Chapter 0025: Zone F27

"What's your business?"

At the entrance to Zone F27, a guard peered through the peephole at Ning Fan.

Ning Fan reached into his chest pocket, pulled out five hundred Sola, and slid it through the slot. "Just passing through. Got some goods to sell."

The guard was visibly surprised by Ning Fan's age.

A Walker this young, surviving alone in the wild — that wasn't something you saw every day.

He glanced at the five hundred Sola, pocketed it without another word, and swung open the iron gate.

Ning Fan walked in with a large bundle strapped to his back. He turned to the guard and asked, "Hey, which way to the Black Market?"

The guard pointed in a direction. "Follow this road all the way to the end, turn right, pass a six-story red building — that's the area. Once you're there, just ask around."

"Thanks, man."

Ning Fan smiled politely.

The guard watched him walk away and muttered under his breath, "Heh. Are Walkers getting younger these days or what?"

This was Ning Fan's first time in any zone other than F32.

Compared to home, this place seemed a little livelier.

Zone numbers, it turned out, were a rough indicator of prosperity.

Within the entire F district, there were sixty-nine sub-zones.

F32 was somewhere in the middle.

Here, just like back home, Walker teams were clustered around the zone's main gate — same scene, different address.

It reminded Ning Fan of a few days ago, when he'd first gone looking for Huizi and Lin Chuan.

Strange — it felt like a lifetime ago already.

The oversized bundle on Ning Fan's back drew plenty of stares as he walked in.

Not long after he'd asked the guard for directions to the Black Market, a shirtless, heavily built man rose from where he'd been sitting and sauntered over.

"Hey, brother. Selling something?"

Ning Fan looked at him.

The man grinned — but there was nothing warm about it. It was more of a sneer. "What've you got? If you've got something I want, I can take it off your hands right here. No need to waste a trip to the Black Market and let those guys fleece you."

"I'm fine, thanks. I'm not in a rush. I'd rather take a look around."

Black Market transactions were safer.

Most zones kept their Black Markets reasonably orderly — they were long-term operations, after all. Nobody wanted to torch their own livelihood.

Private deals, though, were a different story.

Murder and robbery weren't unheard of inside the zone.

Kill someone, and the worst you'd face was seven days of Confinement.

If the prize was worth it, seven days wasn't much.

You could treat it like a commission and move on.

"Hey, don't be in such a hurry..."

The big man grabbed Ning Fan's shoulder.

Ning Fan's eyes sharpened instantly. He drew his battered sword and slashed straight at the man's arm.

The man flinched and yanked his hand back, stumbling a step away.

"What the fuck?! Are you insane?!"

Veins bulged across the man's neck. "You dare pull a blade on me? You've got a death wish?!"

Ning Fan stared at him, calm and cold.

Then, slowly, he swung the bundle off his back and opened it.

Inside were a collection of weapons — all of them blood-stained.

"These belonged to dead men," Ning Fan said flatly. "Any use to you?"

"If you're looking for trouble, there's not enough room here. We can step outside and settle it."

The guard who had let Ning Fan in caught the whole exchange and burst out laughing. "Old Pig, don't go picking on the kid just because he's young. A lone wolf this age with nothing to lose — you don't know how deep the water runs. Don't go making trouble for yourself!"

The big man known as Old kept his face stony and said nothing, but made no move to escalate either.

Those weapons in the bundle were clearly the kid's spoils.

A boy this young, hauling the gear of five or six people...

He could very well have wiped out an entire team by himself.

"Tch."

Old pursed his lips and slunk back to the wall.

This was one windfall he didn't quite dare reach for.

It wasn't that he was certain he'd lose — it was just that these beat-up weapons weren't worth the risk.

The cost-benefit ratio was all wrong.

Still...

He wasn't fully ready to let it go, either.

Ning Fan quietly repacked his bundle and continued toward the Black Market.

After he was gone, Old crooked a finger toward a narrow alley nearby.

A thin, wiry man came jogging over.

If Ning Fan had seen him just then, he would have recognized him immediately.

Monkey — from the [War Bear] team!

He had been the first one Old Duan had shocked down from the trees.

But precisely because of that, stripped of his combat ability early, he had managed to slip through the chaos and survive.

"What's up, Brother Zhu?"

Monkey's face was still marked with burn scars. He wore a fawning smile.

Old Pig jerked his chin toward Ning Fan's retreating figure. "Follow him. Find out how much Sola he's carrying."

Monkey blinked. "Huh? Brother Zhu wants to hit him?"

Old Pig gave a cold snort. "He's putting on a big act — lone wolf, my ass. At the end of the day, he's just someone traveling alone. Might as well take what's there for the taking."

"Brother Zhu, what if he really does have some ability?"

"If he had real ability, why would he be selling stuff in Zone F27? He'd have already checked in at the Three-Alliance Cooperative Zone."

"That's... fair enough..."

"Monkey."

Old Pig half-closed his eyes and fixed him with a look. "Back when Sun Wang was around, [War Bear] wasn't exactly a stranger to this kind of business, was it? I'm handing this to you. You should be able to handle it, right?"

At the mention of [War Bear], Monkey understood immediately.

Old Pig was reminding him of his position — he was living under someone else's roof now.

Do good work, and Old Pig would keep feeding him.

"Don't worry about it! Brother Zhu, I'll get you every detail you need!"

With that, Monkey bounded off after Ning Fan.

Old Pig let out a derisive snort. "Heh. Stray dog."

Following the directions the guard had given him, Ning Fan arrived at the Black Market.

Compared to the Walker gathering point near the Zone Wall, this place was far more alive.

The whole street rang with the sound of heated bargaining — voices rising, deals falling apart, insults flying when negotiations broke down.

Ning Fan walked in with his bundle on his back and drew plenty of eyes.

"Hey, little brother — what've you got in that pack? Let's take a look. I'll give you a fair price."

A man around thirty, hair cropped short, sat cross-legged on the ground and waved him over.

Ning Fan crouched down and slid the bundle off his back.

When he opened it, the short-haired man's brow furrowed at the sight of blood-stained weapons inside.

"Confiscated... outside the zone?"

Ning Fan nodded. "Used by Walkers."

The two of them understood each other perfectly without saying more.

Before coming to Zone F27, Huizi had warned him: Spirit Servants couldn't be disclosed publicly inside the zones.

These weapons had belonged to the members of the [Hunting Squad] — all of them Spirit Servant users.

So in Black Market dealings, all you had to say was that they'd been "used by Walkers," and everyone would read between the lines.

The short-haired man thought it over, frowning slightly.

"Is the origin clean?"

"Not from Zone F27."

The short-haired man's interest sharpened immediately. "Alright, give me a moment."

He pulled out a phone and made a call.

Ning Fan's eyes lit up slightly.

A phone — this man's operation was clearly no small thing.

Ordinary street vendors couldn't afford one of those.

That thing was a rarity.

"Little brother, hold on just a bit. I've got a friend who specializes in weapons — I'll have her come take a look."

The short-haired man smiled as he said it.

Ning Fan nodded. "Sure."

The short-haired man then gestured to the goods on his own stall.

"Have a look around. See if anything catches your eye. I'll cut you a good deal — help me open the day right."

Ning Fan had actually already scanned the stall when he walked up.

Honestly, nothing stood out to him.

Just then, at the stall behind him, a blond young man with a lollipop in his mouth was pointing at a Rotface Toad Gall Crystal on the neighboring stall. "Hey, can you drop the price a little on this?"