Deep inside the box.
At the end, there are two forks in the road. The cane starts to tremble when he faces east, but stops shaking once again.
This is the guidance.
He is in the alleys of this strange city, winding his way to a...
"Drainage Entrance."
This is a piece of public architecture, sothing akin to an underground tunnel, primarily used to drain floodwaters when the city experiences major floods. However, perhaps because there haven’t been floods in a long ti, it has beco a slum.
A lot of people are coming and going at the entrance.
Clothes are tattered.
Everyone is covered in scars, and so even pull their intestines out of their bellies to hang them over railings, and hang their necks from the intestines, impersonating a Sunny Day Doll in broad daylight, swaying back and forth in the air.
It’s like a dance of demons.
Not a single sane person among them.
Only here can you feel a hint of a hellish atmosphere.
Exactly.
Hell should be like this.
Unlike the main roads outside, where those people carrying briefcases to work seem to have no connection to hell, losing their minds, even going to work after death, endlessly working forever, no wonder so many people commit suicide, it’s better to just die cleanly.
At this mont, several people are casting strange glances mixed with a hint of fear.
They appear extrely out of place here, their clothes remarkably clean, clearly looking extraordinary, and each with intact bodily organs, completely at odds with this place, no one dares to look at them for too long, worried they might provoke so important figure.
Chen Mang glanced down at the cane.
The cane guides him deeper into the slum ahead.
The sll in the air is overwhelmingly foul, like a middle-aged man suffering a fungal infection, who spent all day stomping on wine curds, now sweating profusely, rolling up his sleeves to sell perfu.
Indeed.
These people here also need to work; without bathing facilities, they can only buy cheap perfus to mask their own odors.
And when these scents mix together, the air quality becos worryingly poor.
If you didn’t stand here personally, it’s hard to imagine how such a prosperous city can have a place like this hidden in the shadows of countless skyscrapers.
"Let’s go in and see."
Since he’s here, Chen Mang is really curious about what exactly is guiding him.
With Biaozi and the others, he strides into the "Drainage Entrance," where the light quickly changes. After the eyes adapt to the dim lighting, a place resembling a parking lot cos into view ahead, with bedding spread all over the ground, many people sleeping with their families on the bedding.
Humans were the main race.
Followed by so chaotic races, many of which he doesn’t recognize, but overall basic human structures, so alterations or extensions made on human anatomy.
Following the guidance.
He ventured deeper; not a single person moved to provoke or expel him, saving him a lot of trouble.
Finally——
With the cane guiding him, he reached the deepest part of the "slum," where the environnt seed slightly cleaner, with many vendors sitting on the ground, displaying their goods on white cloths in front of them.
This must be... sothing like a Black Market.
He noticed that each corner of the white cloths in front of these vendors had a string coming out, cleverly designed to be pulled at the first sign of ergency, instantly forming a sack to take all their stuff and flee.
He has seen this kind of world.
But that was sothing encountered in the previous world before crossing over.
It’s truly been a long ti.
mory has beco sowhat fuzzy.
And this detail further corroborates his suspicion that this is indeed a Black Market, only these sowhat illegal vendors would use such a design, but... the things being sold look incredibly cheap.
Chen Mang squatted in front of a vendor, looking at the goods placed on the white cloth.
There was a broken wash basin, used soap, nearly finished toothpaste, and... a few spent cigarette butts, among others—rather than calling them products, it might be more accurate to call them trash, sothing more suited for a landfill than a Black Market.
But——
If the vendor is selling them, and right here in the Black Market, there must be sothing special about these items, it’s just that he hasn’t figured it out yet.
However...
Chen Mang picked up the nearly finished toothpaste from the white cloth, examining it over and over, really couldn’t find anything special about it, a brand he’s never heard of, with the writing on the toothpaste packaging having beco exceedingly faint.
"How much?"
He looked up at the vendor.
Only to find the vendor had sohow gone rigid, staring at the toothpaste in Chen Mang’s hand with a slight tremor in his voice: "You... you actually can pick up this toothpaste with bare hands?"
"..."
After pausing for a mont, Chen Mang calmly murmured, "I have invisible gloves."
"I knew it."
The vendor sighed in relief, then carefully used a cloth to wrap his hand before taking back the toothpaste to introduce it: "This toothpaste is priced at 170,000 units of Hell Iron Ore."
He then imdiately pulled out an instrunt from his pocket, lightly touched the toothpaste, and a value floated onto the instrunt’s screen.
"Life Force: 17."
"With a Life Force of 17, priced at 170,000 units of Hell Iron Ore, this price is quite fair."
The vendor clearly wanted to make the sale, sincerely looking at Chen Mang as he introduced it.
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