NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70: Someone Calls Him the King of Hell
Chapter 70: Someone Calls Him the King of Hell
The other person remained silent, maintaining a stony demeanor.
Wu Heng frowned and pressed again, "You really don't have it?"
"I don’t."
"Then where can I buy it?"
"How should I know!"
Damn it.
If he didn't have it, where else in Blackstone Town could he find it?
Wu Heng glanced around the black market, his eyes landing on the area where the 'Serpent Emblem Consortium' operated.
He stood up, wandered through the crowd, and headed straight to the second floor.
In a private room.
A middle-aged man with a mustache smiled and greeted him, "Customer, how can I assist you?"
"I want to purchase a skill book."
"Do you know the name?" the middle-aged man asked.
Wu Heng nodded, "Graveyard Battlefield, a necromancy magic book."
"Understood, sir. I’ll make a note of it and start collecting it from our nearby branches. If they don’t have it, we’ll bring it in from the main branch."
"How long will it take?"
Hopefully not as long as the corpse he had ordered, which had taken forever with no word.
"Skill books aren’t difficult to transport, and they don’t have high requirements. We’ll have an answer for you within three days."
"That works," Wu Heng nodded in satisfaction.
"This skill is advanced and quite rare in the market, so the price will be higher."
"How much?"
"You’ll need to pay a deposit of 30 silver coins, and the final price, depending on transport and acquisition costs, will be within 120 silver coins."
"Fair enough," Wu Heng agreed readily.
Barson quickly paid.
The middle-aged man accepted the payment respectfully, filled out a receipt, and stamped it with the emblem.
After handling everything.
Wu Heng got up and walked downstairs.
He had no further interest in browsing and left the market directly.
.........
Xiao Dong Auto Repair Shop.
After having a full meal, they assembled the radio they brought back.
When the sound from the radio came through, they all smiled.
After all, this was a task given by the skeleton group. If they didn’t do it well, getting their food cut would be the least of their worries—getting killed in a fit of anger was more likely.
Today, they had heard from Li Yanhong about how that man had led the skeletons to chase down mutated zombies and hordes of the undead.
That was seriously terrifying.
"Alright, everyone get back to work. Make those iron spears as fast as you can. The more food we can trade, the less we’ll go hungry," Li Yanhong clapped her hands and said.
The men stood up, and one of them suddenly said, "Sister Hong, we’re running low on gasoline."
"Use what’s left for now, and we’ll go find more when it’s almost out."
"Okay!"
After the others left.
Li Yanhong turned to Wang Ke and said, "There are just five of us here. You’ll be staying with me and the other woman you met earlier. The conditions are like this, so let’s see what you can do. If you can help, great; if not, just keep an eye on the radio."
"Alright, thank you, Sister Hong," Wang Ke replied somewhat nervously.
No one asked if she had any family left.
By now, everyone understood the situation well enough.
Asking would just reopen old wounds.
"Sister Hong, the person who controls the skeletons, is he the psychic the radio mentioned?" Wang Ke asked quietly.
"Probably," Li Yanhong replied.
"Did he save you too?"
"Save? No," Li Yanhong shook her head. "We just met him. He provides us with food, and we make some tools for him. It’s more of a cooperative relationship."
"Will he harm us?"
"He shouldn’t, but it’s best to keep things peaceful. We rely on him for food."
"Oh."
As the two chatted quietly, a voice came through one of the radio frequencies, "Are the friends at Second Hospital still there? If you can leave the hospital building and head 500 meters east to the alley, we can escort you out."
The two women fell silent.
It seemed that yesterday’s distress call had some effect.
In this environment, doctors were still a highly valued profession, and some survivor teams were willing to risk rescuing them.
But first, they had to get out of the hospital.
Unless the military arrived, no one could storm into the hospital.
No one responded, and another male voice came through the equipment, "No response, maybe something happened. Hospitals are crowded places, survival would be difficult."
"Damn this world!" a woman’s voice added.
Wang Ke looked at Li Yanhong, who nodded.
Wang Ke picked up the old-fashioned microphone and said, "I’m from Second Hospital, I’ve already been rescued."
She said "I," not "we."
She didn’t know how to explain that there were several people asking for help, but now only she had been rescued.
"Rescued? You made it out?"
"Yes."
"How did you get out? How is that possible? Are you sure you’re the one who asked for help from Second Hospital yesterday? This is no time for jokes."
Wang Ke looked at Li Yanhong again, then spoke into the radio, "Someone came into the hospital and rescued us."
"Went into the hospital? How is that possible? Was it a rescue team?"
"No, just another survivor."
"That strong? Can we meet them? Maybe we could help each other in the future."
Wang Ke looked at Li Yanhong again, unsure whether to answer, and besides, she didn’t know his name.
Li Yanhong whispered, "I’ve only heard people call him the King of Hell."
Wang Ke frowned but, remembering the skeletons and ghost that followed him, felt the name was fitting.
But she picked up the mic and said, "Someone called him the King of Hell."
The radio fell silent.
Every survivor listening to that frequency froze.
The King of Hell?
Someone actually used that name.
As no one spoke, Li Yanhong took the microphone and said, "We found a big-headed commander zombie east of Second Hospital. Everyone nearby should be cautious. If anyone has information on mutated zombies, let’s communicate and stay in touch."
"Got it!"
"Okay!"
"Let’s all survive together!"
.........
The next day.
Wu Heng was heading home after having breakfast at the tavern.
He saw his landlord, Rudger, waiting at the door, standing next to a middle-aged woman in a beige linen dress with an apron tied around her waist.
Unlike Madam Slater, who was mature and charming, the woman next to the landlord was clearly from the slums, with a simple and cautious demeanor.
Hearing footsteps, the landlord and the woman turned to look at him.
"Good morning, Mr. Rudger," Wu Heng greeted with a smile.
Wu Heng had a fairly good impression of his landlord.
Not that he was particularly kind, but he didn’t bother much with the property and rarely sought him out unless there was a significant issue.
The few times they spoke were because things had gotten out of hand, otherwise, he mostly stayed away and didn’t care.
"Good morning," the landlord replied quickly, then said, "I need to talk to you about something. Let’s go inside."
Wu Heng opened the door and let the two of them in.
He unscrewed a bottle of iced tea, poured two glasses, and handed them over.
Before Wu Heng could ask what was going on, the landlord spoke first, "This is Mrs. Bookmella, she lives in the northern part of the slums and works as an assistant at the textile factory."
Wu Heng looked at the landlord curiously.
He wondered why he had brought a woman here.
After introducing the woman, the landlord introduced Wu Heng, "This is Wu Heng, a core member of the Adventurer's Guild. The slums are so stable now because he lives here. Think about it, anyone else would have moved out by now. He stayed behind to look after us common folk... He's very reliable."
The landlord wanted to continue but stopped when he saw Wu Heng staring at him.
He turned to the woman and said, "You can talk to Wu Heng now."
The woman stood up and bowed, her eyes red and filled with anxiety and desperation.
"Mr. Wu Heng, I hope you can help me. I really don’t have any other options."
