A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1435 - 973: The Gathering Place

Chapter 1435: Chapter 973: The Gathering Place

Fortunately, with Aiden’s explanation, the Guards finally let them in. Of course, while they allowed them entry, they also made it clear...

"If any of you dare to do something dangerous, we will shoot immediately!"

At first, everyone didn’t understand why the atmosphere in this gathering place was so tense. But as they walked deeper inside, the reason for the tension became immediately apparent.

On an open space in the gathering area, dozens of corpses were piled up. Several Guards were holding firewood and gasoline nearby, while some people beside them were crying uncontrollably...

"Looks like they lost quite a few people here last night."

Tall City Saye observed carefully before quietly speaking. Her expression was somewhat stiff, which wasn’t surprising. After all, under the circumstances of the Blood Moon, not every place had the kind of Strength like the Tribunal. Particularly, the larger the gathering place, the heavier the losses tended to be.

"Hmm, this is a bit interesting."

Duanmu Huai stood still, ignoring the fearful gazes cast his way by the people around him, as he curiously examined the surroundings. These survivors had occupied a large factory as their base. Judging from its exterior, it appeared to be a food processing factory, which made sense as to why people in the city would choose this spot as a gathering place.

"Why is this so expensive?"

While Duanmu Huai was curiously inspecting the gathering place, Joel’s voice came from not far away. Turning his head, he saw Joel, his face red with frustration, arguing with a Guard who looked distinctly impatient.

"What’s going on?"

Curious, Duanmu Huai walked over and asked. Upon seeing him, the Guard’s expression shifted slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, Joel began to complain.

"The stuff at this gathering place is far too expensive. I originally just wanted to trade for some stored dry rations, but he asked me for one hundred bullets!"

Ever since the apocalypse began, money had naturally become useless. Forget about cap-based currencies—they were sheer nonsense. According to Aiden and Joel, most transactions in this world were strictly barter-based. For example, if you had medicine and I had food, we could exchange items we needed.

Joel had come to the gathering place intending to buy some dry rations for himself and Ellie, and to trade for other supplies. However, to his surprise, the gathering place primarily valued gasoline and diesel for energy reserves, followed by medicines. The equipment and mechanical parts Joel had scavenged along the way did have some demand, but it was relatively low.

If Joel hadn’t been lucky enough to find a few boxes of cigarettes—one of the wasteland’s hard currencies—the other party probably wouldn’t have even given Joel a second glance.

"Even if you say that, our demand for those specific items is indeed low."

Although the Guard felt somewhat intimidated by Duanmu Huai’s presence, he persisted in arguing his point. After all, in a post-apocalyptic world, every resource was tied to life and death; items couldn’t be traded lightly.

Joel and the Guard argued back and forth, but the Guard wouldn’t budge easily. Medicine was a hard currency that could save lives, while cigarettes were merely for distraction...

"All this yelling back and forth isn’t going to achieve anything."

After listening for a while, Duanmu Huai came to the conclusion that this was basically the same as haggling over vegetables at a street market. "This vegetable for a dollar-fifty is too expensive; sell it to me for a dollar." "A dollar won’t do; the minimum is a dollar-thirty." Feeling utterly uninterested, he lost patience.

"If you can’t agree on a price, isn’t there another solution?"

"Another solution?"

Joel and the Guard paused upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s suggestion, momentarily taken aback. Duanmu Huai nodded.

"I recall that Aiden is something like a... Wanderer or whatever. He takes on commissions and gets rewarded accordingly... Can’t you do the same? If the price negotiation isn’t going anywhere, do you have any missions he could complete? As compensation for completing the task, you could reward him with medicine or something. Wouldn’t that work?"

"This..."

The Guard and Joel were briefly stunned. After some thought, the Guard glanced at Joel, then back at Duanmu Huai.

"If that’s the case, I do have a mission for you. If you can complete it, we’ll be able to provide you with some of the supplies you need."

"That generous? It must be dangerous."

"Of course, it’s dangerous."

The Guard spoke honestly, nodding.

"When you entered the gathering place, you must’ve seen those corpses."

"Yes, we saw them."

"Actually, they were originally tasked with a critical mission..."

Shortly after, the Guard explained the situation to Duanmu Huai and Joel. After the apocalypse began, this gathering place gradually expanded and took in many refugees. However, they faced a significant challenge—their energy supply wasn’t sufficient. The food processing factory had several backup emergency generators, but lacked enough fuel.

Previously, the gathering place had dispatched people to collect fuel from nearby gas stations. But now, the surrounding stations had all been depleted.

Fortunately, recently, a Scout from the gathering place brought back promising news. On the other side of the city, they found an intact fuel pipeline and a small oil storage facility. Though just a small warehouse, if they could seize it and establish a transport route connecting it to the factory, their fuel problem could be resolved for the foreseeable future.

The gathering place assembled a team to try to secure the oil storage facility and open the transport route.

However...

Ultimately, they failed.

The reason was simple—not enough time.

If the world didn’t experience Blood Moon outbreaks every seven days, they might have succeeded by advancing slowly. But unfortunately, this world faced a bloodthirsty zombie frenzy every seven days, making steady progress impossible.

Speeding up to beat the clock wasn’t feasible either, as they lacked sufficient Strength.

The end result? They failed to secure the route before the Blood Moon arrived, suffering heavy casualties.

So...

"If you can open the route to the oil storage facility and eliminate the zombies occupying it, we could indeed provide you with some resource support."

"This..."

Hearing the Guard’s request, Joel frowned. He knew it would be impossible for him to pull this off. At best, he might be able to bring back a few barrels of fuel... though even that would be risky.

"Hmm..."

Unexpectedly, Duanmu Huai pondered for a moment before responding.

"Alright, no problem."

"Huh?"

Joel and Ellie couldn’t help but freeze, shocked by Duanmu Huai’s answer.

After all, this was clearly their issue and seemingly had nothing to do with the Tribunal.

Soon, Duanmu Huai called the group together and explained the situation.

After listening, the survivors were understandably surprised. From their perspective, getting material support from the gathering place was indeed desirable. However—they thought about it—this task was ultimately their own problem. Joel and Ellie needed these supplies to continue their journey, so taking risks was only natural.

But... why would the Tribunal bother to get involved in their risky endeavor?

"We do need resources, and it’s clearly important to us as well. But..."

Tall City Saye furrowed her brow and looked at Duanmu Huai.

"Mr. Duanmu, the Tribunal doesn’t need these supplies, right? Are you helping out purely because of... goodwill?"

"Of course not."

Duanmu Huai shook his head.

"The Tribunal’s mission is to protect humanity’s survival and eliminate anything threatening human existence. As far as this gathering place is concerned, at least for now, it counts as one of the Sparks of human civilization. Since they need help, the Tribunal—true to its mission—will naturally assist them. However, how we choose to proceed is ultimately up to us."

Saying this, Duanmu Huai glanced at Tall City Saye.

"Just like you. For the Tribunal, aiding you was also part of our mission. After all, humans must survive in order to continue the existence of civilization. Understand?"

"This... okay, I think I understand. It’s just a bit..."

The survivors couldn’t help but marvel at Duanmu Huai’s response. In an era like this, in a world like this, the idea of saving humanity was almost unheard of. Nearly everyone fought for self-interest, making an organization like the Tribunal difficult to even imagine for these people.

And the Tribunal wasn’t just speaking empty words—they truly acted on them.

Of course, the survivors weren’t aware that Duanmu Huai had other motives. On the one hand, helping others was indeed part of the Tribunal’s duty. On the other, Duanmu Huai was testing the waters—taking on tasks aimlessly. Since he didn’t know where the world’s main storyline was, he figured he’d take on random missions for now. Who knows? Completing one might lead him to the main quest.

Earlier, the gathering place’s Commander had also discussed matters with Duanmu Huai, resulting in informal agreements. Judging from the situation, this seemed to be the main questline for the gathering place: opening transport routes, seizing the oil storage facility... Ah, what a hassle wasteland missions were.

Thinking about this, Duanmu Huai scratched his head. If this were a normal Fragmented World, he could at least identify a core point of civilization. Here, everything seemed battered and broken with no definitive civilization hubs—possibly none existed at all. If that were the case, then he’d...

Sigh. Sandbox games always had this drawback: endless side quests and no main quests. It was unbearable.

Right now, Duanmu Huai felt like one of those players who had just crawled out from a shelter, staring at the scarred wasteland of Fallout with a dazed "Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?" look.

And worse, there was no Pip-Boy to guide him either.

No way he’d just spend all his time scavenging junk.

"Whatever, a side quest is still a quest. Let’s get to work."

After thinking it over, Duanmu Huai made the decision and announced it directly. The other survivors deliberated among themselves, eventually agreeing to join the task. After all, the gathering place’s Leader had promised that if they succeeded, they’d prioritize providing this group with the best supplies. Duanmu Huai seemed uninterested, but for wasteland wanderers? Having extra resources was crucial. Not to mention, under ordinary circumstances this task would probably be suicidal. But now, with Duanmu Huai leading—the Tribunal’s combat prowess was something they’d already seen firsthand—it felt like an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

So, after some group discussion, they decided: Fortune favors the bold—let’s do it!