merchant, the basic blueprints that ordinary players risked their lives for were nothing more than common scrap paper.

The underlying logic of the wasteland black market was extremely cruel; whoever held clean water and high-calorie food possessed absolute pricing power.

At this stage, survivors were struggling just to stay alive, so blueprints for improving quality of life were completely unsellable dead stock to her.

Chen Chen was counting on exactly that.

"I want two things."

Chen Chen pushed the pile of scrap paper forward half an inch,

"A complete set of blueprints for an on-board bathing facility. And another for a spacious bed with sleep-aiding properties."

The interior space of the Level 10 RV had already expanded to 85 cubic meters.

Rather than having four people huddle together in the cabin every day, it was better to properly organize the living area.

Upon hearing the words "spacious large bed," the fox-eared proprietress stopped wiping the wine glass.

The 180 points of top-tier Charisma continued to ferment invisibly.

Her seductive amber vertical pupils peered over Chen Chen's shoulder, her gaze sweeping wantonly over the three women behind him.

The cold and aloof multi-billionaire CEO.

The pure and delicate national idol.

Plus a murderous, rebellious underground queen.

The proprietress covered her red lips and giggled, her full chest trembling as she did, her fox ears twitching suggestively.

"Sir, you have quite the physique. Even while living on the edge in the wasteland, you don't forget to keep such beauties hidden away."

She leaned forward, her upper body almost pressed against the bar, deliberately lowering her soft, sultry voice.

"Three top-tier beauties with completely different charms; an ordinary bed really wouldn't withstand such exertion. Are you planning to... share one big bed with all of them?"

Three steps behind.

Shen Wanxing's fair face flushed instantly, the blush spreading all the way down her swan-like neck.

Absurd images flashed uncontrollably through her mind. Her pearly teeth bit her lower lip, and her slender white fingers twisted the hem of her windbreaker into a tight knot. Her heels shifted awkwardly on the floor, and she didn't even dare to look up.

Shen Wanbing stood in place.

No emotional fluctuations could be seen on her stunning face.

She simply raised a hand to adjust the collar of her stab-resistant trench coat, her gaze fixed on Chen Chen's broad back.

As the head of the Shen Corporation, her brain was working rapidly, precisely calculating the actual cost-benefit ratio of a "sleep-aiding large bed" for her mental power recovery.

As for who she would be sleeping next to, it seemed... already outside her margin of error.

Jiang Yanxue's reaction was the most direct.

Her thumb exerted pressure.

With a soft click, the Shadow Instant-Kill Blade at her outer thigh was pushed out half an inch from its sheath.

A sharp, dark purple glint flashed through the dimly lit tavern.

This hussy's blatant flirting had precisely stepped on her irritable nerves regarding territorial infringement.

Hampered by the rules Chen Chen had set before boarding the vehicle, she forcibly suppressed the urge to draw her blade and strike, but her feet had already shifted into a partial combat stance.

Chen Chen didn't take the bait at all.

He slapped his palm on the solid wood bar counter.

"Bring out the goods."

"How unromantic."

The proprietress grumbled playfully and turned around, swaying her hips resentfully.

She opened a hidden compartment at the bottom of the bar, rummaged through the thick dust for a moment, and pulled out two parchment scrolls glowing with a cold light.

"D-rank integrated constant-temperature bathroom pod blueprint, with a full set of water circulation and purification connection ports."

"c-rank mental soothing bed blueprint. Two and a half meters long and wide, the mattress has a built-in micro-soothing field that provides deep sleep and accelerates physical and mental recovery."

She pushed the blueprints to Chen Chen's hand.

"For the sake of your face, sir, the blueprints are a bonus. I only want the clean water and canned meat you showed earlier."

Trading unsellable dead-stock blueprints for survival supplies that were more precious than life at this stage.

She could also go with the flow and do a favor for this man with off-the-charts charisma.

The proprietress's calculations were loud and clear.

Chen Chen lost even less.

The thing he lacked least was basic supplies. Leaking just a bit from his thirty-six-slot backpack in exchange for these two absolutely practical, strategic-level lifestyle blueprints was a total steal.

The deal was struck.

The blueprints turned into streaks of light and entered his interface.

Chen Chen slung the storage backpack back over his shoulder.

"Good doing business with you." Chen Chen looked at her. "Leave a way to contact you. I'll come looking for you again when I have extra supplies."

A flash of greed crossed the proprietress's eyes, and she immediately handed over a black card engraved with special energy circuits.

"Just crush this Guide Card within the same region's channel, and you can lock onto the coordinates of the next tavern I teleport to. I welcome you anytime, sir."

Chen Chen put away the card and turned toward the door.

His palm had just gripped the cold brass doorknob.

The proprietress's soft voice completely shed its flirtatiousness, her tone becoming extremely cold and solemn.

"For the sake of that clean water, I'll give you an extra piece of information."

Chen Chen stopped.

"This is the edge of the 069 Beginner Zone. Once you leave my tavern, what lies ahead is the true Bloody Hunting Ground."

The fox-eared proprietress's amber vertical pupils contracted into thin slits under the dim kerosene lamp.

"The rules there are completely different. The forms of the monsters will utterly subvert the common understanding of carbon-based lifeforms."

"When you encounter those unspeakable things, running fast is useless, and thick armor is useless."

"My only advice—keep a close eye on your Sanity. As long as your Sanity doesn't hit zero, they cannot completely obliterate you on a physical level."

Sanity.

Chen Chen rolled the word 'Sanity' over his tongue.

He pushed open the wooden door.

The bone-chilling night wind, carrying the wasteland's characteristic smell of rust, poured back into his lungs.

On the way back to the RV, the gale made it impossible to keep one's eyes open.

Jiang Yanxue lowered her head to fiddle with the newly acquired Black Iron Night Vision Goggles; Shen Wanbing pulled the hem of her stab-resistant trench coat tight.

"What exactly does that vixen mean by 'Sanity'?" Jiang Yanxue asked.

"The manifestation of mental pollution."

Chen Chen walked to the hatch of the mobile heavy fortress and pulled open the heavy armored door.

"The mental shock that erupted before the Black-Robed Apostle of the Altar of Flesh died was a form of Sanity erosion. In the subsequent hunting grounds, physical brawling will no longer be the mainstream; they will start killing directly from the mind."

Shen Wanbing touched the concentration ice heart necklace on her collarbone.

The intense backlash brought by the God-tier Radar was itself a violent tugging at the boundaries of Sanity and spirit.

She knew better than anyone the fear of one's brain marrow being sucked dry.

Everyone boarded the vehicle.

The armored door locked shut.

Chen Chen sat in the driver's seat and turned the key.

The Level 10 heavy RV erupted with a low, terrifying roar.

The six B-rank all-terrain self-healing tires churned the gravel frantically.

The thirteen-and-a-half-ton steel beast turned around, leaving the tavern with its dim yellow neon sign completely behind.

Driving out of the safe zone's force field.

The darkness deep in the wasteland pressed in like thick ink.

No starlight, no road signs.

Even the previously howling wind fell eerily silent at this moment.