Meng Chao strolled around the market with great interest.
There were all sorts of poisonous monster organs that were difficult to find elsewhere, and they greatly satisfied his curiosity as a harvester.
Once she was done, Lu Siya appeared at the entrance of the market.
However, her appearance stunned Meng Chao a little.
Ponytail, cap, sportswear, and basketball shoes. She looked exactly like a college student without any makeup.
Speaking of which, Lu Siya was only in her twenties.
But she usually wore a lot of makeup and looked like a smart and capable woman, which often gave Meng Chao the impression that she was too mature.
When Meng Chao saw the youthful and beautiful Lu Siya, he blinked for a long time before he dared to go up and speak.
"Big Sis Ya, you …"
"There are all sorts of people in Golden Tooth Lair. If you dress a little more inconspicuously, you can avoid a lot of trouble," Lu Siya explained.
Meng Chao really wanted to say, 'So, you know what it means to keep a low profile!'
He thought about it and did not say it. Instead, he looked behind Lu Siya. "Where are the elites of the abnormal beast research department?"
"They went in from another entrance."
Lu Siya looked at Meng Chao with an intense gaze. "Don't worry. I have a mini camera and a signal transmitter on me, so I can contact the main force at any moment. As long as I can locate the target, I'll definitely be able to control the situation. Let's not talk anymore. Let's go!"
The two of them passed through the market.
He then walked into a supermarket under a high-rise apartment.
After passing through rows of shelves that were as complicated as a labyrinth, and passing through the corridors of the two basement floors, he continued to walk upwards. His eyes suddenly opened up, and it turned out to be a small courtyard.
It was surrounded by old residential buildings that towered into the clouds.
At first glance, it really looked like a concrete honeycomb. One could not help but wonder how small and cramped the living space behind the window was.
Only by raising his head at a ninety degree angle could he see a small patch of gray sky from an almost vertical angle.
Countless pairs of eyes, whether curious, indifferent, or gloomy, looked at the people in the courtyard.
His expressionless face made him look like a prisoner on a break.
This was the lair.
Meng Chao had never been to the lair before.
Even though there were no laws forcefully separating the lair from the outside world.
But the lair was the final symbol of the dark, bloody, and lawless era decades ago.
Many of the citizens who had struggled through that era and moved out of the lair to public renting houses like Blessed Heavenly Garden repeatedly warned their children not to come to the lair, or else they would "learn bad things".
Meng Chao remembered that when he was in middle school, there were a few hooligans who did not know anything and were proud of having been to the lair. If they skipped school one day and went to the lair, even if they just wandered around the perimeter of the lair and ate a Hundred Poison Banquet, they would be the talk of the town for more than a month.
When Meng Chao saw the forked paths ahead of him and the buildings that were like a maze, he did not know where to start.
Lu Siya had long since contacted the people in the lair.
"Miss?"
Soon, a young man with a realistic tattoo of a double-tailed scorpion on his arm and an incredibly fierce presence appeared in the courtyard. He bowed slightly to Lu Siya.
This was no ordinary tattoo.
Instead, it was the symbol of a gang.
During that bloody era where zombies ran amok, order collapsed, and the strong preyed on the weak, the survivors naturally formed all sorts of groups to protect themselves.
To fight for precious water, food, energy, living space, and all sorts of resources, practically all the groups that survived had great fighting power and used all sorts of methods to confirm and strengthen the loyalty of their members.
This was how gangs came to be.
As the era developed, some gangs grew larger and more successful. The gang leaders controlled a lot of resources and used them to unlock the shackles of their genes. They challenged the limits of their lives and became superhumans who could control and use spirit energy when their minds were clear. Then, they upgraded the gangs under them into all sorts of companies, enterprises, and organizations.
In the end, under Battle God Lei Zongchao's witness, the nine great companies signed a peace agreement and drew up brand new laws to restore order in Dragon City, which ushered in a brand new era.
Many of the middle-sized and small gangs were either gradually taken over by the mega corporations led by the nine great companies, vanished without a trace, or crumbled.
Up to that date, more than 90% of Dragon City's regions could not see these tattoos.
Only the three lairs and the ancient survivor organizations were able to maintain their activities until the very end.
Sky Pillar Corporation started with the mining industry.
No matter when or where, those who could enjoy the benefits of mining were not kind people.
Sky Pillar Corporation had been able to excavate the earliest crystal mine in Dragon City decades ago, so it was naturally connected to the gangs.
Even now, they still supported quite a number of gangs in the lair in secret, which was what the mega corporations usually did.
Hence, the brawny man with the gang tattoo on his arm was very respectful to Lu Siya.
"I've already investigated it," the man with the tattoo said.
"Jin Yongqiang, you mentioned, has always liked to gamble in Black Blood Coliseum in the eastern part of Golden Tooth Lair. Over the past few years, he has won and lost. He has also borrowed some money from the finance companies here, but he paid them back in time." At the beginning of this year, he seemed to have lost a lot and borrowed a lot of money from Easy Wealth Finance. The interest added up to an astronomical figure.
"Easy Wealth Finance has a good relationship with Poison Scorpion. I've already spoken to them. If we go there directly, we should be able to get more detailed information."
"Very good."
Lu Siya nodded in satisfaction. "Then, lead the way!"
The man with the scorpion tattoo led the way.
Meng Chao and Lu Siya walked through the bumpy, twisting, and spider-webbed paths in Golden Tooth Lair.
The buildings on both sides were illegal buildings. Perhaps they were only seven or eight stories tall in the beginning, but someone had gone mad and added them to their twenties or thirties. They were crooked and looked like they were about to crash into each other.
To make them stronger, they added all sorts of patches. There were also steel beams and pillars stuck diagonally in them. Quite a number of steel pipes were bent from the roofs of the buildings, and Meng Chao was terrified when he saw them.
The deeper they went into Golden Tooth Lair, the more unique the smell became.
It was the smell of poisonous monster organs being cooked. It was mixed with low-quality perfume, the stench of sweat, the pungent smell of hormones, the stench of monsters or humans' blood, and the smell of photinia. It was an incredibly strange smell.
Monster gladiator fights were really popular here.
On their way, Meng Chao saw more than one hundred posters of the underground coliseums.
There were also huge screens hanging on the walls of the buildings. They repeatedly broadcasted deformed and ugly mutated beasts tearing at each other and digging out each other's organs. The scale of the fights far surpassed the standard fights organized by the government.
There were also plenty of youngsters who had nothing to do. They swayed left and right in the streets. Most of them had holographic projectors attached to their heads, and they could see the monster fights right there. They were all poor people who could not even buy the cheapest tickets, so they could only use this method to satisfy their cravings.
There were also plenty of people with tattoos of dragons and phoenixes on their bodies. They were spying on Meng Chao and Lu Siya, the two newcomers who did not fit in with the place.
However, when they saw the Twin-tailed Scorpion tattoo on the leader's arm, they shrank their heads back.
"I didn't expect that there would be such a place in Dragon City."
Meng Chao could not help but sigh. "Compared to this, I'm actually quite happy. Blessed Heavenly Garden might be a mess, but at least it's orderly. At least the neighbors have a proper job, and the children can receive compulsory education. Even if the standard of education is a little inferior, it can still satisfy their basic needs.
"Of course, the lair's existence is just a compromise we had no choice but to make. Once Dragon City has enough space and resources, we will definitely push forward with the modification of the lair. Otherwise, it will be a ticking time bomb buried in Dragon City. When we run into even stronger enemies, they will blow up Dragon City's future at any moment."
When he thought of this, Meng Chao could not help but focus and search for the ending of the lair from his previous life.
As a faint stab of pain rose, the lair in front of him looked like it was burning. Screams, chaos, explosions, and countless people cried as they fled out of the lair. Buildings collapsed, and dust filled the air. The out-of-control superhumans hiding in the depths of the lair shot out of Dragon City like demonic stars whose seals had been lifted.
"Hiss …"
Meng Chao covered his chest and sucked in a deep breath. Gradually, he calmed his pounding heart.
In his previous life, Dragon City did not seem to have properly dealt with the problem of the lair.
Instead, it caused a major disaster that resulted in countless deaths.
It added a little more uncertainty to the ending of the Monster War.
It also caused humans to pay an even more devastating price before they managed to win the war. But at the same time, they sounded the death knell of the apocalypse.
'How could this be?
'That's right. In my previous life, Dragon City did not manage to win the northern offense, so it did not have enough resources and space to solve the problem of the lair.
'When the monsters with great intelligence appeared, they just needed to crawl into the lair, which has a high population density and a chaotic environment. It would have been difficult for them not to cause trouble.
'In this life, we've already changed the ending of the northern offense. The development of the northern frontlines will provide a lot of jobs, and it will bring an endless stream of funds for the Survival Committee. We can also set up an even more ample budget for the modification of the lair. We should be able to prevent the disaster from happening, right?'
As Meng Chao thought about this, the tattooed man with the double-tailed scorpion stopped moving.
They arrived at the entrance of a crooked, illegal building with more than ten floors. Then, they went down a narrow flight of stairs into the basement.
A dim neon light twisted into the words "Easy Rich Finance".
The tattooed man went in and started talking to them.
Meng Chao asked Lu Siya softly, "Aren't you going to use your red packet strategy?"
"No," Lu Siya answered softly.
"The people here are all dogs that can't be fed. If you give them red packets, they'll just think that you're stupid and have a lot of money. This guy is a minor leader of Poison Scorpion. They're second only to Golden Tooth in Golden Tooth, so their words carry a lot of weight."
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