He had once discovered a small-scale crystal mine near the place he chose to develop the land. Since it was rather far away from Dragon City, the mega corporations had not extended their tentacles to this place for the time being, which gave the unlicensed pathfinders a chance.
He thought that this would be a profitable business.
But to his surprise, when Ning Lang finally settled down in the wild with his group of friends and built a developing land with a complete defense system and great firepower, the mine exploration teams from the major companies came here again to investigate the crystal mine in detail.
In the end, they found that this area was a fake mine. There were only a few thin layers of ore near the surface. They were exposed due to weathering, and they seemed to have an astonishing amount of ore in them.
In truth, if they dug a little deeper, they would find that aside from rocks, there were only miscellaneous ores that had a very low content and were of poor quality. There was no value in developing them at all.
The major companies were not interested in this land, so Ning Lang's developing land became a very awkward existence.
The cost of living in the wild was ten times that of living in Dragon City.
Besides, the automatic defense system used up a lot of spirit energy and ammunition to fight against monsters.
Ning Lang had wanted to grit his teeth and persevere. He spent a lot of money to turn the barren land around him into fertile land so that he could plant etherealized plants and settle down there.
However, after a few months of hard work, a plague of insects had devoured all the etherealized plants. There were even quite a few pathfinders who were engulfed by the insects and were reduced to skeletons.
Ning Lang could no longer persevere. He could only give up on the developing land and flee back to Dragon City dejectedly.
But on the way back, he was ambushed by monsters.
These monsters tailed him and waited for the night to be quiet. When the humans let their guard down, they launched an ambush.
They were caught off guard, and the pathfinders suffered great losses. They could only give up on most of the expensive construction machines and slaughter their way out.
When the injured pathfinders fled back to Dragon City, the people who were still alive numbered less than one-fifth of the people who left the city with their heads puffed out to "start their business".
Ning Lang might not have died, but he ended up in a desperate situation that was even more terrifying than death.
He was one of the organizers of the pathfinders. The startup capital he invested and the construction machines he bought on credit were worth an astronomical figure.
A small part of the money was his savings, and most of it was borrowed.
Without the approval of the relevant departments when leaving the city, it was impossible to receive compensation from the authorities and insurance companies.
Many pioneers who died in the battle were brothers who grew up with them. Apart from him, who else could they turn to?
In an instant, Ning Lang turned from the glorious "Brother Wolf" to a rat crossing the street, an existence that everyone wanted to beat up.
He didn't dare to stay at home, so he hid somewhere with the surviving pioneers.
Mengchao nodded.
He had a general idea of how unlicensed explorers operated.
Ever since Dragon City started its grand expansion and the regular army and guerrilla squads attacked everywhere, a lot of the people who had nowhere else to go were willing to invest in the guerrilla squads.
To be more specific, unemployed young men like Ning Lang and Mohawk Head who were ambitious, fearless, and had a certain level of combat strength wanted to fight in the wild.
However, they did not have the start-up capital to establish a team, purchase weapons and ammunition, build a stronghold, modify the environment, and train the pioneers to survive in the wilderness.
But that was fine. As long as they were brave enough and strong enough, various forces of power would be willing to invest in them. They would provide them with manpower, weapons, knowledge, technology, and equipment needed to build a stronghold.
If they were willing to let these people invest in them, even if the stronghold was destroyed by monsters, the pioneers would not have to bear too much responsibility.
Of course, if the stronghold was bought by a large company or related departments, the investors would take most of the profits.
Ning Lang might have chosen another method. He refused to invest in them and just took loans and bought them on credit.
That way, as long as they gained a stable footing in the wild, all the profits would belong to them.
But if all of them died, it would mean that they would be doomed.
It had to be known that venturing out of the city without permission was a gray industry.
Even though the Survival Committee was willing to turn a blind eye to it as long as they could solve the problem of youth unemployment and increase the actual employment rate in Dragon City,
However, those who were willing to provide funds and resources to the unlicensed explorers were definitely not the kindest people after all.
Their money was not something that could be taken so easily.
Could it be that Ning Lang was in a hurry to pay off his debt, which was why he got a batch of Deification Capsules from somewhere and sold them to Mohawk Head's pathfinder team for profit?
"Are those people just now your big brother's creditors?"
Meng Chao asked. "Do you know where they came from?"
Ning Xing bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't know. My big brother seems to have borrowed money from more than one place. Recently, a few batches of people came to collect their debts."
"They didn't hurt you, right?"
"No. After all, there are a lot of people here, so they won't dare to act recklessly. At most … that's all they did."
Ning Xing's eyes were bloodshot. She puffed out her chest and pretended to be mature and calm. "Big Brother Chao, don't worry. I'm fine. The people today aren't that terrifying. The people who came from the lair a few days ago are the truly fierce ones, but I'm not afraid of them. This is a temporary settlement, not a lair!"
"A lair?"
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes.
The lair was a super slum that had survived from the bloody era when zombies roamed the land. It was a place of corruption, a paradise for criminals, a nest for lost people, and an incubator for countless gray and black industries. It was a parasite in Dragon City and a tumor that had to be removed.
Based on Meng Chao's memories, Golden Tooth Lair, which was the largest of the three remaining lairs in Dragon City, had a large fire during the later stage of the Monster War.
The fire killed more than one hundred thousand innocent citizens who stayed in the lair.
It also caused countless lair citizens who relied on gray industries to barely make a living to lose their only source of income.
It also released countless criminals and lost people who were lurking in the depths of the lair.
The end result was that Dragon City's social security deteriorated overnight. The rate of vicious crimes increased by dozens of times, and the city practically returned to the chaotic era before the Survival Committee was formed, where the strong preyed on the weak and lawless.
The chaos in social order also severely weakened Dragon City's fighting strength, which gave the monsters all sorts of chances. It caused the monsters to launch the greatest counterattack during the later stage of the Monster War. Even though they did not manage to completely turn the tides of the war, they still inflicted heavy casualties on humans, and their foundation was greatly damaged.
'How did the fire in Golden Tooth Lair start in my previous life?'
Meng Chao pushed down this question for the time being and said, "Ning Xing, if you're willing to make a bet, you have to be willing to lose. If you owe money, you have to pay it back. This is something that is only natural. Your brother can't just keep hiding.
"But this shouldn't affect his family. No matter how much money he owes, it has nothing to do with you. You shouldn't be living in fear every day.
"How about this? If you trust Big Brother Chao, tell me where your brother is right now. I'll go and talk to him and think of a solution."
"Big Brother Chao, if you're willing to help my brother, that would be great."
Ning Xing became excited, and hope shone in her eyes, but that light soon faded away. She shook her head and said in a troubled manner, "But I really don't know where my brother is hiding. Over the past few days, a lot of creditors have been looking for him. He's been elusive."
Meng Chao thought about it and said, "Then, when was the last time you saw him?"
"Last week," Ning Xing said.
"I can't remember whether it was Thursday or Friday. In any case, he snuck back during the second half of the night and didn't even wake Mom up. He just gave me five hundred and told me not to be discovered by anyone. If I really had no other choice, I could only use it.
"By the way, he also said that he let down his family, but as long as we persevered, he would be able to clear his debts and get a lot of money. It would be enough for the family to not have to worry about food and clothing, and Mom would live a comfortable life. I would also have enough cultivation resources to get into a key high school."
Ning Xing was a sensible child. She kept these words in her heart and never told anyone.
But Meng Chao used the name of the Broken Star Club and Superstar to organize a lot of public welfare activities in the temporary settlements. He had also been a teacher in the martial arts refresher course for many days and taught the students seriously.
Ning Xing thanked Meng Chao sincerely and treated him as a big brother who could do anything. With faint anticipation, she could not help but tell him the truth.
"Get a lot of money …"
Meng Chao's mind raced, and he soon came to the conclusion that the money Ning Lang mentioned was not earned by reselling the Deification Capsules.
The reason was simple.
Ning Lang's "client" was someone like the mohawk man. He did not have a lot of money, so he might have to wait until he succeeded in his pathfinding before he could pay him the money.
Since he was a middleman, even if he paid him the money, Ning Lang would not earn a lot. It was not enough for him to let his family live a good life without having to worry about food and clothing after he paid his debts.
Could he rely on the increase in strength brought by the Deification Capsules to go out of the city for pathfinding again?
But it was impossible. Ning Lang's credit record was already rotten. No one would lend him money or buy the weapons, equipment, and construction machines he needed to clear the land on credit.
Besides, the benefits from pathfinding were not clear. Even if he successfully built a developing land and bought it by a big company, he would still need to operate it for a year and a half.
Meng Chao did not think that Ning Lang was just comforting his sister.
From Qin Hu and Ning Xing, he understood Ning Lang's personality. He was not the type of person who would lie to his family.
So, just what did he intend to do?
A bad feeling rose in Meng Chao's heart.
He asked Ning Xing for the address of Ning Lang's close friends, who were the survivors who had fled back to Dragon City with him.
Quite a number of the survivors stayed in the temporary settlements.
Meng Chao told Ning Xing not to be anxious and left to search for the address of one of the survivors.
Before he could find the specific house number, he saw the fierce-looking men who had come to force him to pay up in the distance. They left the temporary settlement in a hurry.
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