Camp

After his teammates left, Ji Xun cautiously headed toward the firelight.

He climbed down the rusted stairs and, from halfway down, could already look out over the bustling camp below.

The firelight drove back the fog, and the camp was packed with people.

It was a mechanical town. Treasure hunters had pieced together towering steel walls like patches, using iron plates stripped from the ruins and enormous rivets.

The town blazed with lights and buzzed with voices. A rough estimate put its population at tens of thousands. Nearly every building had several chimneys belching smoke.

Ji Xun had previously thought this world's steam technology tree seemed a little skewed. Seeing it now, he realized he had been right.

At a glance, he spotted the steam train winding through town like a gigantic steel python. Massive mechanical crane arms loaded all kinds of cargo. Even the workers hauling goods wore more or less bizarre Mechanical Exoskeletons, allowing them to easily carry tons of freight.

He had just been worried that someone might remember his outfit and cause him trouble, but after observing the hunters' clothing in the camp, Ji Xun immediately realized he had overthought it.

Tactical vests and boots were the standard outfit seen everywhere.

Seven or eight out of every ten hunters in the camp were dressed that way. Even their Gas Masks were of similar styles.

Ji Xun relaxed as well, climbed down the stairs, and landed on the ground.

As he approached, he saw that the camp gates stood wide open. Several hunters lounged against the watchtower, listlessly scanning the surroundings.

As long as there was no monster attack, no one cared who entered the camp.

Quite a few people came and went, excitedly discussing all sorts of stories from the ruins.

Ji Xun blended into the crowd and walked in without incident.

This was a camp built for exploring the ruins, and every facility within it existed to serve the hunters.

Card shops, gun shops, Mecha Modification shops, potion shops, material stores. In short, all kinds of supplies shops.

As Ji Xun passed those stores, he eyed the dazzling array of firearms and personal Mechanical Equipment with considerable envy.

He had thought his revolver was decent before, but compared to these, it was nothing more than a basic model.

There were dozens of types of bullets alone: Demon-Breaking Bullets, armor-piercing rounds, exorcism rounds, incendiary rounds...

He glanced at the prices posted outside a shop:

Armor Break Bullets: ￥3

High-Explosive Grenade: ￥300

M127 Revolver: ￥1300

Double-Barreled Demon-Hunting Shotgun: ￥2550

Personal Heavy-Duty Mechanical Skeletons (800KG): ￥32500

Every price was clearly marked.

The same large-caliber revolver at his waist was worth only 1,300, while slightly better equipment easily cost tens of thousands.

There were also daggers, leather armor, tactical boots, grappling lines.

In short, as long as one had money, one could buy a better set of adventuring gear.

Equipment was a hunter's livelihood, so naturally they did not begrudge spending money on it. The shops were crammed with hunters of every sort.

As Ji Xun walked, he bought a tactical backpack and replenished some essential equipment.

He did not even look at the Mechanical Skeletons.

They were too expensive.

They were also too conspicuous to carry.

He continued onward. At the heart of the camp stood a large shop with a sign reading, "Hessen Merchant Guild's Card House."

An elegant glass display window stood outside, filled with magic cards in every color.

Wind Blade Card: ￥3000

Blast Card: ￥5000

Arcane Barrage: ￥15555

Most of the display contained one-use skill cards, along with blank Containment Cards, energy cards, all sorts of strange spirit cards he could not understand, armament cards...

Ji Xun only took a glance and did not enter the shop. So it really was because they were cheap?

Back in the Alternate Dimension, he had seen Chujiu and those mercenaries use several kinds of magic cards.

But they had used them sparingly.

They relied more heavily on firearms.

Now that he saw the prices, he immediately understood why.

Magic cards were indeed far more powerful than firearms, and they could meet all kinds of different combat needs.

But their prices were absurd.

A grenade cost only 300, while a First Rank Blast Card cost 5,000.

Their physical destructive power was roughly similar, yet their prices differed by more than tenfold.

Still, there was nothing difficult to understand about that.

Firearms could be mass-produced on factory assembly lines. With this world's steam machinery so advanced, their manufacturing costs definitely were not high.

Cards, meanwhile, involved magic and the preservation of magical power. From what he could tell, they probably had to be refined by hand.

There was a reason they were expensive.

Besides, magic cards clearly had a much higher ceiling.

Grenades were already among the most powerful munitions in personal equipment, yet their power was only comparable to the lowest-grade cards.

As for those outrageously expensive high-rank cards, Ji Xun could tell from their names alone that they were formidable, and they all possessed unusual magical effects.

For example, a Chain Lightning card priced at over a hundred thousand.

Its skill effect was to instantly inflict lightning damage and paralysis on multiple targets within an area.

A human body could command the power of lightning?

Even with the technology of his previous life, that was extremely difficult.

As Ji Xun marveled at it, he also grew full of anticipation for the Extraordinary Power humans could wield in this world.

There was also a potion shop next door, likewise stocked with Alchemical Potions whose effects sounded miraculous.

Ji Xun nearly went cross-eyed looking at row after row of dazzling potion labels. He picked out several necessary basic potions and did not look any further.

High-grade potions could still be summed up in one word: expensive!

Ji Xun had only a small amount of cash taken from the mercenaries' corpses, nowhere near enough to buy high-grade potions.

He still did not understand this world's prices or its purchasing power.

But he soon found a point of reference.

There was a crude tavern in the camp, where a group of hunters ate, drank, and chatted.

Walking down the street, Ji Xun glanced over and saw: Black bread, 15 each; drinking water, 3 per liter.

That was not particularly expensive.

After walking for so long, he was hungry as well, so he took out some money and bought a piece of black bread as long as his forearm.

It looked a little like a baseball bat in his hand, hard as a rock.

He gave it a try.

To be fair, aside from the chance its hardness might chip a tooth, it tasted pretty good.

Once he bit through it, the carbohydrates were broken down by his saliva, and a sweet fragrance swept across his taste buds.

It was like the compressed biscuits from his previous life: texture did not matter, only the priority of meeting energy needs.

Ji Xun took a few bites and quickly felt his energy return.

Everything in the Demon Cross camp was new to Ji Xun.

Having just arrived, if he could, he planned to look around or sit in the tavern for a while.

He could listen to what people were talking about and learn what this world was really like.

But this was clearly not the time.

After buying a few supplies, Ji Xun hurried toward the train station behind the camp.

As he walked, his peripheral vision kept observing everything around him.

The camp was only the size of a small town, not very large. Before long, he reached the train station.

It was a very crude platform, apparently another of the Ancient Relics, with traces of time visible everywhere.

The station was bustling with people.

Workers were busily loading all kinds of materials recovered from the ruins onto the train, while treasure hunters laden with rewards boarded in small groups, beaming with delight.

Once a treasure hunt ended, anyone who had not died had surely made a profit.

The hunters would take this train back to Sinless City, then spend a long period living in drunken luxury.

Ji Xun's powers of observation were extraordinarily sharp. The moment he arrived, he immediately noticed something unusual.

People from the Blackwater Mercenary Group?

Amid the chaotic, lively crowd, Ji Xun instantly picked out several people with unusual expressions.

Other hunters were eager to go home and rushed to board the train, but these men kept scanning the crowd from the corners of their eyes, as though searching for something.

Ji Xun was not sure whether they were looking for him.

But even if they were, their intelligence was probably extremely limited. Perhaps all they knew was: one man and one woman?

He had worn a Gas Mask in the Alternate Dimension, so that Fourth Young Master Cao had not seen his face clearly. There were not many clues exposed.

As long as he did not give himself away, the chances of being discovered were low.

However, this world possessed Extraordinary Power.

Ji Xun did not dare let down his guard.

He matched the cheerful, light steps of the passersby, blended into the crowd, and walked openly toward the train without the slightest hint of furtiveness.