Chapter 114: Rock Safety Zone (Part 2)

Xie Mian entered the base holding E Shifang.

The interior of the base is not the paradise imagined, but rather more like a huge and sophisticated cage.

The towering walls are covered with electric fences and artillery batteries. The streets are lined with uniform gray buildings. People walking in a hurry mostly have numbness and fatigue on their faces. The air is filled with a depressing smell mixed with pesticides and dirt.

They had just taken a few steps in when a thin man with wild eyes came up to them with a warm smile on his face.

"Hey, big brother, are you new here? You look so impressive, I guess you're a bug-loving person. My name is Monkey, and I'm the know-it-all of this Rock Base. There's nothing I can't find out if you want to know. How can I help you?"

Xie Mian didn't stop, but just glanced at him lightly.

Monkey immediately followed and said in a low voice, "Brother, I can see that you are no ordinary person. This base is very complicated. Food, clothing, housing, transportation, everything is complicated. You are new here, and you will suffer a great loss without any guidance."

Xie Mian stopped, took out a bug stone from his backpack and threw it over.

The monkey quickly caught it, his smile growing more genuine. "Alright! Big Brother, you're so straightforward! If you have any questions, just ask."

"Tell me about this." Xie Mian said briefly.

"Alright!" The monkey cleared his throat and began to introduce. "At our Rock Base, there's only one rule: Insect Stone is everything! We need Insect Stone for water, food, and shelter. The base distributes a minimum amount of nutrients every day, but that's just enough to keep us alive. If we want to live like a human, we have to go out and hunt insect monsters or work at the base to earn Insect Stone."

He paused, glanced at the goose Shifang in Xie Mian's arms, and added, "By the way, pets are also considered people. They need money to eat, drink, defecate and urinate."

"Brother, it looks like you haven't found a place to stay yet?" Monkey said flatteringly, "You can either rent or buy a house in this base. I'll take you to the real estate transaction center to have a look."

"lead the way."

Monkey led Xie Mian through several streets and came to a building that looked the most imposing. A sign that read "Panshi Base Real Estate Trading Center" hung on the door.

As soon as you enter the hall, you will be greeted by a huge wall with a three-dimensional map of the entire base and a densely packed housing price chart hanging on it.

The areas are clearly divided, from the "luxury villa area" in the core area to the "crowded pigeon cages" near the outermost city wall. The prices vary greatly, as if they are two different worlds.

A uniformed, expressionless staff member approached and introduced himself in a mechanical tone, "Sir, may I have some business to do? We offer real estate sales and rental services. If you're short on wormstones, you can consider applying for a 'wormstone loan'. The down payment is 30%, and the interest is settled daily at a rate of 0.5%.

The high interest rate made several survivors who were seeking advice nearby turn pale.

A daily interest rate of 0.5% was a frighteningly high annual rate. If the repayments were not made, the house would be repossessed, and the initial investment in insect stones would be lost. This was a bottomless pit.

Xie Mian's gaze passed over the edge areas and pointed to the center of the map, an area surrounded by green vegetation.

"I want the villa in the core area with a private garden and water and electricity systems."

His voice was not loud, but it was like a bomb dropped into the hall.

The staff, the monkeys, and everyone around were stunned and looked at him in unison.

"Sir...are you sure?" The staff member's tone fluctuated for the first time. "That villa needs to be paid in full. The total price is...10,000 insect stones."

This number caused gasps to echo throughout the hall. Ten thousand insect stones was enough for a ten-man team to live luxuriously in the base for several years.

Xie Mian didn't waste any time and put the bag in his hand on the counter.

Xie Mian felt distressed when the small yellow bag was stained with handprints, so he asked E Shifang to take the space back and replace it with an ordinary large black bag.

The insect stone was just transferred into the bag by Goose Shifang.

The staff came forward and unzipped it.

Crash——

Dazzling insect stones of various colors poured out and instantly piled up into a small mountain, almost submerging the counter.

The entire real estate transaction center fell into deathly silence.

The staff member's mouth opened into an "O" shape, and the monkey's eyes were almost popping out. He secretly regretted that he had missed one insect stone.

He knew that the other party was rich, but he never expected that the other party was so rich!

Just as shocked as the monkey were other people in the trading market who were waiting to buy or rent a house.

"hiss--!"

A man in patched clothes was squatting in a corner, calculating how many days his worm stones could rent a pigeon cage for. When he saw the worm stones piled on the counter, his own worm stone fell to the ground without him noticing.

"Oh my God...this...how many lives did this cost?"

Behind him stood several team members who were equally shocked and couldn't help muttering to themselves.

"Is it... a high-level God-favored one?"

A woman holding a child subconsciously hugged the child tighter and looked at Xie Mian with envy.

"Shh! Don't look around!"

An old man who looked somewhat experienced quickly pulled the equally stunned young man beside him and lowered his voice, "To be able to produce so many insect stones, he must be either a powerful figure, or... he has a force behind him that we can't afford to offend! Watch your eyes and your mind!"

…

Amidst countless shocked and greedy gazes, Xie Mian calmly completed all the procedures and obtained the keys to the villa and the property certificate.

Half an hour later, Xie Mian and E Shifang stood at the door of their new home.

This is a two-story villa with a large garden, which is isolated from the outside world by an independent wall. Most importantly, the water and electricity here are supplied by independent systems.

"Gah!"

As soon as he entered the door, E Shifang jumped out of Xie Mian's arms and walked around inside with a gleam in his eyes.

“This place is nice, quite suitable!”

"Gah, this place is not bad, we can do it too!"

"Big bed, I like this bed, haha! And this bathtub, haha!"

After going through all the scenarios in his mind, E Shifang jumped onto the sofa and, in an extremely arrogant manner, moved all the fine wine in the space onto the table:

"Honey, shall we have a drink to celebrate tonight?"