Chapter 454: Came from the Lair

A small crystal mine had once been discovered near the developing land Ning Lang chose. Since it was quite far away from Dragon City, the claws of the mega corporations had yet to reach the place. That was why the unlicensed pathfinders could get the opportunity to occupy it.

He originally thought it was a project that would only bring them benefits.

When after much difficulty his group set up camp in the wild, prepared the defense systems, and made sure that their developing land had fierce firepower, the mine explorers from big companies came to explore the crystal mine in depth.

The results showed that the area had only a fake mine, since there were only a few thin layers of crystal crusts near the surface. They were revealed due to the weathering effect, and it only looked as if there were a lot of crystals in the area.

If they dug deeper, they would discover that aside from stones, all they could find were a few mixed ores that were of low quality. This meant that there was simply no value in developing the area.

The major companies were not interested in the piece of land, and Ning Lang’s developing land became an incredibly awkward existence.

And when they were in the wild, the cost for daily living was ten times higher than in Dragon City.

Besides, they needed a lot of spirit energy and ammunition to maintain the automatic defense system against monsters.

Ning Lang’s plan was to grit his teeth and persevere by throwing in all of his money to turn the harsh environment around him into fertile land and stay there by planting etherealized plants, but after toiling for months, an insect swarm ate all of the etherealized plants. A few of the pathfinders were also surrounded by the insect swarms and eaten to the point where only their bones were left.

Ning Lang could no longer persevere, then. He gave up on the developing land and fled back to Dragon City in dejection.

While his squad was retreating, it was ambushed by monsters again.

These monsters had been trailing them and waited until it was dark before they attacked, because the humans’ guard was the lowest at that time.

Caught off guard, the pathfinders suffered terrible losses. They had to give up on most of the expensive construction machines and slaughter their way back.

When the heavily injured pathfinders returned to Dragon City, the survivors were not even one-fifth of the pathfinders who had left Dragon City with their chests puffed out to create their own business.

Ning Lang might not have died, but he ended up in an even more terrifying state than death.

He was one of the organizers of the pathfinder team, and the initial capital as well as the construction machines he bought on credit all amounted to astronomical figures.

A small part of the money for this came from his savings, but most of it was borrowed.

When he left the city, he did not get any approval from the related departments, so it was impossible for him to get any compensation from the government or get any insurance claims.

Many of the pathfinders who died were his childhood friends as well. Their families could only go to him to make him take responsibility, because they could not go to anyone else.

In an instant, Ning Lang turned from the awesome Big Brother Wolf to someone despised by everyone.

He did not dare stay at home and ran away to hide with the surviving pathfinders.

Meng Chao nodded.

He had a general gist of the modus operandi of unlicensed pathfinders.

Ever since Dragon City started developing at a large scale, the “regular army” and “guerilla armies” started attacking in all directions, and plenty of investors with nowhere to invest their money were willing to take the risk and invest in the “guerilla armies”.

In specific terms, there were plenty of unemployed young adults like Ning Lang and the mohawk man who were ambitious, fearless, and had some fighting strength. They wanted to take a gamble in the wild, but they did not have an initial capital to build their teams, buy weapons and ammunition, set up developing lands, and buy construction machines to change the environment. They also did not have the funds to organize training sessions for pathfinders to survive in the wild.

But that was fine. As long as they were bold and strong enough, there were all sorts of people who were willing to invest in them. They would get manpower, weapons, the knowledge required to set up developing lands, necessary skills, equipment, and everything else they needed in one go.

If the investors were willing to invest, then even if the developing lands were destroyed by monsters, the pathfinders would not carry too much responsibility.

Of course, if the developing lands were bought by major companies or the related departments, the investors would be able to earn big from the profit.

But Ning Lang seemed to have chosen another method to get funds. He refused to have investors in his operation and only got loans and bought equipment on credit.

If he did that, as long as he managed to set his foot firmly in the wild, all the profit would belong to him.

But if his entire squad was wiped out, he would be doomed eternally.

It has to be known that going out of the city to develop a land was a gray industry.

To the Survival Committee, as long as the problem of the unemployment among young adults lowered and the employment rate in Dragon City rose, it was willing to turn a blind eye, but the ones who were willing to borrow funds and resources to unlicensed pathfinders were not kind people.

It was not that easy to get them to hand away their money, either.

Could it be that Ning Land was in a hurry to clear his debts and got himself a batch of Deification Capsules from somewhere, then profited by selling them to the mohawk man’s pathfinder team?

“Were the people just now your brother’s creditors? Do you know their origins?”

Ning Xing bit her lip and shook her head. “I don’t. I think my big brother did not borrow money from one place. A few batches of people have come along asking for money recently.”

“Have they injured you?”

“No. No matter what, there are plenty of people here, so they don’t dare to act rashly. At most... they do this.”

Ning Xing’s eyes turned red. She puffed her chest out and pretended to be mature and calm by saying, “Big Brother Chao, don’t worry. I’m fine. The people who came today weren’t terrifying. The people who came from the lair a few days ago were really fierce, but I wasn’t scared of them, either. This is a temporary settlement, not the lair, after all!”

“Lair?”

Meng Chao narrowed his eyes.

The lairs were super slums that had come from the bloody era when zombies wreaked havoc in the land. It was a place where all sorts of crimes were hidden, which made it a paradise for criminals, a nest for lost people, and the birthplace of countless gray industries and black companies. They were parasites in Dragon City and tumors that had to be removed.

Meng Chao suddenly remembered that Golden Tooth Lair, the largest of the three remaining lairs in Dragon City, had suffered a large-scale fire during the later stage of the Monster War in his previous life.

The fire that time killed more than one hundred thousand innocent citizens who stayed in the lair. The countless lair citizens who relied on gray industries were also barely able to survive after they lost their only source of income.

The event also released countless criminals and lost people who were lurking within the depths of the lair.

The result of that was an overnight decline in the societal order in Dragon City. The rate of malicious crimes increased dozens of times, and the city practically returned to the lawless, chaotic era when the society operated through the law of the jungle and the Survival Committee had yet to be established.

The chaos in societal order largely diminished Dragon City’s fighting strength, which opened up all sorts of chances for the monsters, and they used them to launch their greatest counterattack during the later stage of the Monster War. Even though they did not manage to completely turn the tables, the humans were greatly weakened, and the foundation of the city was damaged severely.

‘Just how did the fire in Golden Tooth Lair start in my previous life?’

Meng Chao set aside that question for the time being and said, “Ning Xing, if he’s willing to take the risk, he must accept the consequences of losing. If he owes people money, he must return it. This is the nature of things. Your brother can’t just hide.

“He should be the one who bears the consequences, not his family. The money he owes has nothing to do with you. You shouldn’t be living in fear all day long because of this.

“How about this? If you trust me, can tell me where your brother is, and I’ll talk to him. We’ll think of a way to solve this together.”

“Big Brother Chao, if you’re willing to help my brother, that would be great!” Ning Xing was really excited. Hope sparkled in her eyes, but that light soon dimmed as she shook her head and said in a troubled voice, “But I really don’t know where my brother is hiding. Over the past few days, a lot of debt collectors have been looking for him, and he has been really elusive.”

Meng Chao thought about it. “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. He didn’t even wake Mom up, just stuffed five hundred yuan to me and told me to not let anyone discover this money. I was to only use it when I’m at my wits’ end.

“Oh, that’s right. He also said that he has let down the family, but as long as we persevere for a while, he would be able to pay off his debts. He would even get a lot of money so that the family can live without worry, and Mom would be able to live comfortably. I’d also get enough resources to get into a key high school.”

Ning Xing was a sensible child. She had always kept those words in her heart and never told anyone about them.

But Meng Chao had organized a lot of public welfare activities in the temporary settlement in the name of the Broken Star Club and Superstar. He had also been the teacher for days in the martial arts refresher course and guided the students there seriously.

Ning Xing was sincerely grateful to Meng Chao and treated him as an older brother who could do everything, so she could not hold herself and told him the truth. Hope bloomed secretly in her heart.

“Get a large sum of money?”

Meng Chao’s mind raced. Soon, he came to the conclusion that the money Ning Lang mentioned might come from reselling the Deification Capsules.

The logic behind it was simple.

Ning Lang’s clients were people like the mohawk man. They were not rich, so he could only go and get the money from them when they were successful in their pathfinding.

Since he was a reseller, even if he got the money, he would not be able to get a lot of money. It would not be enough for him to pay off his debts and let his family live a comfortable, carefree life.

Did he intend to use the increase in strength from the Deification Capsule and go through another pathfinding expedition?

That was impossible. Ning Lang was no longer trustworthy. No one would lend him money or let him buy weapons, equipment, and construction machines he needed for pathfinding on credit.

Besides, the profit from pathfinding was not certain. Even if he successfully built the developing land and it was bought by a major industry, he would need to operate it for a year and a half before he got the money.

But Meng Chao did not think that Ning Lang was just comforting his little sister.

Based on what he understood of Ning Lang’s personality from Qin Hu and Ning Xing, he was not the type to deceive his family.

So, what was he preparing for?

A bad feeling rose in Meng Chao’s heart.

He asked Ning Xing for the addresses of the people Ning Lang was close to, who also were the survivors who had fled back to Dragon City with him.

Quite a number of them were staying in the temporary settlement.

He then asked Ning Xing to stay calm and headed to one of the survivors’ apartment.

Before he even found the specific apartment number, he saw a group of fierce debt collectors in the distance. They were leaving the temporary settlement in a haste.