Chapter 145: Displaying Talent, President Yang Gets Rich Overnight
Ren Chong and the other five walked out of the villa and strolled toward the parking lot.
While they were eating breakfast, Yang Bingzhong had already sent a notification to Ren Chong, informing him that his two Qingfeng heavy trucks were placed in the VIP garage of the parking lot, and the keys were stored in the automatic deposit machine for them to retrieve themselves.
The morning of Chromium Carbon Town remained bustling.
High up in the sky, flying craft of various models and functions still streamed in an endless flow.
The streets were even more crowded with people coming and going.
The air was permeated with a faint scent of gunpowder smoke, mingled with a touch of the everyday atmosphere of mortal life.
Compared to Spark Town, where almost all the scavengers had to rely on cheap synthetic food to fill their stomachs, the exhaust vents of many scavenger households in Chromium Carbon Town wafted with the fragrant aroma of cooking oil.
Ren Chong and his group crossed the white-walled gates, passed the town hall's high tower, and walked another hundred meters to the side, right past a neat row of eight hemispherical fortress centralized sleeping pods.
If it were in the 21st century, these eight hemispherical fortresses would look like a distinctively styled CBD.
But here, this was the safe zone for scavengers at night.
At this moment, seven of them were intact, while one had a huge breach roughly seven or eight meters in diameter near its lower side.
The edges of the torn, twisted metal at the breach were sunken inward and showed signs of corrosion.
As for the shape of the indentation, it looked as if it had been fiercely rammed by a large-scale Feral Beast.
More than a dozen engineering machines were buzzing busily around the breach.
Through the breach, Ren Chong could see the damaged iron frame beds inside and patches of bloodstains on the ground.
Other pedestrians passing by couldn't be bothered to spare it a second glance, acting as if they were accustomed to it and found it completely commonplace, no different from the rising and setting of the sun.
On the streets, a small number of buildings along the main roads showed obvious damage and collapses.
Some floating robots were swarming around these buildings like bees, carrying out cutting, welding, and painting work.
The streets were bustling with people, looking exceptionally lively.
Most pedestrians had stronger physiques than the scavengers of Spark Town, the proportion of scavengers carrying weapons and equipment was much higher, and there were also quite a few office workers in work attire walking in a hurry.
The pedestrians' demeanor also looked more vibrant; every now and then, groups of three to five people walked side by side, chatting with great relish.
Ren Chong activated the auditory monitoring system built into his armor.
A large amount of conversational information entered his ears along with the auditory resonance.
He discovered a very subtle phenomenon.
When people discussed the "accident" at the centralized sleeping pods last night, they simply said a few brief words about who had died again, made a slight sigh about the impermanence of life, and remarked that since one had made a fortune, one should make merry while it lasted. Immediately afterward, the topic shifted away without further discussion.
Because death in sleep was something people could not control, talking about it endlessly could not avoid the danger, so why waste breath?
What people talked about the most were their respective jobs, lives, and gossip.
For instance, who had gone out and picked up uncollected Feral Beast remains somewhere, who had dared to break into a Feral Beast breeding ground and walked out alive to make a small fortune, and who had successfully passed the mechanic examination of an N-tier subsidiary under Amethyst Mining, securing a noble formal job, and had immediately mortgaged a small alloy building near the white wall.
Hearing this, Ren Chong checked some information.
He "pleasantly" discovered that there was actually a real estate industry in Chromium Carbon Town! It even allowed mortgage installments!
Unbelievable.
Yet the real estate here differed from the real estate in his memory; it belonged to Source Star's local flavor, or rather, Chromium Carbon Town's local flavor.
Scavengers could not take out bank loans, so buying a building on mortgage came with a different set of rules.
Before the buyer paid off the entire purchase price, the ownership of the property still belonged to the seller.
If the buyer died before paying off the price, and the buyer's designated heir was unable to continue paying the monthly installment, then the seller would reclaim all rights to the property, could resell it, and was not required to return any contribution points the buyer had already paid. They only needed to pay a proportional wealth income tax to the Chromium Carbon Town government.
Additionally, property holders had to regularly pay a certain amount of tax based on the value of the property, known as the property holding tax.
Under such quirky town rules, the essence of buying real estate was a gamble.
The gamble was on how tough the buyer's life was, and how tough the buyer's heir's life was.
Funnily enough, this real estate market was actually quite booming.
Especially the houses in the outer districts close to the white wall were in high demand and commanded high prices.
According to statistical rules, regardless of day or night, the closer the area was to the white wall, the lower the probability of being impacted by Feral Beasts, and the higher the safety coefficient of the houses.
As long as there were some basic automated firepower configurations and an armed sleeping pod, the occupants could sleep soundly at night, making it even safer than areas like the centralized sleeping pods, which had professional armed protection but were crowded with people and heavily targeted by Feral Beasts.
Those who could live in these houses were at least Tier-2 professionals, successful businessmen, or scavengers with special skills.
The topic with the highest discussion heat on the streets was precisely the turnover of real estate in the white wall's radiation zone.
The scavengers were most jubilant when a certain homeowner in the radiation zone died, and their family members were forced to cut prices and sell the house because they could not afford the holding tax.
Or someone they knew was reckless enough to take it over forcibly, rushed into the Tier-2 or Tier-3 Feral Beast hunting zone, and then unfortunately kicked the bucket, and so on.
Ren Chong tasted the flavor of it.
Although the material conditions of the scavengers in Chromium Carbon Town were far richer than those in Spark Town, they still faced inescapable plights, lingering anxieties, and remained mere tools.
Ren Chong thoroughly read the true value of the existence of satellite towns and the scavengers within them.
First, natural bait for hunting Feral Beasts.
Second, the county town walls built out of people and buildings.
Third, production bases providing minerals, Feral Beast products, and various basic industrial processed goods.
Fourth, a slaughterhouse that continuously produced more human brains through high mortality and birth rates.
If human brains were regarded as the most important product, then this place truly represented a more advanced productive force on Source Star.
Within a radius of hundreds of kilometers around, the only truly safe places were the town center area, including the white wall zone of Chromium Carbon Town, and the Zhansha County town enclosed by the eight satellite towns.
The eight satellite towns propped up a large county town with a population of one million citizens.
As one of the citizens living in the safe zone, Ren Chong did not feel proud or arrogant.
Just as discussed yesterday, the three newly arrived professional teams met the captains of the town's many top semi-professional teams in the parking lot, totaling over sixty people.
The power tiers of these sixty-plus captains spanned a huge range.
Aside from more than forty Tier-2 professionals, there were actually over ten Tier-3 captains and six Tier-4 captains.
The former Chromium Carbon Resource Recycling Company had relocated yesterday morning, and the six major top professional teams and over sixty moderately strong affiliated teams that once towered over the entire town had followed that medium-sized enterprise to a better "paradise."
Now, these three teams under Yang Bingzhong's banner were the original framework under the new throne of Chromium Carbon Town.
The new professional team system and affiliated team system would be rapidly built around the three professional teams led by Ren Chong and the others in a very short time.
Setting aside strength for a moment, the identities of Ren Chong and the others prevented these scavenger captains from looking down on them.
Holding the power to allocate affiliation slots, Ren Chong, Tang Shuying, and Jiang Kai could well be described as holding high positions of heavy responsibility.
The semi-professional teams in the town at least put on a sufficient surface show of respect.
After some brief communication and basic introductions, nearly half an hour later, the massive procession filed out of the parking lot in succession.
During the mutual introductions in the parking lot, a small episode had occurred.
Because the professional team led by Ren Chong had "low strength," they were met with contempt.
Although nobody spoke rudely on the surface, the light, dismissive vibe between their brows was very strong.
In this Chromium Carbon Town, there were still upwards of twenty Tier-4 professionals wandering outside the professional team system of Chromium Carbon Resources. With such fierce competition, it was feared that before long, Ren Chong, a mere Tier-3 hick from Spark Town, would be eliminated from the ranks.
This was an objective fact that did not shift according to human will.
Tang Shuying sensed the vibe and was about to publicly reveal Ren Chong's citizenship to properly awe these ignorant petty people.
However, Ren Chong stopped her from standing up for him. He simply put his hands on his hips, stepped forward, and said in a ringing voice: "I don't like to beat around the bush when I speak and do things. It seems you all have some thoughts. Let me tell you, I am indeed only Tier-3, with a load capacity of only 365 kilowatts. But once said, tiers do not represent absolute strength. I can responsibly say that right here, right now, I am the number one person beneath Tier-4!"
This boast was too grand. The crowd sneered with disbelief, yet held it back, looking extremely uncomfortable.
Ren Chong smiled slightly. "Since there's no time like the present, you are all welcome to step up and try. If any Tier-3 professional can defeat me, I will gladly hand over my professional contract. If President Yang isn't happy about it, I'll beg him to show mercy."
As soon as Ren Chong said this, an uproar broke out among the crowd.
Such a good deal?
A burly man clad in heavy armor stepped forward first. "Captain Ren, my load capacity is six hundred, much higher than yours. I won't make things difficult for you either. If I win, I only ask that Captain Ren give me a sufficiently favorable affiliation slot, alright?"
Although this burly man looked rough, he was actually quite astute, understanding the principle that the bird that sticks out gets shot first.
He stepped forward first, yet showed sufficient respect for Ren Chong's identity, lest he leave Yang Bingzhong with the terrible impression that the local bully refused to obey orders and arrogantly tried to suppress a powerful newcomer.
Before Yang Bingzhong descended upon Chromium Carbon Town, quite a few people had inquired about the methods of this rising star boss who had emerged in Spark Town—honey-tongued, ruthless, and petty.
Ren Chong nodded. "Alright!"
Tang Shuying and Jiang Kai tried to dissuade him several times, but Ren Chong's mind was made up.
Seeing that Zheng Tian and the other team members merely stood by as spectators without uttering a word, the two simply gave up and stopped trying to persuade him, merely reporting the matter to Yang Bingzhong.
Unfortunately, Yang Bingzhong seemed busy at the moment and did not reply.
Thus, Tang Shuying and her companion stopped talking nonsense and instead acted as organizers, first negotiating a reasonable set of sparring rules, then clearing the crowd to make an open combat arena in the very center of the parking lot.
Ren Chong and the heavy armor warrior confronted each other for a few seconds. With Tang Shuying's shout of "Start!", the two immediately charged at each other with heavy thuds.
The heavy armor warrior shook his hands, and two alloy chains with spiked spherical hammerheads hanging from their ends suddenly whipped down from his shoulders, snapping outward.
Thud!
He stepped forward with his right foot, leaned his torso sideways, and began to spin, wielding the two chain hammers like a tornado as he swept toward Ren Chong.
Tang Shuying frowned deeply.
Right at the start, this heavy armor warrior ramped his output power up to over 500 kilowatts, far surpassing Ren Chong. Dangerous!
Once struck, Ren Chong would either die or be heavily injured.
If Ren Chong were truly killed, it would damage President Yang's prestige in the town, and they, the newcomers, would have suffered a disastrous opening defeat.
The next instant, Ren Chong drew a huge crimson battle blade from his waist—a heavily modified flame-slashing giant blade with its output power suppressed to Tier-3.
Flames billowed, and red radiance suddenly appeared.
Ren Chong lunged forward with his entire body, rocketing through the air like a red lightning bolt.
A heavy armor warrior in Tang Shuying's team gasped in a low voice: "So fast! He's channeled all three hundred kilowatts of power into mobility and has basically zero defense! What is he trying to do? Is he rushing in to court death?"
Tang Shuying bit her lower lip tightly.
An unexpected thing happened. A blink later, the red lightning glided like a swimming fish past the swirling whirlwind shield generated by the heavy armor warrior's chain hammers, crashing heavily against it.
Almost at the moment of impact, the red radiance burst forth anew.
With two crisp ripping sounds, the heavy armor warrior's two chain hammers flew off horizontally, crashing straight toward the crowd.
Two Tier-4 gunners fired with precision, blasting those two chain hammers out of the air.
At the same time, Ren Chong flew backward for more than ten meters, landing slowly.
The flame-slashing giant blade in his hand was still spitting Tier-3 flames.
However, the heavy armor warrior opposite him stood frozen in place, a pitch-black hole on his face mask with cracks spreading out from it.
On his forearms, there were two cut marks.
Those two spots were the connecting points on his forearm armor where the chain hammers were tethered.
He had lost.
Ren Chong had used only a single move.
The man trembled all over. In that very instant, the tip of the flame-slashing giant blade had stopped a mere 5 centimeters from his eyeball.
Had Ren Chong stimulated his energy just a fraction more to make the blade spew flames, his brain would have been instantly roasted into charcoal.
Or had he pushed the long blade forward by another decimeter, he would have been pierced through the skull and killed.
But right now, only his eyebrows were singed by the flames, while he himself remained completely unscathed.
For a moment, absolute silence reigned over the entire venue.
Tang Shuying glanced at the combat recording read by her Tier-4 tactical helmet.
She had seen everything clearly.
In that instant, Ren Chong had first leaped out using three hundred kilowatts of mobility power, executing two small-scale arc maneuvers as he crashed into the enemy's chain hammer defense perimeter, narrowly avoiding the hammer strikes.
Following that, within 0.1 seconds, Ren Chong channeled all of his 320 kilowatts of output power entirely into the Tier-3 flame-slashing giant blade, landing three fierce strikes in one second precisely on the opponent's helmet and chain hammer connection points.
The mecha-handling skill Ren Chong displayed in this single move was extremely proficient, his combat style was bold yet meticulous, and his mental reaction was so lightning-fast that he effortlessly achieved a victory of defeating a strong opponent with minimal force.
Tang Shuying let out a long breath, secretly marveling: "Ren Chong is simply a born mecha warrior; his talent is too high. No wonder President Yang is heavily grooming him."
The Tier-4 heavy armor warrior in Tang Shuying's team also swallowed hard. "I feel that once his parameters reach Tier-4, I wouldn't even last ten moves in his hands."
In the center of the arena, Ren Chong swung his long blade, pointing its edge at the crowd. "Next. That Tier-3 cybernetic warrior, yes, you. Come on, I'll pull my punches."
At this moment, he looked peerless and insufferably arrogant.
Yet nobody knew that he was actually quite embarrassed inside.
He finally knew what it felt like back then when Ma Xiaoling suppressed her power to put him through special training.
It was clearly using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken, or an anti-aircraft gun to shoot a mosquito.
His current mental reaction index was as high as 3039.8, making everyone else look like they were moving in slow motion. Dealing with a genuine Tier-3 professional was practically bullying.
He even had to deliberately suppress his abilities to prevent accidentally exposing his sixth sense, lest it be too shocking to the world.
Ten minutes later, everyone believed the "wild words" he had uttered earlier.
Regardless of the profession or how close their parameters were to Tier-4, almost none of them could withstand a single blow from him.
After overwhelming the crowd, Ren Chong announced his citizenship himself.
The various semi-professional captains cast sidelong glances of respect. Even those Tier-4 semi-professional captains who had initially looked down on him, offering only surface flattery while secretly regarding Ren Chong and his group as hicks, changed their attitudes and became truly sincere.
This small episode even startled Yang Bingzhong, who was currently spending heavy sums to rapidly recruit troops in an attempt to quickly fill the hunting capacity vacuum left by the previous Chromium Carbon Resources team taking away too many top-tier teams.
He contacted Ren Chong personally at the very first moment. Upon confirming that Ren Chong had indeed overwhelmed several semi-professional captains on the verge of Tier-4 with an output power of "a mere 360-odd kilowatts," he said: "Ren Chong, your combat capability is truly astonishing. What is your current brain-machine synchronization rate?"
"Reporting to President Yang, it's 39%. As for my combat capability, it actually stems from the private training Captain Ma Xiaoling gave me, sigh."
"I understand. Here is what we'll do, Ren Chong. You will lead the team today to accompany the others through the baseline assessment. But starting tomorrow, you won't need to go out hunting anymore."
"Why? Do I no longer need to complete my quota tasks?"
"No. With your talent, you have a chance to reach Tier-6 within five years! You will become the trump card among trumps in my hands! I certainly don't want you to perish early. Right now, you should continue intensifying your training until the daily growth rate of your load capacity shows a clear decline. The best metal should first be polished to the utmost, becoming the sharpest sword before it is unsheathed!"
Yang Bingzhong laughed heartily as he said this.
"Thank you, President Yang!"
Ren Chong expressed his gratitude.
"No need to thank me. After all, you are a citizen, and you have a ten-year contract with me. Naturally, I should treat you differently from the others."
Yang Bingzhong added: "I've made a huge fortune. Hunting quotas are not an issue at all; at worst, I'll just openly recruit a few more Tier-5 professionals to form a hunting team—it's completely not a problem. Hahaha!"
Clues detected.
Ren Chong's pupils constricted as he inwardly drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
Clearly, upon completing last night's transaction, Yang Bingzhong had struck it rich overnight.
He had lain low in Spark Town for sixteen years, only to transform into a dragon upon entering the winds and clouds. The moment he arrived at this new place, he actually dared to covet even Tier-5 professionals.
And he spoke of recruiting several of them just like that!
How extravagant and wealthy!
Just how massive of a fortune had Yang Bingzhong made last night?
What on earth was packed inside my Qingfeng heavy trucks?
Ren Chong's lips curled into a slight smile as he said, "It is truly the greatest fortune of my life to be able to follow you, President Yang."
"Hahaha, let's leave it at that for now. Hang up. Another Tier-5 gunner has come looking for me, hahahahaha!"
Hanging up the phone, Ren Chong turned around and cast a meaningful glance into the distance.
Over there, a small airship was rapidly descending above the massive submarine-like building.
He never boasted without meaning.
His display today was not to establish authority, but to let Yang Bingzhong properly witness his "combat talent," thereby inducing Yang Bingzhong to re-evaluate his potential value and buy himself freedom of time.
Time was running out for him. Holding four million in massive wealth, he had no desire to waste precious time on inefficient chores like Feral Beast hunting.
Unexpectedly, he had incidentally reaped new intelligence as well.
This wave of flexing was well worth it.