Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Chapter 86: Wearing Human Skin, Speaking Human Language

Mistake!

When entering an enclosed space, Zhang Renfeng would routinely observe his surroundings, but he was blinded by experience and subconsciously used the standard of height for a normal person.

After a quick scan to confirm that no one was hiding in the key locations, I picked up my bowl and started showing off. Once I'd finished showing off, I put the bowl down and realized the person had been in the hall all along. They were just shorter than average, and had probably been hidden by some cabinet or table, which was why I hadn't noticed them.

"Hey, half-human, are you done yet? Sandor's nagging!"

Footsteps came from the end of the corridor. The dwarf's expression changed abruptly. He quickly waved to Zhang Renfeng and whispered, "Quick, quick, don't just stand there like an idiot, hide inside!"

After a moment's hesitation, he lowered his hand from the hilt of the throwing knife. The dwarf's first reaction was to protect himself, and he couldn't let him down.

If a bandit is killed by a throwing knife, it's not a big deal, but what if the group blames the dwarf for everything? Wouldn't that just cause him more trouble?

With that in mind, he didn't make a move. Instead, he crouched down and ducked under the table. The dwarf quickly took two steps, just enough to block his view.

"Excuse me, sir, there are too many bowls and plates, and they haven't been served yet," the dwarf pleaded politely. "Could you please take two bowls over for me first? I'll bring the rest over later."

"Hurry up, you half-human bastard!"

The man muttered a curse under his breath, then turned and left.

The dwarf breathed a sigh of relief. With his height, he didn't need to crouch; a slight bend was enough to meet Zhang Renfeng's gaze. From his appearance, Zhang Renfeng couldn't easily guess his age, only that he was extremely anxious. He lowered his voice and asked, "How dare you run away? Go back inside! If they find you, they'll feed you to the wolves!"

“…?” Zhang Renfeng was completely confused.

But the dwarf clearly didn't have time to explain further. He placed the remaining bowls of fragrant mutton stew on a wooden tray and instructed, "Don't be foolish. The leader still keeps wolves. Even if you climb over the wall, you won't get far. While it's not too late, hurry back. Is there anywhere better than going into a wolf's belly?"

"Listen to me, you must go back right away!"

Before Zhang Renfeng could ask any more questions, he picked up the plate and left. Given Sandor's temper, who knows what might happen if he arrived late.

The hall fell silent, giving Zhang Renfeng more time to carefully observe this peculiar "kitchen." The large pot of soup was clearly prepared for communal meals in the army, and there were several smaller pots not far away. Bottles and jars were laid out on the long table; Zhang Renfeng glanced at them and saw they were all seasonings. There was also a cutting board, a cleaver, and a kitchen knife.

A stool with a missing corner sat on the table. One could imagine that the dwarf would have to stand on the chair to barely reach the ingredients. Whether the stool was wobbly or unstable was not a concern for these gang members.

"Cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, seed coating powder, cassia bark, sea salt, long pepper, apple cider vinegar..."

Each bottle had a label on it. As Zhang Renfeng read through them, a strange sense of incongruity suddenly arose in his heart.

He knew time was of the essence and he shouldn't waste time on such trivial matters. The most important thing right now was to quickly figure out the terrain and structure of the fortress. Only after discovering where the money was hidden would Alana's lock-picking skills come in handy.

However, this inexplicable sense of unease still held him back.

He picked up a bottle labeled "Star Anise," unscrewed the cap, and smelled it; a familiar scent wafted from it.

No mistake, this is the star anise from my hometown. The chef adds it to braised pork as a seasoning.

On the other side of the ocean, on Sparrow Mountain, a bandit gang's cook actually uses this kind of seasoning?

……

"Why haven't you gone back yet?" The dwarf rushed back and, seeing Zhang Renfeng still there, exclaimed anxiously, "Are you crazy?!"

"Excuse me, about going back..." Now that things had come to this point, Zhang Renfeng stopped beating around the bush and asked directly, "Where are you going back to?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course it's the dungeon. Isn't that where you escaped from?" At this point, the dwarf suddenly noticed Zhang Renfeng's attire, which was definitely not what he remembered from the dungeon. His face changed instantly, and his voice trembled. "You...you came from outside?"

"Do you want to leave here?" Zhang Renfeng didn't answer, but instead posed another question that struck at the heart of the matter.

The dwarf paused for a few seconds, looking extremely confused, like a puppy trying to understand human language.

No one wants to stay in a place like this, especially when a member of the gang has already shown him serious hostility. When he finally realized that the person in front of him meant to take him away from the Wolf Shepherd Gang, he nodded vigorously, his eyes shining.

----

"Igor?"

"To be precise, my name is Igorinasio, but that's too complicated to pronounce. And nobody calls me that here, just use my abbreviation."

Igor didn't look like a local, but Zhang Renfeng couldn't tell where he was from from his accent either. "I used to be a dwarf in a circus. Two weeks ago, we combined our performance with the one in San Quintak and were on our way to White Torch when we were robbed!"

"After robbing me of my money, they kidnapped me. That bastard Sandor! He threw me a branch and told me to go fight the wolves while they stood outside the fence laughing. Those beasts..."

Igor's tone suddenly turned sinister as he angrily said, "If I had a bottle of poison, I'd just put it in the soup and kill them all!"

But he quickly regained his senses and reverted to being the timid, harmless dwarf.

"Their leader asked me what other special skills I had besides making people laugh, and I said I could cook and I liked cooking."

"Perfect timing. They got tired of the rotten vegetable stalks cooked by that retired old navy man, so they kept me. Maybe one day, when they get tired of my cooking... I'll have to put on a ridiculous clown costume, grab a stick, and go fight the wolves in the mountains again."

Igor shuddered and mumbled, "But just being able to keep my life is a blessing. I don't even want to think about what would happen if someone bought me..."

"Who would pay for a dwarf? I bet you, sir, it's someone with problems in that area! There's a rumor going around that soaking a dwarf's penis in alcohol can cure impotence; it's supposedly a mysterious folk remedy from the East."

Zhang Renfeng felt a chill run down his spine and quickly denied it three times, "No, no, don't talk nonsense, we don't do that where I'm from! We do have deer penis and tiger penis soaked in wine, but human stuff..."

Just imagining the scene of human penis being soaked in alcohol made Zhang Renfeng feel disgusted with himself.

“You’re not a dwarf, sir, you’ll never understand.” Igor sighed, his voice full of bitterness and helplessness. “Look at me. In the eyes of normal people, I’m not the same species as them at all. I’m like an animal that looks like a human and can speak human language.”

Although he didn't empathize as much as the man, Zhang Renfeng could understand his feelings in some ways.

Discrimination and contempt are the norm in this wild land.

While chatting, Igor led Zhang Renfeng through the maze-like underground trenches in the backyard to an entrance leading underground.

“Look, here’s how the Wolf Shepherd Gang makes money.” Igor gestured with his chin. “It’s all here.”

Chapter 87: Crimes Under Shackles

Previously, when Igor kept telling Zhang Renfeng to "go back," he had vaguely sensed something was amiss.

But when he witnessed the truth with his own eyes, the shock he felt was still immense.

Mike and Xiaomei's judgment was correct; a large quantity of smuggled goods were indeed flowing into the Shepherd Wolf Gang's stronghold through this difficult and rugged mountain path. According to Mike's deduction, the goods were most likely bootleggings, and only its profits could support the daily expenses of a gang of about 20 people.

All I can say is that the solution approach was correct; the only mistake was the misjudgment of the variables—the goods transported by the Wolf Shepherd Gang were not illicit liquor at all.

----

In the cramped, crowded basement, nearly thirty people were huddled together, most of them emaciated and pale from hunger, their skin clinging to their bones, looking utterly malnourished. It was hard to tell whether they were awake or asleep; Zhang Renfeng clearly saw several people with their eyes open, but their breathing was barely perceptible, only the occasional movement of their pupils barely proving they were alive.

They were mostly Black, their eyes devoid of any spirit. They clearly saw Igor bring in a stranger, yet they showed no reaction whatsoever, as if they had been stripped of all human abilities, their capacity to perceive the outside world reduced to zero.

Chains were around their necks, like tethering animals, utterly devoid of dignity, tightly binding their skin and drawing blood. However, even without the chains, these men probably wouldn't have the strength to escape; they'd likely be too weak to even stand. One can only imagine the shock Igor felt when he saw Zhang Renfeng wandering aimlessly through the hall.

"..."

Zhang Renfeng was frozen in place, speechless for a long time, as he witnessed such a horrifying scene.

"This batch seems to have been transported by ship from a nearby island."

Igor's tone was calm. In terms of social status, he was no better off than these people who were about to become slaves; the only difference was their masters. "Now you see, this is the most basic 'business' of the Wolf Shepherd Gang."

In a sense, gangs are similar to companies. To bring a group of people together to make a living, you need a stable and reliable source of income. Alternatively, the boss needs to have tremendous personal charisma; in short, the subordinates need to feel that following you is a promising career path.

It's far too unstable to support more than twenty people with money obtained through robbery.

The Fallsnow Mountains are rugged and difficult to traverse, yet they connect New Austin and New Elizabeth.

If you want to smuggle something shady, this is the perfect route. They act like distributors, acting as intermediaries between buyers, handling the transportation of goods. Wagons went out again and again, gradually spreading this vast web of crime deep into the heart of the West.

"The slave trade should have been explicitly prohibited..."

"For things like this, where there's a buyer, there's a seller. How can such a large country just ban it immediately?"

Igor, however, took it all in stride. According to him, he had been bought and sold multiple times in the circus and was used to it. "As far as I know, there's only one stable supplier, but there are many buyers. From the distant Castor Plantation owners in the north to the nearby mines south of New Austin... the demand is huge."

"Plantations are alright, but if they're bought by mine owners and you have to work in a mine, tsk tsk tsk... the men don't treat them like human beings at all. The food and drink they get might not even be as good as their own pet dogs."

"If this batch dies from exhaustion, we can simply replace them with a new batch. They're good at math; this method costs less than keeping the same group of slaves year after year. Buying slave laborers is far cheaper than hiring people. With costs reduced, other mines will naturally follow suit, and the demand for slave laborers will increase significantly."

Zhang Renfeng seriously doubted whether these people could even understand English. Igor described their bleak future so vividly, yet those few people with their eyes open showed no reaction whatsoever. It was as if their souls had been ripped out, and they were merely mechanically repeating the state of "being alive."

Human endurance has its limits; beyond a certain threshold, a person becomes numb. Their will is extinguished, leaving only an empty shell indifferent to everything. Perhaps for them, a tragic tomorrow is no different from a tragic today.

"call……"

Zhang Renfeng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed his chaotic mind. He simply asked, "You just said that there are many buyers, but only one seller, right?"

"who is it?"

"What are you going to do?" Igor seemed to sense the danger emanating from Zhang Renfeng, instinctively taking a step back with a look of panic. "Even if you know about this, there's nothing you can do to change it. That's the market; the market determines everything. That's the most basic economic law..."

"To hell with market rules," Zhang Renfeng said bitterly. "Just give me a name. Who is it?"

“…I really don’t know what it’s called.” Igor looked around, looking guilty, and quickly pulled him aside, lowering his voice and whispering furtively, “While listening to them chat, I overheard Sandor complaining once— ‘Recently, the EU has been giving us fewer orders, and there’s no more profit to be made.’”

"EU?"

Zhang Renfeng frowned slightly. It sounded like an abbreviation of someone's name. Finding the corresponding person in this vast red soil using only two English letters was like finding a needle in a haystack.

……

“Ahhhhhhhh!!”

A sudden wolf howl interrupted Zhang Renfeng's train of thought. One wolf's howl stirred up the others as well. The penetrating howl echoed through the mountains. If an ordinary person were traveling at night and suddenly heard such a synchronized howl, they might very well be terrified.

"Oh no! They smelled your scent, and the leader is awake too!" Igor's face was filled with terror as he pushed Zhang Renfeng by the back and ran outside. "Run! Go back to where you came from. If they catch us, the consequences will be unimaginable."

Zhang Renfeng's feelings were somewhat complicated. "Then what about you? Or should I take you away right now?"

"..."

This was probably the most important and complex decision Igor made in his second life.

Footsteps and shouts echoed through the fortress, and the lights were relit. This dungeon was the lifeblood of the Wolf Shepherd Gang's fortune; every second they lingered there increased the danger.

“No…” Igor shook his head, as if it took a lot of effort to say these words, “I can’t leave now. If I leave, no one will get them food, and who knows, a few more might starve to death this morning.”

……

These words astonished Zhang Renfeng. He himself was trapped in a living hell, yet he refused the chance to escape, solely to help these complete strangers, slaves, within his means. For a fleeting moment, he felt that this half-man possessed an indomitable courage that surpassed even that of many physically imposing men.

Recalling their first meeting, he also used this body, which to ordinary people seemed small and deformed, to shield him and provide him with protection.

Many things are actually foreshadowed long ago.

"Alright, then you wait... two days at most. After two days, I will definitely keep my promise and come to rescue you!"

Chapter 88: Have you ever heard of the greatest ingenious strategy of all time?

"Eh~~~~? A slave?!"

Xiaomei, after all, grew up in a town. By the time she was born, the Civil War had already ended, and the end of slavery seemed like a matter of course. "Really? Isn't it forbidden to do that anymore?"

“Little girl, you’re still too inexperienced. This isn’t something you can just ban as easily as you think,” Mike explained, poking at the campfire with a twig. “Besides, America is so big, who’s going to regulate it? And to put it another way, people who can buy slave laborers already have a certain amount of wealth. How can you be sure that the local judges and police haven’t taken money from them?”

"Without enforcement, the law itself is nothing more than a worthless piece of toilet paper."

Zhang Renfeng nodded, deeply agreeing.

Don't be fooled by his unprecedented 30-kill streak in Windblown Sand; it's because that town happens to be Chaidel's stronghold, where his troops keep spawning.

In a poorly developed, remote town in the west, there might be at most four or five sheriffs. That's enough for routine matters, but in case of a real incident, they won't be of much use, let alone provide effective oversight.

For slave owners, they would rather cede some profits to bribe government regulators than change their strategy of buying slave laborers. This is because, in the long run, the cost savings from using slave labor far outweigh the money paid out in those few transactions.

“The Thunder Gang has never been involved in this business before…” Alana muttered. “Tuku has always looked down on slave traders. It’s risky, tiring, and doesn’t make much money.”

“These guys aren’t really slave traders; they’re just the ‘feet’,” Mike explained. “Buyers pay, sellers deliver, and they make a little money on transportation. The profits aren’t high, but if something goes wrong, they’re the ones who get wanted. Most of the Shepherd’s Gang members are on the local wanted list, which means the people behind them don’t intend to protect them.”

“Unlike the Thunder Gang, which is a black glove, the seller definitely has more than just one pair of feet. If this pair is broken, they can just replace it with another pair.”

Alana, however, had no intention of delving into the intricacies of the situation. Her eyes were filled with the urge to cause trouble, and she asked impatiently, "So when do we make our move? Tonight? Let's just have that cook act as an inside man and break in through the side door! Even if we kill all these human traffickers, God will give us a thumbs up!"

……

“This fortress is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has ample supplies of weapons and ammunition, and they even keep wolves. If we were to attack head-on, it would be quite difficult to break through.” After a moment of contemplation, Zhang Renfeng’s lips curled into a mysterious smile. “However, I think we don’t even need to lift a finger. This gang is already on the verge of falling apart.”

“They can fall into disarray with just a little pressure from the outside.”

Every time he gave that smile, it meant he was thinking of some bad idea.

"You make it sound so easy, but you're even asking for external help? There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Mike expressed serious doubt about this, asking, "You don't expect these slaves to rise up in rebellion, do you? You'd better not. They've been tortured all the way here and are already numb. Even if you drag them out one by one and behead them, they probably won't utter a sound."

……

Zhang Renfeng tilted his head, pondered for a moment, and suddenly said, "Have I ever told you the story of the greatest strategy of all time—the 'Golden Knife Strategy'?"