Chapter 88: Welcome to Red Moon Mountain
The scorching sun hung high in the sky.
The previously deserted Red Moon Mountain was now bustling with a large number of players drenched in sweat, each with an excited expression, shuttling through the mine as if they were tireless machines, leaving the vagabonds delivering building materials to Red Moon Mountain dumbfounded.
"These people from the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, are they really such madmen? Are they so addicted even to mining?"
"Damn! I think I saw a few Advanced Apprentices mining!"
"No way, those are Advanced Apprentices. In major wild gangs, they are high-ranking figures, and yet the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is willing to let them mine?"
"Could it be that the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is seriously short on people, so they have to let them mine?"
"But don't normal gangs just hire vagabonds to mine? Why do they need to get involved personally?"
"That's true. Do you think the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall intends to use delivering these materials as an excuse to keep us all here mining?"
Dozens of vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race who came to deliver building materials and professional tools on large three-wheelers looked at the apprentice-level players continuously running out of the mine with energy ores on their backs. For a while, they felt a bit nervous and were afraid to approach the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall's warehouse.
A wild major gang ranked 42nd doesn't hire undocumented vagabonds to mine but is willing to let a group of apprentice-level experts do it. It's simply unimaginable what this gang might make the undocumented vagabonds do.
The discussions among these vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race, along with the tense atmosphere, soon caught the attention of the novice players moving ores.
"Brother God, what do you think those NPCs from the Three-Eyed Race are talking about? They all look so nervous." A newbie who had just entered the Descent of High Martial looked curiously at the tense vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race while carrying a large sack of energy ores on his back.
"They're probably speaking their racial language, I can't understand either." Twilight of the Gods, also carrying a large sack, glanced over and shook his head, but soon looked cautiously at those vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race, "But judging from their nervous looks, especially seeing us with energy ores, it's very likely that they think we're stealing their business."
"Stealing business?" The Outer Gunman asked a bit puzzled, "What business are we stealing?"
"Outer, don't you know? When I came to Red Moon Mountain two days ago, I specifically explored the whole Red Moon Mountain and saw a mine managed by the Cyan Sparrow Gang, which was full of mining vagabonds." Twilight of the Gods explained, "I heard that those vagabonds were hired by the Cyan Sparrow Gang, and these vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race coming over might be hired by the Hall Master to mine. Seeing us mining so much, it's natural for them to be nervous. The energy ores are limited, the more we mine, the less it's left, and once it's mined out, there's nothing left."
"Damn! That's true, we need to hurry up. If we wait for these NPCs to come and snatch the ores, we'll be able to mine even less." The Outer Gunman immediately looked vigilantly at those vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race, and the speed of their transport also increased a bit.
In the past two days, their three teams have been trying desperately to settle in Red Moon Mountain and have their own residence, even slowing down their exploration of the Maze Tunnel.
And when the Outer Gunman and others looked sharply at the vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race, those vagabonds almost cried, feeling even more that the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had bad intentions by asking them to deliver goods.
Lin Qi walked out of the warehouse, looking at the vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race who were standing still, utterly puzzled about why these vagabonds were so engrossed in watching the players mining.
"Just move the goods inside." Lin Qi said in the common language of the High Martial World.
"Yes, sir!" The vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race felt like they had received a pardon and quickly went to move the building materials and machinery from the large three-wheelers to the warehouse.
"As expected, language barriers are an issue. It seems we need to find someone fluent in the common language to manage the daily matters of Red Moon Mountain." Lin Qi noted, watching the vagabonds from the Three-Eyed Race working quickly, realizing that they probably didn't understand what the players were saying, so they were idling and watching the mining.
Because of the many races in the High Martial World, many races have their own languages, and since Chasing Light City was originally a Human Race city, even though it was rebuilt a hundred years ago and is jointly managed by various races, the Human Race language is still one of the mainstream languages in Chasing Light City, and many aliens learn it.
However, it's different in the wild. Vagabonds who often venture into the wild, unlike those living in cities, can barely fill their stomachs, let alone have time to learn other races' languages.
According to Qin Mu and Luo Qi, the Human Race language is useless in the surrounding big cities; to thrive in these cities, one must learn the common language or the language of several peak races of the High Martial World.
Now that the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is trying to establish a foothold in the wild, when players cannot communicate with the wild vagabonds normally, it's quite inconvenient, and Lin Qi cannot stay at Red Moon Mountain at all times, making managing the vagabonds coming to Red Moon Mountain very troublesome.
After exploring Red Moon Mountain for the past two days, Lin Qi found that this place is quite good.
Although Red Moon Mountain is not on any major trade route, it is not far from several large cities, with the farthest being just over three hundred kilometers away, besides Chasing Light City, the nearest city is Ten Thousand Stars City, which is just over two hundred kilometers away.
All the major cities in the High Martial World have some trade interactions, though a few hundred kilometers isn't much. Considering the wild creatures, transport convoys, and smuggling vagabonds, the journey is slow and not as free as the players.
So Red Moon Mountain, which has no monster activities along the way, can serve as a great resting spot, making it a good choice for selling goods from other cities or restocking during a break at Red Moon Mountain.
If Red Moon Mountain can be turned into a transit market, it would mean significant income for the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
Lin Qi felt quite troubled about expanding the martial arts hall, estimating that the required investment would roughly be over ten million Bits, and with energy ores unsellable, relying solely on Fang Zhen and others slaying a Single-Horned Gold-devouring Rat every few days could take forever to finish expanding the hall.
But if the transit market could get going, it could be a financial boon, comparable to opening a trade market in the city's outskirts, allowing him just to wait and collect money.
Of course, to create a transit market between cities, there's a significant prerequisite: a good business environment.
Without a good and secure business environment, transport convoys and smuggling vagabonds wouldn't come.
The first step in establishing this is the accommodation environment, which requires building many houses. Solely relying on players isn't enough; recruiting wild vagabonds to help is necessary, and this requires someone to manage them.
As for the safety of Red Moon Mountain, Lin Qi wasn't too worried.
In the past two days, with the introduction of the new Shocking God Breathing Technique, all players, whether old or new, improved their skills rapidly. Now, the number of Advanced Apprentices alone had exceeded ten, while Intermediate Apprentices had surpassed thirty, and the total number of apprentices was seventy. The overall strength ranked within the top seventy or eighty in the major wild gangs.
As for himself, he had finally achieved the status of a quasi-martial artist. In the wild vagabond community, he could be considered a local dominator.
While Lin Qi was busy building Red Moon Mountain, a convoy also arrived at the foot of Red Moon Mountain.
"Brother Fluo, are you sure this is Red Moon Mountain?"
Inside a large transport vehicle, a burly man with four arms looked in surprise at the wooden stakes surrounding it, resembling a mountain fortress, with two over five-meter-high wooden gates and over six Intermediate Apprentices standing there like city guards in an imposing stance. Undocumented vagabonds were being inspected one by one as they entered Red Moon Mountain.
Inside the vehicle, Fluo looked at Red Moon Mountain, which was empty just a few days ago, in total astonishment.