If they could open their arms and let the other party check how many lethal weapons they had on them, it showed the trust and friendship of the people in the lair.
Many of the deals, negotiations, and calculations could be done secretly through the "sign language" hidden under the cloak.
Just as he expected, after the two of them held hands for a while, they laughed at the same time, removed their cloaks, and hugged each other passionately.
"Old Yu, you're not dead yet!" The contact slapped Zhou Chong's shoulder with a force that could kill a tiger.
"Tengu, you're not dead yet!" Zhou Chong returned the hug with a strength that could crush a spine.
He had run into an old friend.
To hunters, the lair had a unique meaning.
In Dragon City, the most popular superhuman occupation was the hunter.
They could join a superhuman fighting squad or go into the wild alone and dance on the edge of a knife without any restrictions. They could rely on their fists, weapons, hot-bloodedness, and brains to earn a living. As long as they had the ability and the slightest bit of luck, they could become famous overnight and rise to the top. It was so free and refreshing!
To manage the large number of unaffiliated hunters, the Supernatural Tower set up the Hunter's Association. It was in charge of training, testing, and assigning hunting regions and missions. Of course, it could also mediate the conflicts between different superhuman fighting squads. When large-scale battles or Apocalyptic Beasts appeared, they could even form hundreds of different superhuman fighting squads and send them into the battlefield at the same time.
However, the most important duty of the Hunter's Association was to collect money.
"Superhumans might be strong, but without the Red Dragon Army to provide firepower and logistical support, without the support of tens of millions of Dragon Citizens, it would be impossible for them to survive and fight in the fog with their own strength.
"So, a large portion of the hunters' rewards should be shared by all Dragon Citizens."
Based on this theory, every time a hunter killed a monster, they had to give one-third to half of their rewards as hunting tax, special resource collection tax, management fee for the Hunter's Association, construction tax for the Supernatural Tower, construction tax for the Red Dragon Army, special national debt, and so on. The higher the cultivation realm, the higher the tax rate. The tax rate for Deity Realm superhumans could easily exceed 70%.
Recently, Dragon City had been carrying out the comprehensive renovation of old residential areas and the Three Nutritious Meals for All Youngsters. When it came to the superhumans, especially the hunters who fought at the frontlines, they had to pay even more taxes.
On the other hand, plenty of monsters, especially the rarer Hell Beasts and Apocalyptic Beasts, had materials in their bodies that were unique strategic resources. Hunters could not just sell them to whomever they wanted. Instead, the Supernatural Tower would buy them, and based on the needs of various departments and projects as well as their importance, they would use them where they were needed the most.
Most of the time, this kind of monopoly method couldn't reach the market price, and couldn't satisfy the bloodthirsty hunters.
When it came to the overall development of Dragon City, high taxes and monopolization were both reasonable and necessary.
Human civilization was a single entity that could not be separated. Without the large number of citizens and the Red Dragon Army serving as strong support, it was indeed impossible for the hunters to win against the monster civilization.
But to the hunters, they had risked their lives, paid the price of being covered in wounds, and even watched their comrades die tragically in the mouths of monsters. They might even have a lot of hidden injuries left in them. After they finally killed the monsters, they had to hand over more than half of their materials for nothing. It was only normal for them to feel that it was unfair.
As time went by, there were bound to be people who wanted to take advantage of the situation.
For example, Demonic Halberd Pigs and Iron Armored Rhinoceroses' flesh were large, heavy, and relatively cheap materials.
But when they ran into rare materials that were small but were worth cities, such as crystalized neurospheres, heart blood, eyeballs, spinal cords, and other materials, the hunters usually did not report them to the Hunter's Association.
Instead, they would hide them and bring them to the black market in the lair to secretly exchange for the resources they wanted.
Or they would exchange them for chips in the monster coliseums in the lair and gamble until the sky turned dark in the coliseums.
Winning or losing was not important. The important thing was to launder all the chips so that next year, when the Supernatural Tower conducted an audit on all the superhumans, they would not have to worry about having a large amount of money with unknown origins.
This gray industry chain formed by smuggling monster materials was an important economic pillar in the lair.
There was no way the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower would not know about the hunters' little tricks.
But if the water was too clear, there would be no fish. If they cracked down on the smuggling and black market transactions, it would severely dampen the hunters' enthusiasm. They would just work but not put in any effort, and they would be hunted in a carefree manner. The Supernatural Tower would not be able to do anything about it.
On the other hand, if the hunters did not come to the black market to trade, the lair's business of eating, drinking, gambling, and thriving tertiary industry would all be done for.
It had to be known that most of the one million people in the lair relied on the tertiary industry to survive.
Countless Dragon Citizens were under great pressure because of the zombies and monsters, and they felt gloomy. Once in a while, they would go to the lair to relieve their pressure. That was the only way they could struggle to survive in the brutal Other World.
Destroying hundreds of thousands of jobs and practically the only outlet for the citizens at the bottom of the hierarchy would not bring any benefits to the current Dragon City.
Hence, as long as the hunters and the gang members in the lair did not go overboard, the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower could only turn a blind eye to it.
In truth, the government had chosen to have veteran hunters form the first wave of capture because of this consideration.
Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong and the others were regulars in the lair's black market, so they had deep connections there. They were friends with many of the gang members, and when they worked together, they had great teamwork.
"What's the situation now?"
The two of them finally let go of each other, and Zhou Chong asked Tengu.
"Yesterday, Golden Tooth's Red Brows Su Lun brought Mr. Jin's message. He said that hundreds of robbers from the outside ran into Golden Tooth Lair and that someone has secretly set up a forbidden drug factory here. After these robbers ate the forbidden drugs, they became crazy and became incredibly strong.
"Regardless of whether it's Golden Tooth or the other gangs, everyone hates robbers and robbers who don't follow the rules of the world, especially those who use forbidden drugs until their brains are fried.
"We're all here for money, and we have to live harmoniously to make money. These bastards are causing trouble in Golden Tooth Lair, which means that they're going to destroy everyone's livelihood. They're even going to destroy the hunters' sales channels, right?
"Besides, even Mr. Jin, who hasn't shown up for a long time, has personally spoken.
"Then, all the gangs will naturally mobilize their forces and carry out a full investigation of Golden Tooth Lair.
"This is what we're thinking. They committed hundreds of robberies outside in one go and stole a lot of cultivation resources, so it's only natural that they have to sell their loot in the lair's black market.
"If they don't sell their loot, they'll use them as raw materials to create new Deification Capsules.
"And if they want to create a large number of Deification Capsules, they naturally need a large workshop, factory, or at the very least, a lab with complete facilities.
"Based on our experience in creating all sorts of gene medicine, during the creation process, they will create a lot of waste gas and waste water. They will also use up a lot of spirit energy.
"So, we focused our attention on the hundreds of black markets, labs, and private workshops in the lair.
"We especially checked the areas with a lot of private drug workshops. We collected underground water samples and analyzed them. In the end, we found that the underground waste water in three areas contains ingredients that are suspected to be Deification Capsules."
There were a lot of mad scientists lurking in the lair.
There were also cultivation lunatics who tried to use gene medicine to surpass the limits of their lives.
The pharmacists here were more professional than what the outside world imagined.
"Since you reminded us not to alert the enemy, we didn't dare to search in a large scale, and we didn't dare to venture too deep into these areas either," Tengu continued.
"As of right now, we only know that these regions are all ungoverned areas where the territories of the major gangs intersected. There are plenty of lone wolves who don't belong to any of the gangs, and at most, two or three of them can build a small underground lab or illegal workshop. We can't be certain just which underground workshop the target you're looking for is hiding in."
"It's fine. The fact that you reduced the search area to such a small area has already saved us a lot of trouble. Just watch us next!"
Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong said. "Everyone, get ready. Test the neural tactical data link system and check the area. Lock onto two known targets."
Meng Chao was the same as the veteran hunters. He moved his eyeballs, contracted his pupils, and focused.
As the neural data interacted with each other, the walls of the warehouse around them seemed to have turned transparent. Their gazes could pass through the walls without any obstruction and see the entire area outside.
The illegal buildings were stacked on top of each other like building blocks made by a child. They grew madly from all directions and devoured a large portion of the sky. Only air vents that were smaller than patios were left behind.
The walls of the mottled buildings were covered in colorful graffiti. Quite a number of them were even painted with fluorescent paint that was mixed with monster blood. Under the dim light, they exuded a bewitching charm, as if monsters were about to jump out of the walls.
To attract business, practically all the buildings had neon lights and screens outside them. Some of them used incredibly bewitching strokes to draw out seductive human bodies, while others showed monsters rampaging through the streets and tearing each other's guts out. It was bloody and exciting.
Many young men in cloaks, who were standing on spring wheels and wearing ghost masks, dashed through the alleys as fast as lightning. No one knew whether they were hiding smuggled materials, bloodstained chips, fatal weapons, or crazy forbidden drugs under their cloaks.
Some people laughed loudly at the entrance of the monster coliseum and threw gambling chips at the invisible sky. When they hit the ground, they let out clanging sounds.
Some people cried quietly beside a pile of trash. Once they shed their final tears, they clenched their fists, and with a fierce gaze, they walked into the depths of the darkness.
Countless strange sights exuded a deformed, bewitching, and unstoppable life force.
This was the lair.
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