BXBX NOVEL Chapter 57 - 57, Dissension in the Underworld
A corpse?
The middle-aged man frowned slightly, falling into brief silence.
Eyeing him, Wu Heng asked curiously, “For the Snake Badge Consortium, this shouldn’t be difficult, should it?”
According to about Vice-Executive Slyther, the Snake Badge Consortium is a large-scale organization that prioritizes profit above all else.
Acquiring a corpse shouldn’t be difficult, should it?
Why the silence then?
If they dare not procure a corpse, what kind of consortium are they?
“Of course, it’s not a problem.” The middle-aged man gave a small smile of admission, then added, “However, due to certain factors, it may take a longer time. It all depends on whether you, the client, are willing to wait.”
“How come?”
“Black Stone Town has been closely investigating such matters recently, which could cause some delay. Naturally, if given the opportunity, we will do our utmost to fulfill your request.” The middle-aged man gave a brief explanation. Others might be perplexed by this, but Wu Heng understood the reasoning. Black Stone Town has been investigating necromancers, even the incineration of bodies requires professional teams and guards to supervise each other; they attach great importance to this issue.
This place is part of the black market, but it’s not far from Black Stone Town; you could say it’s an underground market of sorts.
As such, the Snake Badge Consortium is willing to accept clients’ requests, but they don’t want to involve themselves at this point.
They might suspect that anyone asking to buy a corpse is the necromancer wanted by Black Stone Town.
The fact that they accept this request already proves the Snake Badge Consortium is very courageous.
“That’s fine,” replied Wu Heng.
He didn’t want to bring unnecessary trouble by buying a corpse.
After all, he can spend money on potion research at the association, coming here is merely to ask out of a possible necessity.
“Alright, please wait a moment, sir.”
The middle-aged man stepped out and returned with a blank contract.
He continued, “Sir, do you have any specific requirements for this corpse? For example, its level, or the race and gender it was before death?”
Wu Heng thought for a while.
There seemed to be no need for specific race and gender.
Alchemy is mostly about knowledge; it doesn’t relate much to race.
Moreover, the more specific the requirements, the harder it will be to find a corpse, and the longer it will take.
“It should be more professional in terms of alchemy, other things don’t matter,” Wu Heng continued.
The middle-aged man recorded the contract details on paper. “Sir, due to the particularity of the contract, the deposit is about 50% more than usual.”
“Alright, how much?”
“300 silver coins. The remaining balance will be reassessed based on the level and preservation of the corpse.”
That’s a lot for just the deposit.
It seemed as though he was buying a corpse made of gold.
This amount was enough to post five or six alchemy contracts at the association.
But since things have gotten to this point, it wouldn’t be good to back out now, and he did need a corpse indeed.
He took out his purse, counted out 300 silver coins, and handed them to the man.
The middle-aged man nodded, “Sir, could you please lend me your crest for a moment?”
He handed over his crest.
The man took out something similar to stamp ink, pressed the crest into it, and then stamped it directly onto the completed contract.
When he picked it up, a clear pattern had been left.
This crest also served as a seal.
Done, sir,” the man returned the clean crest, continuing, “When the corpse arrives, it will be posted on the notice board at the entrance.”
“Fine,” Wu Heng stood up and headed out.
After leaving the room, he went downstairs along the staircase. He walked among the crowd, continuing to browse the stalls in the black market.
The variety of goods on sale was still considerable.
But there wasn’t much that could be of use.
The only stall that caught his attention was the one where he had bought the special item – the Corpse-Wrap.
With the same few items on display, the shopkeeper’s sitting pose hadn’t changed at all.
People who asked for the price only received a voice from under the black robe; the robe itself didn’t even stir.
His patience was impressive; if it were him, he would definitely be sore and tired by now.
After looking around and buying two bundles of crossbow arrows, he left the black market.
He got into the carriage and went back to his accommodation.
After getting up and having breakfast in the early morning, Wu Heng headed for the Professionals’ Association.
Upon pushing open the door to the team’s rest room, he saw ‘Autruck’ the team captain sitting alone in the room.
“Morning, Captain,” he greeted Autruck.
“Ah, perfect timing.”
“Is there a mission?” Wu Heng curiously asked.
“Not exactly a mission.” Autruck signaled him to sit down and continued, “Cavina, Yuli, and I had a discussion. We’re thinking of taking a new delegate assignment to improve our team’s synergy. What do you think?”
Ever since a member of their squad was injured in the fight against the Church of Divine Punishment, the association did not assign them any new missions.
Those who were injured were recovering, and those who needed rest were resting.
Out of the four-pro occupation squads, theirs was the most inactive.
And among the squad members, Wu Heng was the most inactive one, not even going to the association, sometimes he was nowhere to be found.
So, seeing Wu Heng now, they brought up the matter in advance to hear his thoughts.
“Sure, what kind of assignment is it? It’d be better if it’s not too dangerous.” Wu Heng said.
He didn’t have to worry about survival since he had looted a gold shop.
But he had to consider the livelihood of the other team members.
“No rush, Yuli is collecting information. We’ll pick a suitable one when the time comes.”
Yuli?
She just arrived at Black Stone Town. What kind of information could she possibly gather?
At most, she might be able to gather information about some local delicacies.
“Okay,” Wu Heng agreed, and then continued to ask, “Has there been anything happening at the association lately?”
“Nothing much. Our main focus is still on that Necromancer in Mining Village no other major issues.”
“Right, the world is better off in peace.”
You sound nothing like a Necromancer when you say that.”
After leaving the association, he swung by the Deer Antler Shop to buy some potions.
He bought a number of Spirit Potions, Healing Potions, Detoxifying Potions, and so on, to be prepared for unexpected events.
Upon returning to his residence and closing the door, he headed straight to the ZombieWorld.
Once in the Zombie World, he climbed to the rooftop to check on the skeletons.
After making sure there was no problem, he rallied all the skeletons and descended from the rooftop with his weapon.
Last night, he replanned his schedule.
He can’t spend all his time on transforming bodies.
His mam priority was to kill zombies, and the rest of the time was for transformation.
Accumulating experience was one thing, but he also suspected that zombies were slowly evolving, which might make them harder to kill in the future.
Wu Heng led the squad of skeletons out of the residential area through the north gate.
They moved north along the intersection destroyed by a damaged passenger bus.
The zombies nearby had already been cleaned up, and the sporadic ones didn’t pose any threat.
Any that charged at them were immediately killed by the skeletons wielding kitchen knives.
“Uncle, where are we going?” Xiao Xiao, floating in the air, curiously asked.
“To the hardware store.”
“What are we going to do there?”
“See if there’s anything useful in there.”
He remembered there was a pretty big hardware store in this direction. If there was anywhere in the neighborhood one could find iron pipe tools, he could only think of this place.
“Oh!”
Xiao Xiao gave a simple response and then lay down on his shoulder without any more questions.
As they moved along the road, they began to encounter more and more zombies.
The sound of fighting grew louder, and zombies from nearby started to come out in droves.
“Attack!” Wu Heng issued the command to attack.
The kitchen knife-wielding skeletons bypassed the Spear Soldiers and lunged at the zombies ahead.
Blood spattered, and the sound of a knife chopping into bones echoed through the area.
Somewhere in the distance.
On the roof of a shop near the road.
A figure stood at the edge, looking ahead.
His face was pale, and he wore a look of undeniable fear.
A large number of zombies could be seen, coming out of the lanes down below and converging in the same direction.
Across the street, he could see a group of skeletons wielding weapons, engaged in a battle with the zombies.
Blood and limbs were flying everywhere.
“Damn it, what’s going on?”
At that moment, a serious inquiry came through the earphone connected to his walkie-talkie, “What’s happening outside? Feels like we’re surrounded by zombies.”
The voice was very low, as if they were scared of being heard by the zombies.
The man on the roof swallowed his spit and pressed the talk button, “Cao, it’s chaos in the underworld. The skeletons and zombies are fighting each other.”