Black Market

"Grenade, are you there? Say something!"

Xu Jiang sent the thought transmission as he gripped the grenade and shook it back and forth.

"General, please stop shaking me. I'm trying my best to keep the firing pin from dropping. If you keep shaking me, I'm going to explode."

Xu Jiang's heart skipped a beat. They were in a car! If it really exploded, they would all be finished.

He hurriedly asked Sha Tu for a new safety pin and put it back on under everyone's puzzled gazes.

"Phew... saved at last. Thank you, General. You may call me Xiao Lei." Though the grenade referred to himself as a junior, he sounded like a middle-aged man.

Xu Jiang could picture a man rubbing his hands together, nodding and bowing with a flattering smile, cowering timidly in the rear. As long as no one sent him to the battlefield, he could sing your praises all day long.

That personality was truly a headache to find in a grenade.

"A grenade that doesn't want to self-destruct isn't a good grenade. If you're so greedy for life and afraid of death, how can you go to war?"

As Xu Jiang's foremost general, Qianji was the first to condemn such cowardly weakness.

But the grenade had something to say too!

"Ah... it can't be helped. From the moment I was born, I carried the bloodline of a grenade. I didn't want this either. So I aspire to abandon battle and pursue medicine, changing the course of my mechanical life."

It would be a waste of your grand ambitions if you didn't write a novel.

As a grenade, if you won't go to the front lines and blow yourself up, what use are you?

"Reporting to the General, I can heal you all in the rear!"

As he spoke, white light shone from the grenade and swept across everyone like ripples. The scratches they had suffered in the battle began to slowly heal.

"Huh? Xu Jiang, you know healing arts too?" Sha Tu was stunned. How had Lei Lao's newly accepted disciple mastered so many skills?

"And they're all such improper skills," Xiao Zhen added.

It wasn't just me criticizing you now! Even Xiao Zhen, that blunt little girl, was mocking you. That was enough to prove just how absurd it was for a Mech-type to know healing arts.

Yet the grenade felt no shame and retorted, "Fighting enemies on the battlefield is for young people. Once you get older, you only want to spend the rest of your days quietly. Keep it up, everyone. I'll hold down the rear for you."

This unambitious thing—should they just find a river and sink him? Keeping him around only took up space.

As Xu Jiang was considering it, the vehicle came to a stop. He looked out the window and realized they apparently had no intention of returning to the base. Instead, they had arrived beside a rundown street.

"This is?"

"Blackwater District, the most chaotic place in all of Yong'an City," Sha Tu answered with a smile.

It was already two in the morning, yet Blackwater District remained a complete mess.

Dim lights shone over the disorderly streets. Trash littered both sides, and gangs could occasionally be seen fighting one another in groups.

During the brief time they had stopped, Xu Jiang had already seen three people collapse in pools of blood. The saying, "Harsh lands breed savage people," could not have described this place more aptly.

It was clear that Ying Xiaoxiao and the others knew this place well. After getting out of the car, they led Xu Jiang into an alley.

Though he had come to trust Team 17 fairly well, walking through such a pitch-black alley in the middle of the night still made him nervous that he might be killed and sold as pork.

Of course, that nervousness only lasted a little while.

They turned two corners and pushed open an iron door. Their destination had arrived.

Unlike the darkness and chaos outside, this place felt bustling and prosperous to Xu Jiang.

Along the brightly lit long street, vendors on both sides called out their wares. An endless array of goods stretched as far as the eye could see.

Baozi perched on Xu Jiang's shoulder and introduced the place with a grin. "This is the Black Market. It only opens late at night. What do you think? You didn't expect Blackwater District to have such a thriving side, did you?"

Light and darkness had always coexisted.

Yong'an City had its glamorous luxury, but it also had its filth of chaos and crime.

Likewise, the despised Blackwater District contained this lively and flourishing Black Market.

"This is the dirtiest trading spot in all of Yong'an City. Even prohibited goods can be bought here, including human heads."

As Sha Tu spoke, he lowered the brim of his cloak slightly.

Nearly everyone here concealed their faces. No one asked about identities or sources of goods; they only cared about sealing the deal.

Xu Jiang nodded, feeling that his horizons had been broadened as he curiously looked around.

Stores and stalls filled the entire Black Market street, and the goods were truly dazzling.

There were laser cannons as large as five meters long, their muzzles bigger than Xu Jiang's head. One blast from those would leave nothing but dust.

There were also wands, daggers, pets, and even strange organs. Anything that could be sold was sold here, leaving people overwhelmed.

After looking around, Xu Jiang could not help clicking his tongue in amazement. "This place really is incredible. By the way, did you come here to buy something?"

"It's not us who came to buy something. We came to buy something for you." Ying Xiaoxiao flung back her cloak handsomely and patted the money pouch at her waist.

"Tonight is your welcome party. The 120 Exotic Crystals we just earned are all for buying you a gift."

Xu Jiang froze where he stood.

So this was the true purpose of the welcome party!

They had used a mission to earn enough payment to give Xu Jiang a grand gift.

And they had used a battle to test each other's character.

After tonight, they would be comrades who had fought side by side, able to safely entrust their backs to one another.

Thinking of that, Xu Jiang could not help smiling. Joining Team 17 was not so bad after all.

As he was reflecting, he suddenly felt someone tugging at his clothes. A cool, adorably blank voice sounded by his ear.

"Xiao Zhen and Xiao Youling want Black Market ice cream."

When he turned around, Xiao Zhen was looking at him with her big eyes. She clearly had a craving.

As for the Xiao Youling she mentioned, it was the pet she held in her arms. It was currently tugging lightly at his clothes again and again.

An adorable little girl was pitifully asking you to treat her to ice cream. Was there even anything to consider?

"Of course. It's on me." Xu Jiang's generous words earned Xiao Zhen's gratitude and approval.

"That's great. Thank you, big brother. You're alive."

Xu Jiang: ???

He took back his earlier assessment of her being cute. Why had this child made such a bizarre judgment?

Buying her ice cream meant he was alive?

So in her eyes, had he been dead all along?

Seeing Xu Jiang's stunned expression, Baozi could neither laugh nor cry. She patted his shoulder and explained, "Don't take it to heart. The Black Market only opens late at night, so it isn't easy to come here."

"So?"

"So the boss made a rule: whenever a newcomer joins, we take on a mission and use the reward to buy a welcome gift at the Black Market."

"You mean the ones before me..."

"Four dead and two seriously injured. Not one made it to the Black Market. I'm glad you survived."

"...Thanks."