Zaika swished her tail.
She had no idea how things had ended up like this.
In any case, by the time she came back to her senses, she was already standing in line.
The people in front of her opened the packages they had brought with them, and the exiles—who had never traded with outsiders before—were instantly drawn in.
Obtaining daily necessities was extremely difficult for them. They could only send those whose mutations were less obvious, or those with minor mutations that could be disguised as disabilities, into the towns to trade. Sometimes, neither the people nor the goods would return.
They didn’t know whether those people had died or simply run away.
A lack of salt, clothing, clean water, and all sorts of other necessities was simply the reality of life for the exiles.
However, because there were so many abandoned factories here, many of their belongings were made by cutting and reshaping sheets of iron.
The weather was somewhat hot and muggy. Standing in line, Zaika swished her tail back and forth to fan herself. At the same time, she watched the person standing in the center of the group, constantly reminding herself to fulfill her duties as a guard.
The person in the middle was obviously different from everyone else around her. Anyone who saw them would immediately realize that she was the center of the entire group.
Her legs bore some obvious deformity, but judging from her expression, she didn’t care about it in the slightest. In fact, when she moved, there was a strange charm to her entire presence.
She was like a ship returning from a voyage through light and shadow, her sharpness undiminished by even the fiercest wind and waves.
She laid out several small items in front of her: salt, water, a few simple pieces of clothing, as well as some bullets and needles and thread.
They were all things the exiles desperately needed.
She continued taking out more small items.
Candy, for example, as well as some strange little bottles containing fizzy water.
A lighter. A solid substance called soap… well, she had cut the bar of soap into four pieces.
And three antibiotic pills.
Every single item was valuable.
After laying everything out, she looked toward the Great Elder.
“These are the things I have with me. Is there anything else you need?”
“Let me take a look…” The Great Elder narrowed her eyes and peered carefully at the goods. When she was younger, she had followed her mother into the towns. Now that she was old, she could no longer travel outside, but the wasteland had remained largely the same for decades, so her previous experience was still useful.
“They’re all good things.” After examining them, the Great Elder, who stood at the front of the group, said, “But I’m afraid none of us can afford them. We don’t have a single nut on us.”
“I don’t want nuts,” Ling Zhao said. “We can trade goods for goods. What do you usually exchange for nuts?”
“Scrap, I suppose. Potentially useful things we find while scavenging—iron sheets, electronic components, metal parts, and so on.”
“Normally, three tons of scrap can be exchanged for three large nuts, and then those nuts are exchanged for supplies and the supplies are brought back here directly,” the Great Elder said. “Recently, Nanuka has been the one handling the exchanges. I’ll call him over right away.”
Ling Zhao nodded.
Nanuka was a young man with long hair like dried grass. His eyes were constantly moving, never settling anywhere for long, giving the impression that he was always watching his surroundings.
Ling Zhao noticed that he seemed inexplicably nervous, as if he desperately hoped she wouldn’t ask too many questions. The moment she saw that expression, she knew he had definitely been skimming something off the top.
And probably quite a lot.
Looking around, Ling Zhao couldn’t exactly say that the people present were pleasing to the eye. At the very least, they were all rather misshapen-looking. Only Nanuka genuinely looked more or less like a normal human being.
He was merely somewhat hunched over.
Ling Zhao didn’t know the market prices, but her eyes certainly did.
“What grade of scrap do you usually trade? Can you show me?” she asked.
She needed a standard unit to make a proper estimate. Otherwise, all she could see were individual prices—how much one screw was worth, how much one piece of glass was worth—and after looking at too many of them, her eyes started to hurt.
Nanuka nodded gloomily. Before long, he pushed over a homemade cart carrying a bundled load of scrap.
The cart was also something they had made themselves. It consisted of two long iron sheets bent into U-shapes, arranged in an X-shape, and fastened together with wire.
**[One ton of scrap: Recyclable materials. Contains a considerable amount of useless waste that can only be processed back into raw materials, as well as some items that can be recycled and reused. However, the labor required for sorting will likely exceed the value of the items themselves. Valuable metal content: approximately 49% (copper, aluminum, tin, iron, and so on).
Price: If valuable metals are present, 800–1,200 small nuts per kilogram. If not, 5–15 small nuts per kilogram.]**
Everything was completely mixed together. There was no way to sort it out at a glance…
It would be better to estimate the value based on the approximate metal content and give them a middle-of-the-road price.
After thinking for a moment, Ling Zhao said, “Five large nuts.”
The moment the Great Elder heard the offer, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll prepare another two tons and have them brought over right away—”
Ling Zhao stopped her.
“I mean five large nuts per ton.”
For a moment, everyone who had any understanding of outside trading prices turned to look at Nanuka.
The nut-based currency system was extremely easy to calculate: one large nut was equal to ten medium nuts, and one medium nut was equal to ten small nuts.
One large nut was therefore equal to one hundred small nuts.
Based on the prices Nanuka had previously been giving them, didn’t that mean that every single time, he had…
Anyone with even the most basic ability to count instantly understood. They had always known that the people sent outside could take a little commission for themselves. The people who had handled the trading before usually brought back the equivalent of two large nuts per ton.
But after Nanuka began going out, he gradually started coming back with all sorts of excuses, saying that the outside world was becoming increasingly chaotic and that goods were getting harder and harder to buy.
Over time, everyone had come to accept that one ton of recyclable scrap was simply worth one large nut.
A fivefold difference!
The Great Elder took a deep breath. She could practically taste blood in her nose.
Nanuka was one of the cleverest among them, and also one of the least likely to be recognized as a mutant. Otherwise, they would never have chosen him for the job.
But now that she thought about it, the previous traders had all died under various strange and unexplained circumstances.
Could that have had something to do with him too?
Some things, once you became aware of them, could never return to the way they had been before.
Nanuka understood.
He was finished.
The Great Elder didn’t deal with him immediately, but Zaika had no such reservations. She directly bared her gleaming white fangs at Nanuka.
Because there were outsiders present, she only maintained the threatening pose for two seconds—long enough to make sure Nanuka saw it clearly—before relaxing.
Meanwhile, Ling Zhao continued with her trade.
“My name is Ling Zhao. I’m from Shelter 999, right next to your territory.” She smiled and pointed in the direction from which they had come. “As you can see, we were just out for a stroll, so we didn’t bring any goods for large-scale trading with us. But that works out well. We’ll be passing through here again tomorrow afternoon, so you can take the time to prepare whatever you want to trade.”
“How much… um, recyclable material like this do you have right now?” Ling Zhao asked. “And is there anything you want? I don’t have many nuts saved up, so if you exchange directly for goods, I can offer you a discount.”
“Not much. Only three tons,” the Great Elder said.
She remembered that just half a month ago, she had had Nanuka transport away the supplies they had stockpiled and sell them. Thinking about the difference in price between the two sides, her heart ached terribly.
It was the kind of pain that came from discovering there had been a discount you could have taken advantage of—but not only had you missed it, you had also paid several times more elsewhere.
However, the Great Elder immediately cast those feelings aside.
What was done was done. There was no use dwelling on it.
She should think about what they actually needed.
Originally, the Great Elder had assumed that this winter would be like every other year—that they would have no choice but to endure it and struggle through. But now that they had encountered this shelter, they had to seize the trading opportunity while the other side was willing to deal with them and make proper preparations for winter.
If they went deeper into the industrial zone and scavenged for several more days, they could gather ten tons before winter arrived.
But tomorrow was still too soon.
At most, they could only dig up another half a ton.
The Great Elder expressed her concern:
“We do have the intention to trade, but it will take us some time to consider what we need. Will you only be coming here this once?”
“Until winter arrives, we’ll come by once every half month to once a month,” Ling Zhao said with a smile.
She had originally planned to send people out specifically to scavenge, but she simply didn’t have enough manpower at the moment. Now that she could make regular purchases through this method, she couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Besides…
She didn’t know the market prices. Her eyes could only appraise the value of things; they couldn’t magically tell her the prices of things she had never seen before.
Ling Zhao didn’t have a single nut, either.
For the time being, their external exploration could stop here. She needed to return to the shelter first, then make a detour to Shelter 199 to purchase some basic supplies for her own shelter.
…
Watching the group from the shelter leave, the Great Elder tapped her cane against the ground.
She turned to the people whispering among themselves behind her and said, “Everyone, go back. Do whatever you should be doing. Before the sun sets, those who need to go scavenging should hurry.”
“And you, Nanuka. I need to have a word with you.”
The Great Elder pointed her cane at the man, who looked utterly panicked, and said in a deep voice, “Zaika, come with me.”
They walked to the center of the settlement, an open square about the size of a basketball court.
People could vaguely be seen around them, but no one could hear their quiet conversation.
For the Great Elder, talking in an open space was a way of protecting herself.
“Nanuka,” the Great Elder said. “Next time, you will no longer be the one going to the town to handle our trades. Do you have anything you want to say?”
“Great Elder! I had no choice!” Nanuka cried out. “If I didn’t dress a little better, those people wouldn’t respect me at all! I also have to pay an entrance fee to get into the city, and I have to tip the people who help me carry the goods!”
“I also need to investigate the prices in the city and stay overnight there. All of that costs money…”
“What about the accounts?”
The Great Elder interrupted Nanuka with a single question.
“You were the one who said you could count from one to ten thousand, which was why we allowed you to go in the first place. If you don’t know how to write, then recite every single expense from memory.”
“We’ve always trusted you,” Zaika added from the side. “No one else has ever accompanied you into the city. The people delivering the goods only go with you until they are two li away from the city, then watch you enter by yourself.”
“So, until you remember exactly where all that missing money went, someone else will be taking over your position as head of procurement.”
With that, the two women left Nanuka kneeling on the ground and walked away together.
“No…” Nanuka muttered to himself.
He hadn’t lost yet!
He still had a chance!
He was still in contact with the raiders!
As long as he could get rid of that group of merchants, he could frame them and claim that they were nothing more than a bunch of swindlers…
Or…
He could use another method…
Author’s Note:
Because I have absolutely no chapters stockpiled, if there isn’t an update at twelve noon, I’ll definitely make it up in the evening.