Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 210 - 106: Deceiving the Heavens, Massive Earnings!

Chapter 210: Chapter 106: Deceiving the Heavens, Massive Earnings!

If it were just Jin Dafei’s arrogant attitude, it wouldn’t necessarily provoke him to search.

But that last sentence made his heart stir slightly.

Jin Dafei said that these swordfish dry goods are a specialty of Red Mountain Shelter City, and being able to transport them all the way to Happiness City indicates that this merchant team is not just a petty trader but likely has other "specialty goods" hidden on the truck.

And a truckload of dried salted fish, neatly arranged, could fetch at least 3,000 points in income.

The value of those hidden specialties, certainly not low!

Even if he could only take a 15% cut, it might equate to a few days’ income in Zone A.

Characters flashed rapidly across the panel, this time Cheng Ye deliberately focused his vision on She and the others.

Sure enough, as the surrounding environment abruptly darkened, everyone’s movements instantly froze, as if a pause button had been pressed.

The next second, the image shattered, then reconstructed in the blink of an eye, revealing a large garage before his eyes.

Four cargo trucks were neatly arranged, with six weapon-mounted pickup trucks lined up in front, along with two off-road vehicles, which should be the escort strength of the merchant team.

Jin Dafei stood at the forefront. A short-statured man stepped forward and handed over a folder, and the two conversed in low voices.

Cheng Ye focused his mind, his vision suddenly zoomed in, immediately catching their conversation clearly.

"Is everything arranged properly?"

"Rest assured, everything’s done according to plan."

"Let me see."

Jin Dafei said, striding to the back of the truck loaded with fish, seemingly casually pointing to a few dried swordfish.

Immediately, a subordinate stepped forward, pinched the back half of the fish’s head, and pressed downward forcefully, prying open the fish’s mouth. Without hesitation, he reached into the sharp jaws, extracting a small bag of glittering powder from deep within the fish’s belly.

Mutated Crystal?

There was indeed goods!

Cheng Ye swiftly zoomed in his vision to look closely; the swordfish’s jaws were indeed sharp, and it was this thing that injured that staff member just now.

But once you pinch the position further back on the fish’s head, you can pry the mouth open to a fixed angle, and your fingers can just avoid the sharp spikes to reach inside.

The powder was hidden in the cavity of the fish, and anyone unaware of this trick, seeing those menacing jaws, would surely give up on inspection directly.

"There’s something there."

Having found the first hiding spot, the intelligence screen didn’t cut off.

Jin Dafei was seen turning to walk toward the fourth truck, where a pile of sea tendon ropes coiled into balls was stacked in the compartment. This was something Cheng Ye was not unfamiliar with; it was heavily introduced in the manual and was a signature specialty of Red Mountain Shelter City.

Made by repeatedly pounding and weaving fibers of deep sea softbone algae, it had toughness comparable to steel wire but only an eighth of the weight. Whether used as a buffer rope for industrial connections or sold at retail as a tool, it had extremely high value.

Jin Dafei squatted down and picked up one ball of sea tendon rope from the top.

The surface of the rope was semi-transparent amber-colored and tightly coiled. He pinched the top of the rope ball with his finger and suddenly found a slightly thicker rope end, lightly pulling it along the line.

What was originally an airtight rope ball unfurled like a flower in layers, revealing a cluster of silver wires at its center.

The wire was a hollow seaweed gel tube, and upon cutting open one end, light blue powder immediately poured out.

"Steel Crystal Powder that can extend machinery’s lifespan, there’s a big demand for it in Happiness City. If we manage to get it in, this trip will at least make us an extra..." The short man leaned in, extending a finger.

A hundred or... a thousand?

Cheng Ye’s heart shook violently; if it’s the latter, according to a 20% tax, this thing would be worth 5,000 points?

Damn, this feels a bit exhilarating.

If he could catch this, it could mean a straight profit of...750 points?

"The live knot won’t be noticed, right?"

"Definitely not, it looks no different from a regular rope ball, only by finding that drawstring can it be untied."

The short-statured man patted his chest to assure, "I’ve let quite a few people try, and none were able to find any flaw. Additionally, I’ve mixed some crystal powder at the bottom of the compartment, their attention will definitely be drawn to those things."

"Well done."

Jin Dafei nodded slightly.

As soon as the words fell, the intelligence space shattered abruptly.

Cheng Ye snapped back to his senses, finding himself still in the inspection area, and the frozen time around him flowed again.

The staff were still checking the dried fish, and She was tending to the injured person.

"Drawstring?"

He frowned, looking at the panel.

[Intelligence Target: Jin Dafei]

[Specified Direction: Related to smuggling high-value goods]

[Intelligence Quality: 0.9 Level (Information quality reduced by 0.1 after specifying target)]

[Current Replay Count Available: 4]

"This time got lucky, only reduced by 0.1..."

Cheng Ye thought, simply clicking replay, re-entering the intelligence space.

This time he focused on observing how Jin Dafei found that drawstring after boarding the truck.

After replaying twice, he finally found a clue.

The drawstring of the sea tendon rope was mixed with extremely fine shell powder, which under a specific angle would reflect a faint sheen, but unfortunately, the sheen was too weak and could only be barely discerned in the dim light of nighttime.

Nowadays, even in overcast weather, no one could easily discover this hidden mark, and one would likely need to close the compartment door and use a flashlight to locate it.

"Truly impressive, people will think of all kinds of clever tricks for profit!"

Cheng Ye could only marvel.

The amount of mutated crystal in the fish’s belly was unknown, but its value was at least over a thousand points.

If it could be smuggled through, it would mean an extra 200 points, plus 1000 from the steel crystal powder, no wonder this merchant team went to such great lengths to hide it, the profit outweighed a truckload of goods.

But now, these "extra earnings" would benefit the inspection station.

And with a 15% cut, the Red Mountain Merchant Team would bring nearly a thousand points in huge revenue, enough to buy a piece of basic technology to set up a factory, and with a bit more, even a 10kWh battery.

Truly, people don’t get wealthy without windfalls, and horses don’t get fat without night grazing.

Speaking of which, this kind of "small money" shouldn’t be substituted with contribution points by the inspection station, right?

Cheng Ye closed the panel, a slight smile involuntarily tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Truth be told, with just one inspection, he was starting to enjoy the mode of quarantining Zone C a bit.

This placed even higher value on the inspector’s personal business skills than Zone A; if one’s ability was average, it would be a pure waste of time; if strong, it could mean double or even triple the returns.

"Thank you for supporting community construction, the residents of Celestial Essence... will certainly remember you all!"

He stood up, his gaze intersecting with Big Beard, finally falling on the dried salted fish on the ground.

This stuff seemed to have the potential for long-term storage.

If he could seize some, even if winter came and he went to the wilderness ruins, he wouldn’t have to worry about food!

...