My Post-Apocalyptic Territory

Inside the small house, a middle-aged man was dozing off, looking rather bored.

After Li Xiuming gave the password, the other party let him pass.

When the inner bed board was opened, a hole was revealed.

"Go in. You should know the rules of the black market. This is the territory of the four major mercenary groups. If you cause trouble, don't even think about walking out," the middle-aged man warned.

Li Xiuming shuddered.

Tang Yu did not pay any attention.

A verbal warning is not as effective as sending out a few burly men, even though they are of little deterrent effect to him.

The passage slopes downwards, with steps in layers.

At first, it felt a bit narrow, but gradually it became spacious.

After walking for a while, the road ahead suddenly opened up, as if a small path had turned into a main road. The light became much brighter, and the sounds of people talking could be heard.

Tang Yu looked up and observed.

This is an underground tunnel, which looks quite old. Bright incandescent lights hang on both sides of the tunnel, and an arrow painted in bright red on one side of the wall indicates the direction of the black market.

This is probably an abandoned air-raid shelter. No wonder the black market dared to set up in a shelter; they must have found a place like this.

As you go further, you gradually see other survivors.

Most people were dressed similarly to them, wearing masks or other coverings to conceal their faces.

Some people are different; they walk confidently through the passageway in their finest attire, attracting envious glances from others.

Tang Yu wondered where these people came from, guessing that there were other entrances to this place.

That makes sense. If everyone had used the same route they came from, there would probably have been a traffic jam by now.

An iron gate appeared in front of the tunnel, with a sign that read "Welcome to the Lindong Black Market".

Tang Yu's lips twitched slightly.

Are all black markets this brazen these days?

The iron gate was open, and there were several guards in black standing nearby, their cold gazes sweeping over everyone who came in.

Tang Yu sensed that the weakest among them was at least at the second level of awakening, and the leader was at the third level of awakening. These should be the people sent by the four major mercenary groups to guard the place.

The four major mercenary groups are the only four large mercenary groups in the Eastern Sanctuary. Their strength far surpasses that of ordinary mercenary teams. Even the team sent out just to guard the area is strong enough to crush most mercenary teams.

That's really quite impressive.

I just don't know how many gates this black market has.

Are the guards rotated among the four mercenary groups, or are they all put together to serve? It seems like these guards could easily fill a mahjong table and a card game table.

He didn't even consider that problem.

After passing through the iron gate, the area becomes more open, and vendors can be seen hawking their wares everywhere.

Some people choose to sell their goods directly to the black market, while others find a spot to set up a stall... This is not free; they have to apply to the four major mercenary groups and pay a certain stall fee.

This was another quick way to make money, and Tang Yu's eyes turned red with envy.

"Let's set a small goal first: to eventually open black markets in all the major shelters!"

He wandered around for a long time. It was generally similar to a regular market, except that the goods sold were somewhat different.

Weapons are common here, including powerful individual weapons like rocket launchers, which are not sold in official supermarkets.

Aside from redeeming it with mission points, the only other way to buy it is on the black market.

No wonder the black market is so bustling.

Besides these, there are many other strange items, some real and some fake, some of which may have come from dubious sources. But that's the black market. You might find a bargain, or you might buy something worthless, or you might get into trouble because of it.

Whatever you buy, good or bad, you're on your own.

This is part of the allure of the black market; people come every day hoping to snag a bargain, and then you'll see many people wailing and crying at the entrance tunnel.

As a unique feature of the black market, it attracts many people to stop and watch every day.

Tang Yu didn't find anything he liked; he didn't see the awakening potion or the soul power container, and he was somewhat disappointed.

Yilian and Grayblade also bought some small items, which were delivered using Source Crystals.

Even the patrol team gets paid, and as followers, they have even more Source Crystals in their pockets.

Li Xiuming was just on a sightseeing tour, but he still managed to broaden his horizons.

The group dispersed and wandered around on their own.

Tang Yu's eyes lit up when he saw a stall.

This stall was quite large, selling a wide variety of items, and most importantly, he finally saw the Awakening Potion.

The quality isn't very good.

This is of medium quality, and it's actually quite sought after. Most of the potions circulating in the market are of the lowest quality. At this moment, someone has already taken a liking to this bottle of potion and is talking to the stall owner.

He arrived at the stall.

A burly man next to him greeted him with a smile, "Brother, is this your first time here?"

Tang Yu paused for a moment, then said, "Yes."

The burly man continued, "Brother, are you overwhelmed by all this? Let me tell you, while the stuff on the black market is good, you have to be careful when you buy it."

Tang Yu's expression was strange.

He wasn't surprised that people noticed him, since he was looking around curiously. But this was the black market, wasn't it? Shouldn't everyone be passing by indifferently? Why were you being so enthusiastic?

The art style is a bit off.

Tang Yu even felt that the person's voice was familiar. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that this was the Zhou-surnamed captain he had seen when he rented the house, who had rented a four-star room!

No wonder so many awakened beings know this person; it turns out he has an innate passion attribute.

Zhou Jianhong did not recognize Tang Yu, but seemed to sense Tang Yu's confusion.

"Do you think you should keep a low profile when you come to the black market? Actually, there's no need to. Just treat the black market like a normal market."

"How so?"

"This black market is located inside the shelter. If there were few people, it would be fine, but with so many people coming and going every day, do you think the authorities wouldn't notice? In my opinion, although this black market is not openly public, the authorities are actually tacitly approving it. This is probably because some high-ranking figures are having some shady dealings."

Tang Yu agreed.

This black market isn't exactly hidden; even an ordinary person like Li Xiuming could find out about it.

This guy, however, is a fairly capable Awakened One, so he knows a lot more information. Tang Yu asked, "What about the four major mercenary groups? Everyone says that this black market is managed by the four major mercenary groups."

Zhou Jianhong was indeed enthusiastic. "That's right. After all, the government doesn't allow the black market to exist on the surface, so it can't interfere with its management. Apart from the big shots in Lin Dong, the strongest forces are the four major mercenary groups. The names of these four mercenary groups are very intimidating. I've been to the black market so many times, and I've never seen anyone dare to cause trouble here."

The two chatted for a few more minutes. Seeing that Zhou Jianhong knew a lot about the black market, Tang Yu asked him if he had any connections to get a soul power container.

"I can't get my hands on this stuff, but you've come at the right time, brother. There's an auction on the black market tonight, and some pretty valuable items will be released. Judging by the time, the auction is about to start."

After asking the questions, Tang Yu bid farewell to Zhou Jianhong.

He circled the entire black market and finally found the venue for the auction, deeper inside the air-raid shelter... It wasn't that he insisted on circling the black market, but rather that the air-raid shelter had many branches and twists and turns.

If it weren't for good luck, Tang Yu estimated that he would have had to spin around a few more times.

At that moment, the auction was just beginning, and upon arrival, I saw many awakened individuals entering the auction hall.

Instead of going in, he went around to a deserted place and took out several standard longswords from his spatial backpack.

Then, my gaze fell on another place next to the auction venue, where a sign read "Auction Item Appraisal Area".