91: Chapter 91 Blood Rose chooses to board the train and acknowledge its master!

"What about the payment?" Chen Chen asked.

The landlady narrowed her eyes, the tip of her tail curving.

"Bring back the refining furnace and components, and the complete copy of the information slate belongs to you. You can take whatever is left in the transit station's military warehouse. Plus, I'll throw in three exclusive pieces of information as a bonus, including how to obtain entry qualifications for the next map, and a major event about to happen in District 069."

She extended her burning hot palm: "How about it?"

"Deal."

Chen Chen didn't shake hands immediately, "The coordinates and key to the Rusted Wasteland City."

The landlady fished out a thumb-sized emerald crystal from under the bar and pushed it toward Chen Chen:

"The key to the transit station. Shake hands first, then I give the coordinates. Our Fox Clan's contracts rely on physical contact for confirmation."

Chen Chen reached out and shook her hand.

The landlady's palm was burning hot, and her fingertips brushed lightly across the back of his hand, leaving a visible orange-red light mark at that spot.

"Contract established."

The landlady retracted her hand and wiped it on her apron, but her expression suddenly changed.

She leaned in closer and lowered her voice: "Sir, let me add a word of advice. I can perceive the special causal threads bound to the women around you. In all the time I've been a merchant, I've never seen such concentration. Also, the next map is ten times more brutal than the ones before. Some things cannot be solved just by having a hard fist."

Chen Chen put the emerald crystal into his silver-grade storage ring and stood up.

"Keep this woman here for now."

Chen Chen glanced at Blood Rose, who had changed clothes in the corner, "Deduct the storage fee from the balance."

The landlady opened her mouth, did some mental math, and nodded, looking pained.

But Blood Rose stood up immediately in the corner.

Black lace camisole with a high-slit leather skirt, lace-up boots over long legs, the bruises on her body still conspicuous under the lights.

She had listened quietly to the whole thing and now walked directly behind Chen Chen.

Chen Chen pushed open the wooden door of the tavern.

Outside the door was a strange wasteland; the air was cold and dry, and the skyline was tinted with a dead-gray morning light.

Chen Chen raised his left hand and opened his friend list contact: "Shen Wanbing."

Three seconds later, her clear, calm, and weary voice came through the communicator:

"Three hundred forty-seven kilometers northeast of your current location. We are rushing over at full speed. Expected arrival in one hour and forty-two minutes."

"No rush." Chen Chen walked out of the tavern's green force field, the cold wind filling his face, "There is a Rusted Wasteland City two hundred eighty kilometers to the southeast. It has something I need. Meet up when you arrive, and we'll head there directly after."

There was silence in the communicator for a few seconds.

Shen Wanbing's voice carried a deeply suppressed emotion: "Do you know that when we saw that mushroom cloud just now—"

"I know."

The other side went silent.

After five or six seconds, Shen Wanxing grabbed the communicator, her nasal tone so thick it was almost slurred: "Chen Chen, you bastard! You scared me to death! If you do this again, I—I won't make tea for you anymore!"

Chen Chen chuckled and turned off the communicator.

He turned back; Blood Rose had already followed him out in her long boots, her wine-red curly hair blown into a mess by the cold wind.

In the doorway, the landlady stood within the glowing green energy field, her large red fox tail sweeping the ground slowly, her fangs slightly exposed:

"Sir, that offer to accompany you for the night, we can discuss it again after you complete the commission and if you perform well. Good luck, and come back alive."

The wooden door closed.

Blood Rose wrapped her arms around herself, shivered in the cold wind, glanced toward the tavern, and her mouth twitched:

"Is that vixen back there your lover?"

"Business partner."

"Then what was that about you telling her you'd stay the night—"

"Negotiation strategy."

Chen Chen didn't look back, his gaze falling on the orange-red light mark on the back of his hand that pulsed like a micro-heart.

Blood Rose stared at his profile for two seconds, then swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue.

"How do you plan to deal with me next?"

"Your talent is the SS-grade Succubus Poison Body. You can count the number of people with similar-level talents in the wasteland on two hands."

Chen Chen turned around, his tone devoid of any fluctuation, "You have two choices. First, I leave you here, and you find a way to survive on your own. Second—"

"I'll get on board." Blood Rose interrupted him without hesitation.

Having witnessed this man's unfathomable, terrifying physical strength and his ability to crush gods, she didn't hesitate for even half a second, "I choose to get on board."

Chen Chen nodded, as expected.

He sat cross-legged on the steps at the tavern entrance.

There was still half a piece of roasted rhino meat in his silver-grade storage ring. He took it out and took a bite, chewing until his mouth was oily.

Let whatever quasi-fifth-order monster hide in that wasteland city; if it dares to block his path, he'll just crush it.

The purple-blue arc of light behind him was still hundreds of kilometers away; it would take at least an hour to arrive.

Might as well kill time.

He turned and pushed open the wooden door of the tavern, walking back in.

Blood Rose followed behind, the hem of her high-slit leather skirt lifted by the draft from the door, revealing a patch of blue and purple fingerprints on the outside of her thigh.

She subconsciously pulled at the hem, her movements instinctively trying to cover it up, a completely different person from the "I'm very tough" demeanor she had outside.

The landlady was squatting behind the bar counting inventory, her fluffy red fox tail exposed above the counter, swinging left and right. Hearing the door open, the tail paused for a beat.

"Sir, back so soon?"

"It's too cold outside."

Chen Chen walked to the long table closest to the fireplace, pulled out a chair, sat down, and stretched, "Do you have hot water here?"

"Yes." The landlady popped half her head out from below, "But hot water costs money."

"..."

"Just kidding." The landlady stood up, walked over holding a copper pot emitting white steam, and casually fished out two cups from the cabinet.

Her gaze swept over Blood Rose, who was standing in place in her lace camisole and knee-high boots behind Chen Chen, and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.

"Is this one sitting?"

Blood Rose didn't answer.

Her attention was entirely on Chen Chen.

Less than six hours since she was conquered.

But the events of these six hours had crushed all the understanding she had built up over the past seven days.

She had seen many strong people in the wasteland—those with developed muscles, outstanding talents, and ruthless methods.

But none were like Chen Chen, so strong that she couldn't even summon the thought of struggling.

That suppression was comprehensive.

Physical strength, Mental Power, lethal methods, resource foundation—even her SS-grade talent had become the other party's "stimulant" in front of this man.

Succubus Poison Body, the ultimate weapon specifically targeting high-constitution organisms.

And the result?

He had been poisoned while tossing her around on a waterbed for an entire night, and in the end, it was the poison that couldn't hold up.

Blood Rose's legs were still weak.

Because for the first time in her life, she had encountered a man she couldn't play, couldn't suppress, and couldn't even look at eye-to-eye.

And the law of survival in the wasteland had always been—follow the strongest one.

"Master."

These two words popped out of Blood Rose's mouth without any transition.

She walked to Chen Chen, bent down, poured the hot water from the copper pot into the cup, and held it out with both hands.

Her posture was extremely low, so low that it didn't match her flashy lace camisole at all.

Chen Chen took the cup and took a sip; the water temperature was just right.

"You're quick to call it."

"My greatest strength is that I know how to read the situation."

Blood Rose sat down opposite him, crossing her long legs, the slit of her high-slit leather skirt splitting upward, exposing a large area of fair thigh—all covered in bruises and red marks.

She didn't cover it.

She even deliberately leaned her body toward Chen Chen, slightly turning her upper body.

The shoulder straps of the lace camisole were thin to begin with, hanging precariously on her shoulders, and the large expanse of skin from her collarbone to her chest glowed with a warm light under the kerosene lamp.