Chapter 46 "How Much for a Slave?"

They camped overnight.

As dawn broke, the Stellar Train was already roaring across the wasteland, racing toward coordinates "239, 1923."

This wasteland was formerly known as the Iron Ridge Wasteland before the apocalypse. Perhaps because the name was too cumbersome, many people after the apocalypse preferred to call it the "Desolate Wasteland."

More than four hours later.

The Stellar Train gradually slowed down. At first, no other trains could be seen, but in the latter half of the journey, a few scattered trains became visible. Now, trains could be spotted intermittently, with the destination just a stone's throw away.

Finally—

When the train came to a stop, Chen Mang, seated at the control panel, gazed at the clusters of people gathered on the wasteland in the distance, a strange glint in his eyes.

The gathering had arrived.

He hadn't expected it to be so rudimentary, without even a tent in sight. The Train Conductor led a group of enforcers on foot to the gathering for trade. For safety reasons, all trains had to stop at least a kilometer away from the gathering.

This gathering had no organizer; it was entirely formed by consensus. Following local customs, he parked his train a kilometer away from the gathering and stepped out of the carriage with Biao Zi, Lao Zhu, and three other enforcers. The remaining enforcers stayed behind to maintain order and guard against any unexpected incidents.

Standing on the wasteland, Chen Mang leaned on his cane and glanced back at his train. With this cane, he could remotely control his train from a distance.

He had tested it—the control range was roughly a kilometer.

If anything went wrong, with just a thought, his Stellar Train could rush to his side and carry him away from the area.

He had never seen so many trains gathered in one place. There were at least forty or fifty trains parked here. Before, he had no real sense of how his train compared, but after seeing so many others, he realized his Stellar Train wasn't half bad.

At least twenty of the trains didn't even have full armor coverage.

Was that so hard?

With a hundred Slaves and a Level 1 Iron Ore mine, steady development over half a month would get you to his level. Yet, it seemed there were still many trains worse off than his.

His main trading targets today were two people.

One was the Bloodthirsty Mad Bull Train.

The other was the King of Electronic Music Train.

Both had a significant amount of Spider Silk, and he had arranged to meet them at the end of the gathering. For now, he planned to wander around with Lao Zhu and the others.

"Lao Zhu," Chen Mang squinted slightly as he observed the noisy crowd in the distance. "You used to be a Deputy Train Conductor. How much do you know about these gatherings?"

"Absolutely nothing," Lao Zhu shook his head decisively. "To participate in a gathering, you basically need a Level 2 Train. Unless you have some other way of getting the coordinates, my old train never attended any gatherings, and I've never been to one."

"Let's go," Chen Mang didn't press further, simply leaning on his cane and walking ahead softly. "Let's take a look."

Biao Zi and the other three enforcers followed closely behind, holding Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles with cold expressions.

At a glance.

Every Train Conductor was followed by a varying number of enforcers—some had two or three, while others had over a dozen. The main combat power of a train wasn't the enforcers, but the train itself.

The enforcers' primary duties included exploring ruins, scavenging for supplies, patrolling, maintaining order, executing small-scale battles, and protecting the Train Conductor during travels.

It sounded much more complicated than the Slaves.

The Slaves only needed to know how to swing a pickaxe.

  The Train Conductors maintained a certain distance from one another, avoiding too much eye contact to prevent misunderstandings. They all walked into the gathering with tacit understanding, either wandering around or finding a spot to sit down, writing their tradable items on a wooden board beside them.

There were only about forty or fifty Train Conductors.

It was a small gathering, so there weren't many options.

The layout of the gathering was simple, just a single line running from north to south.

Many Train Conductors sat on either side of this line, waiting for others to come and trade.

Chen Mang strode into the gathering with Lao Zhu and the others. The first stall they saw had two sentences written on the wooden board beside it.

"Seeking various green-grade or higher Vehicle Components Blueprints. Willing to pay high prices."

"Slaves for sale."

"How much for a Slave?" Chen Mang asked, squatting down and addressing the white-haired old man sitting behind the stall. This was the first time he had seen such an elderly Train Conductor—he looked to be over seventy.

The old man, who had been feigning sleep, looked Chen Mang up and down.

"Healthy adults cost 500 units of Iron Ore. Older or disabled ones cost 300 units."

"Prices for women vary, ranging from 300 to 1000 units of Iron Ore."

"..."

Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly as he calculated. After the apocalypse, the monetary system had collapsed. Currently, Iron Ore, a mainstream resource, had effectively become the new currency. Everyone needed Iron Ore, and no one had enough.

A healthy adult could mine about 10 units of ore per day, meaning the payback period was around 50 days.

And that was assuming they could consistently find ore during those 50 days.

He felt the prices were somewhat inflated.

The logic here was different from before the apocalypse. In the past, any business that could pay back in 50 days was likely criminal. The ones that weren't were considered excellent investments.

But in the post-apocalyptic world, the uncertainties within 50 days were simply too great. Investing so much Iron Ore here instead of strengthening the train seemed rather irrational.

So he was genuinely curious—would anyone really buy Slaves with Iron Ore?

"If you're interested, I can take you to my train to have a look. The quality is quite good," the elderly man said, his gaze lingering briefly on the Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles carried by Biao Zi and the others. He cleared his throat and began earnestly promoting his wares.

"Young man, your train must be quite strong."

"If you buy in bulk, we can negotiate the price further."

"Last time, someone bought quite a few Slaves from me. I heard he's probably left the Desolate Wasteland and headed to areas with richer resources. With so many Slaves, as long as you find a good mine, you can recoup your investment in a few dozen days. After that, it's pure profit every day."

"That guy was a real go-getter. He bought 100 Slaves from me in one go—all healthy adults."

"..."

Chen Mang remained silent, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it. He sighed softly.

He was genuinely curious—who would spend 50,000 units of Iron Ore to buy 100 Slaves?

With that much Iron Ore, wouldn't it be better to invest in something else? You could almost fully equip a Level 2 Train with that. What was the point of buying so many Slaves?

In the long run, it was undoubtedly a profitable investment.

If you found a Level 2 Iron Ore mine, the payback period would be significantly shortened.

But...

In the apocalypse, there was no such thing as a long run. No one knew what tomorrow would bring. Considering the long term only made sense if you could stabilize the short term first. If this person wasn't foolish, then he must truly have the means.