There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

"That person's name is..."

“Shafulin…”

Chapter 294 The Greatest Charity

“Um… you mentioned Lord Shaflin…” Burnett stammered, seemingly wanting to find out more details, but I stared at him sternly and he couldn’t continue.

"Don't push your luck. That person's name isn't something to be mentioned lightly." I looked at the ceiling with reverence. "You're only alive now thanks to that person's generosity. But that doesn't mean that person will tolerate your insignificant offenses..."

My tone was very serious, which frightened Burnett into being speechless. They both looked up at the sky in terror, as if there really was a huge and all-pervasive mastermind watching over this wild land.

Burnett forced a smile, straightened his receding hairline, and asked me, "Okay... um... boss, what's your name? I haven't asked you yet."

"Just call me Zoffy. I'm just an ordinary tavern owner," I said calmly, as if I were recounting something completely mundane.

"Mr. Zoffy, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Burnett quickly expressed his admiration.

"Don't worry, I only borrowed that person's power to spy on your secret. I can't use this kind of power casually under normal circumstances."

Burnett smiled awkwardly, took a bite of the smoked salmon on his plate, and let out a satisfied sigh, as if the food was soothing him and slowly suppressing all the shock in his heart.

"I have an old buddy who came with me, probably still in Silent Valley. I need to go back and get him. Zoffy, it's time for us to say goodbye!"

Want to run?

I raised an eyebrow, pointed to the door, and asked, "Are you talking about the person at the door?"

There was no one where I was pointing, but a dromedary camel blinking its big, bewildered eyes.

The dromedary camel had only one hump, and its fur ranged from dark brown to dark gray. Its hair was shorter and softer than that of a Bactrian camel, and it had longer legs, a longer head and neck, and a shorter tail. However, due to its advanced age, it had begun to lose hair in many areas.

At this moment, the dromedary camel was tied to a tree by the door, surrounded by three wild horses with unique and arrogant hairstyles. In particular, the leader of the wild horses, a punk-style one, was practically shoving its face into the camel's eyes, leaving the camel trembling with fear and nowhere to escape.

"Beth! You're here too!"

Burnett rushed out of the door with delight, affectionately stroking the molting dromedary camel, and then with even more affectionate and gentle movements, stroking the burlap sack it was carrying.

But soon, the three wild horses did the same thing, surrounding the merchant who had inadvertently become alone.

Dromedary camels are suitable for riding. They are taller than Bactrian camels and run faster, maintaining a speed of 13-14 kilometers per hour when ridden. In addition, dromedary camels can be used to carry goods, and their milk and meat are for human consumption. This should be Burnett's caravan companion.

"Boss... boss! What are those wild horses doing in front of your house? They're not going to attack anyone, are they?" Burnett pleaded with me, his voice trembling. The three horses surrounded him like a wall, and if they were to launch an attack, he and that old camel probably wouldn't stand a chance.

Attacking people? You're seriously underestimating them! These guys dare to snipe at a leopard right in the middle; their temperaments perfectly match their hairstyles—pure-blooded punk aristocrats!

"Oh, those are my horses." I stepped out of the room, glared at them, and the horses obediently lowered their heads and went to graze.

Burnett breathed a sigh of relief, looking at me with a mixture of gratitude and awe. "Boss Zoffy, this place really is full of hidden talents... Otherwise, I would still..."

Just then, a sudden gust of wind howled, and a figure quickly swept past Burnett, almost crashing into the dromedary tied to the tree.

In an instant, the terrified cries of the dromedary camels resounded through the sky, almost piercing through the air!

In Burnett's view, a magnificent cheetah with a colorful coat leaped down from the roof, its head held high, and walked toward us with a fierce and arrogant air.

"Boss... there's a cheetah! A cheetah!!"

The gentle dromedary camel had already lifted its front legs off the ground, desperately trying to break free of its reins and escape this dangerous area. Burnett, on the other hand, was not bound by reins, yet its entire body seemed to be tied up with ropes, trembling and swaying in place, unable to move even half a step.

The cheetah's claws were irretractable, so it strode forward menacingly, slowly and steadily approaching our location, baring its sharp teeth and letting out a low growl.

As the cheetah drew closer, Burnett's eyes grew increasingly desperate, as if he could already see himself being disemboweled. He only managed to stay upright by clinging tightly to my shoulders.

After a sudden roar, the cheetah pressed down with its front paws, pushed off with its hind legs, and suddenly pounced forward. Its colorful body was instantly in front of Burnett, and its foul breath was sprayed onto his face without any restraint.

Burnett had lost the will to resist. He closed his eyes, his hands raised in front of him, making a futile struggle. Having lived in the wilderness, he knew very well what encountering a cheetah at such a short distance meant. Admittedly, the cheetah wasn't the absolute apex predator, but for an unarmed businessman like him, it was an insurmountable and terrifying creature.

But... the attack he had imagined never came. He felt the surroundings were eerily quiet, and he didn't hear "Boss Zoffy's" screams either.

Burnett didn't dare to open his eyes for a long time. He saw the ferocious cheetah lying at his feet, rolling around without any decorum, being trampled and spun around on the ground by his feet.

"...Boss Zoffy, what's going on with this leopard?"

I grabbed the cheetah's back, watching its face contort into a comical expression due to the black tear stains around its eyes, and calmly introduced it, "Oh, I haven't had a chance to introduce it yet. This guy is also mine. Don't worry, he generally doesn't eat people when I'm around."

"They don't usually eat people?! If you weren't here, would you have eaten me already?!"

"Burnet roared in exasperation. He felt that ever since he met this strange man, there wasn't a single normal thing left in his life. One minute he was being attacked and knocked unconscious, the next it was the mysterious "that person," then a ferocious, strange wild horse, and now this obedient domestic leopard?"

Burnett screamed inwardly in despair, "What the hell is this place?!"

I smiled slightly: "Burnette, you're a businessman, right? Do you have any goods you can trade?"

This man with a receding hairline didn't have a fierce and unyielding personality; he was also incredibly timid. I could tell he was afraid that I would unleash a leopard on him if we disagreed, so he swallowed his anger, abandoned his escape plan, and obediently followed me back to the tavern to fulfill his duties as a merchant.

Seeing his dejected look, I couldn't bear it and comforted him, "Don't be so discouraged. Business is the greatest form of charity. Since you're here, you should at least donate something to me, right? I accept cash, credit cards, and loans. Oh, and organ donation is fine too!"

Chapter 295 Arms-Free Zone

“Boss Zoffy…”

Burnett followed behind me hesitantly, and only spoke after a long while.

"I initially thought it was already a terrible thing that this planet had a Doomsday Squad and Heart Raiders. But now it seems that all of this is just child's play in front of that great man..."

I went inside, returned to the bar, and smiled at the middle-aged man before me. I said in a refined and approachable manner, "You're from Dunhuang? So many murals?"

"...Although I don't understand, I feel offended." Burnett sensed something was wrong intuitively, but dared not say it aloud, so he could only mutter it to himself.

I added, “Don’t overthink it. Dunhuang is a temple of art. This is a greeting from my hometown, expressing our respect for painting. Art is a common pursuit of mankind, capable of transcending races and worlds. For example, I’m very interested in your stone mask.”

Burnett resignedly sat down and pointed to the mask in my hand, explaining, "This stone war mask is something I traded from the Cedar Clan's stronghold. Those barbarians are steeped in a culture of blood and honor; anyone who gets close, except for long-term traders like myself, will be killed. This mask is quite valuable!"

“I’ve seen stone masks before, but the stone masks I’ve seen can unleash the wearer’s potential, turning them into vampires with superhuman strength and regenerative abilities… Yours is just so-so.” I said regretfully, indicating that this thing was too ordinary to attract my attention.

“What you’re talking about isn’t a mask at all. You can’t even be considered a person after wearing it!” Burnett retorted.

Sir, you seem quite knowledgeable. Could it be that you are also a gentleman from the Kingdom of Ying?

He rummaged through the bags on the dromedary camel and pulled out something new. "How about this? This is tobacco grown in our Shisong Village. It has a sweet and fragrant aroma. This is the best tobacco you can find in the southern region!"

Shisong Village...

I've wanted to complain about this name for a long time. Do you guys need a general to fix toilets?

"I don't need tobacco. Is there anything else?" I refused flatly. What use would I have for this stuff?

“Boss Zoffy, you just don’t know what’s good for you. Our Southern District tobacco is paired with a pipe carved from briar root burl. One puff and you’ll know what heaven is.”

Unexpectedly, this Burnett was a heavy smoker. He smacked his lips, revealing a blissful expression, skillfully using body language to promote his own tobacco. If I were a real addict, I probably wouldn't be able to resist my curiosity and would have to try it.

"Alright, alright, then take a look at this." Seeing that I really wasn't interested, Burnett took out a sturdy bottle from the bag. "This is a special craft beer from Ten Pine Manor! The raw material is roasted barley malt, which has a strong caramel aroma, but the foam is soft and the aftertaste is mellow. You'll absolutely love it!"

After saying that, Burnett uncorked the bottle, took a deep, intoxicating breath of the aroma, and reveled in it for a long time, as if he possessed the most wonderful thing in the world. If I were that old drunkard Sebala, I guess I would have already taken the bait, right?

This Shisong Manor is full of cigarettes and alcohol. Are all the residents hobbits? Don't you have any decent products?

“Burnet…is there anything else? Does your Ten Pine Manor produce a volunteer general who repairs toilets? Or a mysterious halfling thief?”

As Burnett unconsciously combed his hair, it receded higher and higher, and his shiny forehead reflected the sunlight streaming in from outside, making my eyes water.

To correct that, judging by that hairline, in Lord of the Rings he wouldn't be a Hobbit; he'd definitely be Elrond. If he were in the Qing Dynasty, he'd be at least a prince!

The elf prince chuckled self-deprecatingly: "Boss Zoffy, if our Ten Pine Manor didn't produce tobacco and beer, but instead produced weapons and luxury goods, we would probably have been razed to the ground long ago."

Then he began to explain to me the unfortunate events that had befallen Shisongzhuang.

The faction to which Shisong Manor belongs is called Teshienya, an alliance of outsiders.

The members of the Alliance settlement are mostly victims of spacecraft accidents and illegal interstellar immigrants. They have lived here for at least several decades, and some for over a hundred years. Most of their technological achievements have been lost, and they only retain some techniques and knowledge passed down orally.

Among them, Shisongzhuang has inherited excellent varieties of tobacco and brewing barley, as well as related manufacturing techniques. Therefore, this traveling merchant used these as trade products to travel around and exchange for the goods he needed.

However, members of the Tessian faction highly valued civilized behavior and were mostly concerned with more practical things such as trade, trust, and survival. In other words, they lacked the courage and ability to fight the barbarians and pirates of this wild planet, and there was no sense of mutual support or assistance among them.

"So you're just a bunch of small merchants and artisans, with no ability to defend yourselves?"

I stared at him in astonishment. How had they survived for so long in such a barbaric place without guns?

Burnett shook his head: "The settlements of the armed factions are all ruins... I've seen them fight to defend their homes, but they couldn't withstand wave after wave of leeching enemies. All that's left are corpses and the tears of their loved ones..."

"What if someone robs you?" This situation is too strange. You see someone pick up a gun and get shot dead, so you just lie down and wait to be shot dead without fighting back.

What was the saying of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in Dazexiang?

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang said to their men, "We will die whether we flee or launch a great uprising. Since we are going to die anyway, wouldn't it be better to die for our country?"

His men knew there was no way out and shouted, "The country is doomed!"

This sounds like a true anime/manga fan!

“Of course there are ways,” Burnett said, revealing the shrewdness typical of a petty bourgeois. “Ten Pine Manor is bordered to the west by the Loader’s Territory of the Andenawara faction, and to the northeast by the Sabre Bay base of the Godslayer Pirate Crew. Ordinary attackers wouldn’t dare to approach. Moreover, the two sides are sworn enemies, but neither wants the other to grow too powerful, so they both want to recruit us…”

The smaller faction between the two major powers managed to play both sides, and because neither power had military capabilities, neither was willing to waste its resources on razing Shisong Village, lest it expose its weaknesses to the enemy.

It is precisely through this dangerous, treacherous lifestyle that the defenseless Shisong Manor has managed to survive to this day. If the Texinia Alliance is composed entirely of such members, then they are nothing more than a trade alliance.

“It seems we can’t really blame you,” I said to Burnett after a moment of silence. “Under these circumstances, your focus on agriculture and trade, without armed forces, is understandable. But this can’t continue indefinitely… I’m afraid you…”

I stopped abruptly and didn't say anything more; the implication was clear.

Burnett was silent for a moment, then touched his hair and smiled indifferently: "It's all just fate's arrangement."

Chapter 296 Super Components

“Boss Zoffy, I don’t have your kind of background. We’re just trying to survive in this damn place. We’re already overwhelmed by the plague, pirate attacks, and unexpected disasters every day. I don’t know how we would survive without these lovely things to help us.”

Burnett carefully put away the tobacco and beer, looked at me with regret, and continued eating at the table, showing no intention of going outside.

Then he took out a clay pot from the burlap sack and placed it in front of me.

"What is this?" I took the earthenware jar, opened the tightly sealed lid, and saw a viscous amber liquid inside. It flowed gently as I shook it, emitting a sweet smell.

"I ran into a caravan of the Tusca tribes on the road and traded with them for the latest honey. With this jar of honey, the boss only needs to brush a little on the meat when grilling, and the food will have an enticing golden color and a sweet, crispy taste. You absolutely can't miss it!"

"That's more like it. But don't you have anything else of higher value? All you seem to have is food and drink."

I'm still a bit disappointed. This guy rarely comes here to do business, and all he brought were things related to hedonism, which is not what I wanted at all.

Burnett gritted his teeth and realized that I wasn't interested in these products they were most proud of. So he rummaged through the burlap sack for a long time before finally pulling out two oddly shaped metal objects with delicate and three-dimensional patterns on their surfaces.

From the outside, it looks like a cube full of high-tech features.