After The Fall Of The Earth, My Hotel Became Popular - Chapter 41

　　Ch 41: Infiltrating the Black Market

The polluter was a little worried that the man would be angry, but he just glanced at himself casually through the reflective mirror, with a nonchalant expression.

　　After Wen Bei had laughed enough, he took out his own mask and put it on his face.

　　Simultaneously, his appearance changed, making him look delicate, like a student who just graduated from college and had little experience in the world.

　　Wen Bei was curious about where the distortion had been added to him. Just as he was about to take a look at himself, he saw the hesitant gaze of the several people around him.

　　　Wen Bei felt uncomfortable from being stared at and twitched his ears.

　　Ear?!

　　He finally realized that something was wrong, reached out his hand and touched his ears, and felt something warm and furry!

　　Huang Qian couldn’t help but want to laugh: “It’s too cute.”

　　Her words directly ignited a switch. Wen Bei confirmed again and again, and finally had to confirm that he just had extra cat ears.

　　Moreover, the cat ears were connected to nerves. Accidentally, hee touched them too hard, and the pain caused his ears to become distorted.

　　Wen Bei turned around to look for the polluter, instead he was pulled back by a pair of large hands grabbing his collar.

　　Qiu Tin had an undisguised smile in his eyes and gently fiddled with the pair of furry cat ears with his fingers: “It’s very cute.”

　　The man’s fingers only touched him lightly, but Wen Bei felt as if an electric current ran through his body. His eyes widened, and he covered his ears and stepped back suddenly: “Don’t move!”

　　Qiu Tin actually took his hand back and said seriously: “The transaction time is almost up, we can’t delay any longer.”

　　Wen Bei looked at the time, gritted his teeth and gave up the idea of changing his image. His ears twitched unhappily as he spoke, “Let’s go.”

　　His small face looked ugly, but the pair of triangular ears on top ruined the atmosphere. Not only did he not look fierce, but he also made people want to tease him.

　　There was a faint black mist around Qiu Tin that stirred for a moment, and then disappeared when Wen Bei was about to notice and look over.

　　Huang Qian followed him and consoled him, “In fact, many polluters have animal-like deformations.”

　　Wen Bei didn’t expect that he would end up looking like a human cat. He was a little unhappy: “For example?”

　　Huang Qian: “There is a polluter in our guild who has mutated in the direction of the wolf.”

　　Wen Bei blinked: “Did he grow ears too?”

　　Huang Qian: “…No, his hands turned into wolf claws.”

　　It sounded very impressive.

　　The kitten ears on Wen Bei’s head drooped again.

　　And his mood didn’t recover until he entered the black market.

　　But Wen Bei pretended not to care and had a calm expression on his face, not knowing that the little cat ears on his head had already exposed his aggrieved mood.

　　The entrance to the black market was deeply hidden and required a secret code to be led in.

　　The secret code was also given out to them by the fat man.

　　Wen Bei looked at Huang Qian: “Have you been here?”

　　Huang Qian hesitated for a moment: “I’ve only been here once. It was to buy weapons. I heard that the black market’s code changes every three days, so I didn’t have the chance to come in again.”

　　All in all, she was not familiar with the place.

　　Fortunately, there was a man named Qiu Tin standing among them. He was tall and taciturn, and the scar that ran through his entire face was enough to scare away those who were secretly spying on him.

　　Not long after Wen Bei walked in, he noticed some eyes on him and the pockets around his waist.

　　He slowed down his pace for a moment, and Qiu Tin just happened to be near him, blocking his view, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

　　Everything was available for purchase at the black market. Even some substandard and dirty meat was also bought and sold as edible meat.

　　The contamination level of such meat exceeded the base’s standards for edible meat. Eating too much would quickly increase the contamination level in one’s body.

　　Wen Bei: “Does anyone even buy this kind of meat?”

　　He passed by a stall whose owner was a polluter with a long pig nose on his face. He was chopping meat with a bloody bone-chopping knife in his hand.

　　The meat he chopped was bright red, mixed with some fur.

　　Huang Qian: “This kind of meat is cheap, and some unscrupulous vendors will add it to their dishes and sell them.”

　　As for whether something bad would happen to the guests after eating it, they obviously didn’t care at all.

　　Wen Bei took two more steps forward, and at that moment, someone stopped him.

　　When he turned around, he found a skinny old man wearing a black hooded suit. He looked like an old wizard from a fairy tale book.

　　He tremblingly took out a glass bottle from his pocket: “Want to buy it?”

　　After saying that, he stretched out another finger, indicating that he only wanted this number.

　　”One hundred crystals?”

　　The old man nodded.

　　His cloudy eyes stared at Wen Bei.

　　In the glass bottle was a complete human finger, but the broken end was covered with fine and dense hyphae.

　　Huang Qian explained: “Some people will take risks, thinking that being an ordinary person in the apocalypse is way worse than being a polluter, so they buy this kind of pollution source available in the black market and eat it.”

　　As a result, the pollution level would skyrocket.

　　It was undoubtedly a disguised form of suicide.

　　No one knew what abilities one would possess after becoming a polluter. Along with that, everyone’s physical fitness is different, so eating the same thing would result in different consequences.

　　Huang Qian: “I know a pair of twins who ate the exact same contaminant on the same day.”

　　The woman whispered: “What happened to them?”

　　When she was bought and tortured by Li Shi, she had once considered the idea of drinking the blood of a filthy creature as a gamble, but her fear prevented her from having the courage to do such a thing.

　　Huang Qian glanced at her with some regret: “The elder brother became a polluter, and the younger brother didn’t make it. His pollution level went straight up to over 90, and he died a few days later.”

　　”What’s even more regrettable is that the elder brother’s pollution level was only 53, and the ability he obtained was also useless. He didn’t dare to join the mercenary group, so he worked to build the outer wall of the base. A few days after his brother’s death, he was also bitten to death by a filthy creature that attacked him from the sky outside the base.”

　　Although Huang Qian seemed to be telling a story that had nothing to do with her, Wen Bei still noticed that her right hand was trembling slightly.

　　Perhaps to her, the brothers were once very good friends, but it was a pity that separation was far too common in the end times.

　　Wen Bei did not refuse the old man’s offer. He bargained and successfully bought the finger for 75 crystals.

　　His plan was to take it back as a specialty for the Hotel to use it to unlock new recipes.

　　After a tour, Wen Bei had a general understanding of the black market.

　　There were not many people in the black market that night because everyone had gathered at the underground auction house in advance.

　　There used to be an underground casino there.

　　The human trafficking network mentioned by the fat man and Li Shi was probably one among them.

　　The conditions for entering the auction house were obviously more stringent. If the fat man and Li Shi had not been scared to the point that they were forced to reveal all the details they could, then they would have probably not said anything about it.

　　Even if they could go in, they could only sit outside.

　　Wen Bei noticed several people from the Dark Fire Guild, and all of them had probably come to take part in the auction.

　　The other people were from other public guilds or businesses.

　　Huang Qian’s expression was somewhat unsightly: “Sure enough, not everyone deserves to be called a human being.”

　　The woman lowered her voice and asked, “What should we do next? Should we just inform the Lawful Army?”

　　Her face was a little pale, and it was obvious that the familiar environment made her recall her bad memories.

　　Wen Bei had brought along a pager so that he could contact Captain Lan at any time.

　　After the end of the world, the magnetic field was completely destroyed rendering it impossible for mobile phones and telephones to be used normally. Only the pager developed by the research institute could be used, but it had great limitations and could only be used within the base, and the signal often disappeared.

　　Wen Bei shook his head: “Calling him over now will do no good except exposing ourselves and ruining the deal.”

　　The reason why the exchange had been able to exist for that long without alerting the Lawful Army meant that there was some hidden secret.

　　The staff of the auction house were so cautious that even though the auction was going on, they did not release the ‘slaves’ but only replaced them with pieces of paper with their names and information on them.

　　The scenes in the TV series where people were put into cages, with their dignity trampled upon, and allowed to be bought and sold in a humiliating manner did not happen. Everything was done very covertly.

　　Even if the Lawful Army rushed in head-on, they would not be able to find any evidence against them and would instead be bitten back by the other side.

　　That was also one of the reasons why the base had been unable to stop human trafficking even though it took the matter very seriously.

　　Woman: “Then I’ll take you to where the hostages are being held.”

　　She was very anxious because finally she could do something for her saviors.

　　Wen Bei: “Thank you very much.”

　　After saying this, he pretended to be very interested in the auction and continued to look at the audience.

　　The woman and Huang Qian raised their voices slightly to say that they were going to find the toilet.

　　The man in black who had been standing by and observing every customer heard them and took a look, but did not become too alert.

　　They were let out smoothly.

　　After a while, Wen Bei calculated the time. When the auction was in full swing, he shook his ears and said casually, “Brother, let’s go back. It’s boring here.”

　　They had to go and pick up Huang Qian.

　　Qiu Tin glanced at him, and his pupils, which had turned silver after being disguised, flashed a little red because of excitement, but soon returned to calm.

　　He stood up and acted very dull: “Let’s go.”

　　As soon as Wen Bei went out, he wanted to use the pager to contact Huang Qian and the others, but when he turned it on, it was full of noise.

　　It was the sound of someone running and panting.

　　He suddenly felt something was wrong.

　　Sure enough, the next second Huang Qian’s voice came from the other side, with some gnashing of teeth: “We were deceived. They have already moved places. We have been discovered.”

　　After she finished speaking, the pager was hung up.

　　Wen Bei took back the pager and his expression became slightly more serious.

　　He was not worried that anything would happen to Huang Qian. After all, she was the president of the First Guild, and it was impossible for her to get into trouble so soon even if she was tricked. What he cared about more was that there were less than ten minutes left until the end of the auction.