Chapter Twenty-Four: Doctor Shepherd’s Miraculous Healing Hands

The fact that the Ten-Death Beasts could be physically driven away was good news. While it was still safe, it seemed practical to make a few more barrels of gunpowder. Without further ado, he got to work.

In less than ten minutes, he had produced two more fifty-kilogram barrels and one hundred-kilogram barrel of gunpowder.

[You believe there are some risks in detonating a one-hundred-pound barrel of gunpowder. Within a hundred meters, angry shards of rock will definitely teach you what true puncture wounds feel like.]

“A hundred meters? Is black powder really that powerful?” Mu Chen was taken aback. Black powder was far less potent than yellow powder, yet he hadn’t expected that even with just a hundred kilograms, the information prompt still warned that withdrawing nearly a hundred meters wasn’t enough.

The gunpowder barrels he’d crafted reminded him of a game he’d played years ago. Back then, players could clear high-difficulty dungeons with a single life, but a simple gas canister could easily kill them. Everyone praised, “Gas canisters are number one in the world.”

Now, he had become the maker of such terrifying things.

He opened the map, confirmed everyone’s current location, and decided that they would spend the next day resting in the area. If he could kill three more juvenile aberrations, he would reach level five, so he planned to strike while the iron was hot and upgrade the territory as soon as possible.

There were more and more monsters in the red mist. If they kept wandering, who knew when they might stumble into the jaws of some creature they couldn’t handle.

...

He opened the world channel.

Most people were still struggling to survive. This time, he finally checked the unusually active private chat channel.

“Mu Chen, please take me with you! I’m at *** in Zone 9, begging for your help...”

Messages like this were countless. He didn’t bother reading each one carefully, just flipped through them generally.

Suddenly, a message caught his eye.

Mu Qiu: “I am the person in charge of the survival base at the Lanzhou Military District. I hope we can cooperate. If you have any new discoveries inside the red mist, we can trade at equal value—the terms are up to you.”

The message had been left ten hours ago, right after Mu Chen’s first announcement on the world channel.

He stroked his chin. This was no ordinary person—just from the self-introduction, it was clear he had to be a high-ranking officer in the military. With all electrical communications wiped out under the red mist, to have already begun establishing a survival base in such a short time was not something just anyone could accomplish.

Moreover, he mentioned trading...

That meant this person had already killed an adult aberration.

With such a vast population, there would never be a shortage of extraordinary talents. Mu Chen chuckled self-mockingly.

He certainly wasn’t lacking in information, especially with his own noted prompts. Being able to propose the specific terms of the trade was a boon; from Mu Chen’s perspective, this was a win-win, and he wished for as many survivors as possible.

But what to trade?

Mu Chen pondered.

Weapons, drinking water, and... labor!

Although firearms were loud and might attract nearby monsters, their benefits were undeniable. Thermobaric and fuel-air bombs were out of the question—even if they existed, the other side wouldn’t agree—but some firearms should be fine.

For example: long-range sniper rifles... grenades!

“Jiu’er, we’ll rest here for the next few hours. If you’re tired, take a break,” he said, noticing his sister sitting in her chair, bored and lost in thought.