Volume 1 Chapter 7: Scavenger

The biker boss walked up to the prisoners. Holding his head high, he took off his leather gloves and motorcycle goggles, removed his cloak hood, and started shouting “wah-wah-wah” at everyone. He waved his arms wildly and stomped his feet hard to emphasize his words.

The prisoners stared blankly at this self-absorbed fellow, many of them already twitching at the corners of their mouths. Everyone understood that the intelligent beings appearing before them were likely natives of this world, but few had expected these miniature creatures to look so “familiar.”

Green skin, hooked nose, slender curled pointed ears, large eyes occupying one-third of their faces, and short arms with four fingers each.

Green dwarves? Green gnomes? Goblins? All the prisoners had a big question mark pop up in their heads!

This compact biker boss looked ninety percent similar to certain small monsters from Earth’s online games.

Seeing that the tall humans before him were ignoring his words, the biker boss seemed a bit surprised. His body language became more intense, and he switched to another language. The prisoners looked at each other, then cautiously shook their heads at the biker boss.

The biker boss soon realized he was casting pearls before swine—these people simply didn’t understand him. However, he didn’t seem disappointed. Instead, a hint of delight appeared in his large eyes. He stopped his physical performance and patiently tried several common human languages, still going “wala-wala.”

After confirming that these humans completely didn’t understand the common languages he had spoken, the biker boss finally became overjoyed. Carefully, he pulled out a small pocket-watch-like device from his leather jacket’s upper pocket.

“Sha… sha…” The biker boss pressed some button on the pocket watch, and a loud noise echoed in the prisoners’ minds, making them cover their ears in pain. But they soon realized the noise acted directly on their minds; covering their ears did nothing.

Fortunately, the noise lasted only a few seconds before stopping. The next moment, all humans heard a stiff, mechanical voice in their minds.

“You… are humans who just teleported from another space-time world, right!”

…

Layers of rocky cliffs sped past in his vision. The strong wind blowing towards him took away some of the body’s heat. Qin Lun held onto the window frame, gazing into the distance of the Gobi, the rumbling motor of the tracked van beneath him audible in his ears.

Not long before, when the biker boss took out that pocket-watch-like device and established something called a Soul Force Field, the two sides were finally able to communicate smoothly.

During their brief communication, the human prisoners finally confirmed this was an alternate space-time world called Shattered Starry Sky, and the little monster bikers confirmed they were otherworldly humans who had traveled through a Space-Time Portal.

Shattered Starry Sky was an alternate space-time world completely contrary to human common sense. The biggest feature of this starry sky was that it had thousands of Suspended Continents.

The Suspended Continents varied in size; the large ones were like complete life-sustaining planets. They had mountains, rivers, forests, lakes, deserts, grasslands—everything one could want—and even oceans. The small Suspended Continents were only a few kilometers across, like tiny islands.

These Suspended Continents could neither move nor collide, embedded in this starry sky like gemstones.

On these Suspended Continents existed numerous civilizations, inhabited by various life races, including many Sapient Races. Creatures like humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls, the undead, elemental life, wyverns, titans, and extremely rare superior races like immortals and Buddhas, monsters, deities, demons, Angels, etc.

These bikers who called themselves the “Lu-Lu Tribe” and resembled Goblins were Scavengers of this Gobi desert. In other words, they were trash collectors. The place where Qin Lun and the others were located was called Crimson Gobi, a medium-sized Suspended Continent. Converted, it was about 100,000 square kilometers, roughly equivalent to Earth’s Huaxia District’s Zhejiang Province.

Crimson Gobi Continent was on the edge of the civilized world within Shattered Starry Sky. However, it was rich in minerals, and life races from other space-time worlds often fell into the Gobi through Space-Time Portals, so it wasn’t lacking in adventurers and Scavenger tribes.

After confirming the humans before them came from another space-time world, the Goblin bikers immediately used their unknown firearms to semi-forcefully escort everyone onto their vehicles, “inviting” them to visit their tribe.

The prisoners had no objections to this. Although they had learned where they were, they had neither food nor freshwater, nor weapons, making independent survival impossible. In a way, these Goblins had actually rescued them from their predicament.

However, after the prisoners got on the vehicles, they found that these Goblins didn’t take them back to the tribe immediately. Instead, they sent people to climb the hill-like base structure. When the Goblins discovered the many Zombies crowded at the base entrance, instead of being shocked, they excitedly shouted “wah-wah.”

Clearly, these Goblin Scavengers weren’t seeing Zombies for the first time. In their eyes, these Zombies seemed like walking gold coins that would bring them rich profits.

The prisoners coldly observed the series of actions by the Goblin Scavengers, hoping to gain some information they didn’t yet know. Due to the angle, they couldn’t see what the Goblin Scavengers were doing to the Zombies.

However, the prisoners knew the Goblins weren’t treating the Zombies as food, because when some Goblins came down from above the base, although covered in blood, they didn’t bring down any Zombie limbs or flesh. Instead, they picked up a lot of junk inside the base, mostly broken instruments and metal items.

District 91 Base had over thirty floors from top to bottom, standing on the ground like a massive hill over a hundred meters high. These Goblins couldn’t empty the base in a short time, especially since nearly a thousand Zombies were still distributed inside.

When these Goblin Scavengers realized this base seemed to be a huge treasure trove, they stopped going deeper. They left some people around the hill formed by the base, then set off with the prisoners, planning to return to the tribe first.

“Huh!” After the convoy had been driving in the Gobi for several hours, Qin Lun suddenly raised an eyebrow and let out a soft exclamation.

The youth who had been holding the window frame and gazing into the distance noticed that the orange-yellow light enveloping the Suspended Continent was gradually darkening from the horizon, casting a long shadow on one side of the vehicle.

A Suspended Continent without a sun or moon actually had daytime and nighttime!

Interesting! A slight smile slowly appeared on Qin Lun’s lips.

Before it got completely dark, the Goblin Scavenger convoy finally returned to their camp, which was like a giant Parking Lot “vehicle city.”

Large vans formed the outer vehicle wall, medium and small vehicles made up the second defense ring, and in the middle was the camp’s living area with various small tents. The central open space was the activity ground where the “Lu-Lu Tribe” conducted various activities.

The twelve human outsiders were split up; Qin Lun and his two companions were also assigned a small tent. The facilities inside the small tent were extremely simple: an unnamed animal fur spread on the ground, and various living utensils piled in the corner.

The only fortunate thing was that there wasn’t any strange smell inside the small tent; it seemed these “Lu-Lu Tribe” members weren’t as unhygienic as real little monster Goblins.

When it became completely dark, bright lights lit up in the camp. A female Goblin from the Lu-Lu Tribe brought Qin Lun’s group of three a small umbrella-shaped desk lamp, some mashed-potato-like food, and a pot of drinking water.

The mashed potatoes were generously portioned, warmed up, and a bit salty. But having been hungry all day, Qin Lun’s trio didn’t pick and choose, quickly eating it all clean.

“I’m going out to take a look,” Qin Lun said after eating, standing up, though the tent was a bit short, so he had to hunch over.

“Can we go out?” Lin Feng was taken aback.

“Have they forbidden us from going out?” Qin Lun smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine! Haven’t you noticed the Goblins’ attitude towards us is strange? We’re not prisoners, but we’re not exactly guests either. Keeping us here like this must have a reason…”

“You’re absolutely right. I thought the same thing. It seems seeking you out was the right choice!” Before Qin Lun could finish, a deep voice sounded from outside the tent.

Then, a burly figure lifted the tent flap from outside and ducked inside.

“The Disciple…” Seeing who it was, Lin Feng’s face paled, but after only half a cry, he caught himself and covered his mouth.

“Welcome!” Qin Lun gave Disciple Hansen a friendly smile.

“You don’t seem surprised by my appearance,” Hansen said deeply, looking meaningfully at Qin Lun.

“Right now, everyone is unsure of the Goblins’ true intentions. They haven’t restricted our freedom, so naturally, people will seek others to discuss matters,” Qin Lun said calmly. “I just didn’t expect someone to come find me!”

Hansen showed a faint bitter smile. He had no other choice but to come discuss with Qin Lun.

…

Late at night, while Qin Lun and Disciple Hansen were talking and exchanging information, in a certain stairwell of the District 91 Base structure, a pile of over ten Zombie corpses suddenly stirred, a slender arm extending from a gap.

The stacked Zombies were slowly pushed aside by the arm, and a slender figure covered in blood struggled to crawl out from the corpse pile. Not a single patch of skin or flesh on the person’s body was intact, like a torn rag doll.

After shakily standing up, the figure slightly turned. On its face, which had been chewed into a skull-like shape by Zombies, flickered ghostly green pupils like will-o’-wisps. The figure held an empty syringe marked with an “X” in its left hand, and a gleaming scalpel in its right.

“Ah… Joey Foster!” The figure lifted its head, its damaged vocal cords and tongue emitting a ghostly howl of blurred words.