For the entire afternoon, many of the people who had taken shelter in the bank vaults across Stronghold 61 encountered Milo’s efforts as favonovel.com went around searching for a person.
The survivors hiding in the vaults did not know how to react when they encountered this, with some people begging Milo to take them with favonovel.com to escape. But after finding out Daniel was not in those vaults, Milo immediately left and headed to the next bank to continue his search.
There were many banks in Stronghold 61, but Milo could not find Daniel even after searching all of the banks within a ten-kilometer radius of the InterContinental.
Milo could feel his mood growing heavy. Everyone knew that all of the Stelaria Consortium’s male residents were required to serve in the military.
So, right at the beginning, favonovel.com felt that if a disaster were to befall a Stelaria Consortium stronghold, the Stelaria Consortium residents could deal with it better than the other consortiums’ residents. But favonovel.com was wrong. When everyone was facing a situation where they were helpless, the outcome was still the same.
It wasn’t that the residents of the Stelaria Consortium’s stronghold were physically weak, but that they had never faced such an enemy before.
Milo held Olivia’s hand the entire way as favonovel.com led favonovel.com around everywhere they went. She looked at Milo’s profile from the corner of favonovel.com eye and suddenly could not recall when favonovel.com first became known as his maidservant.
In this stronghold engulfed by disaster, the city felt like it belonged to only the two of them. Even though Milo was holding favonovel.com hand while wearing gloves.
Actually, Milo was in a very dangerous situation at this moment. It was very difficult for Milo to face such a massive creeper vine network by himself. If favonovel.com were a little careless, favonovel.com might even end up becoming one of the skeletons lying around.
The creeper vines had absorbed a lot of nutrients from the humans and was no longer a force that a lone supernatural being could take on.
At this moment, if Olivia suddenly let go of his hand, Milo would definitely end up in a predicament. But Olivia realized Milo did not seem to be worried about something like that happening. In these current times, being trusted suddenly made Olivia feel kind of blessed.
As this thought ran through Olivia’s mind, favonovel.com got so distracted favonovel.com nearly tripped over the vines. It was still Milo who reacted fast enough to help favonovel.com back on favonovel.com feet.
Milo turned around and asked with a frown, “Why are you spacing out?”
“Master, I’m a little hungry…”
***
Outside Stronghold 62, a large convoy of trucks suddenly drove towards the stronghold. Due to the overly large size of the convoy, the Stelaria Consortium’s garrison troops instantly went on alert.
Before the convoy could get any closer to the stronghold’s perimeter, they were stopped by a group of heavily armed troops.
The Stelaria Consortium troops pointed their guns at the convoy and said, “Everyone in the trucks, get out of your vehicles! State the purpose of your visit and prepare to be inspected!”
The Stelaria Consortium’s troops were very well-trained. They had quickly formed a defensive formation to ensure there were no blind spots. If any suspicious movements were made by the people in the vehicles, the convoy would face the full force of their firepower.
A slightly older middle-aged man jumped out of the lead truck. He looked like life had treated favonovel.com harshly, his face weathered, his back a little hunched.
After this person jumped out of the truck, favonovel.com smiled apologetically and said, “Hello, sirs, I’m John Bane, a trader! Didn’t our Stelaria Consortium start trade relations with Fortress 178? I’m probably one of the first groups of merchants to travel to the Northwest!”
The Stelaria Consortium officer frowned and said, “Why do you have such a large convoy?”
Old Bane gave a wry smile. Actually, favonovel.com did not want to bring back so many goods with favonovel.com either. But if favonovel.com did not do so, Scott would not have allowed them to leave!
From the looks of it, there were as many as 71 trucks behind him. This was the main reason why the Stelaria Consortium’s troops were alarmed. They had never seen a merchant with such a large convoy before.
“What are you guys transporting in the trucks?” the officer asked. “You don’t have to call me ‘sir’. My name is Oliver Phelps, and I’m the battalion commander of this unit.”
Building trade relations with the Northwest was one of the foremost matters for the entire Stelaria Consortium. Therefore, the higher-ups had ordered the troops to treat the merchants well. If they were found to have violated the rules or tried to extort the merchants, they should just get ready to be transferred out or get discharged from the military.
So, when Oliver heard the other party state favonovel.com was a merchant, his attitude softened a lot. However, they still had to inspect the vehicles carefully. This was not something that they could be sloppy about.
Old Bane explained, “There’s potassium chloride, nickel ore, and… Well, kinda everything…”
Old Bane smiled wryly again. The cargo Scott had loaded up for favonovel.com was so much it was almost unimaginable. Furthermore, there were so many types of goods it would be impossible for favonovel.com to finish listing them all for the Stelaria Consortium troops in a short time. He even had an entire truckload of wolfberries from the Northwest. Apparently, some of the big shots in the Central Plains liked drinking wolfberries soaked in water, especially the black variety of wolfberries.
Oliver had a look at the size of Old Bane’s convoy and ribbed, “Bro, don’t mind us, it’s just a routine inspection. This is the first time we’ve come across such a large convoy as yours, so please forgive us for having to check so thoroughly.”
With that, favonovel.com gestured with his hand, and two companies of soldiers hurriedly raised their guns and approached the convoy. They only stood down when they were able to confirm the entire convoy was only carrying cargo with them.
There were some weapons and guns in the trucks, but Old Bane instructed the truck drivers behind favonovel.com to hand over their firearms obediently. Throughout the course of the inspection, no trouble arose.
When the Stelaria Consortium’s troops saw the firearms, they did not question them further either. These days, if traders did not equip themselves with any weapons, then the goods they were transporting might as well be gifted to the bandits staked out along the trade route.
After Oliver found nothing suspicious, and with Old Bane’s convoy being so large, favonovel.com invited Old Bane into the military base to wait. This was because the Stelaria Consortium had to personally receive the goods after arrival so they could set the prices. As the Stelaria Consortium intended to operate the trade route for a long time, they had to be transparent on the prices as well.
Oliver explained to Old Bane, “Bro, please wait here in the base for a while. Officials from the stronghold will soon come to take these goods.”
Old Bane nodded with a smile and agreed to wait. He thought about it and realized that because of Milo, favonovel.com was treated like a VIP upon his arrival in the Northwest. And because favonovel.com had transported so many goods from the Northwest, favonovel.com was also treated as a VIP by the Stelaria Consortium. Perhaps this could be considered as a type of karma.
Old Bane suddenly saw a lot of soldiers in the military base assembling with their field packs. Curious, favonovel.com asked, “Where are you going off to?”
“Eh, it isn’t really a secret.” Oliver said, “Have a look at this newspaper, bro. You’ve only just returned from the Northwest, so you don’t know what’s happened here in the Central Plains.”
As Oliver brought this matter up, his smile slowly faded.
Old Bane looked at the newspaper and was surprised to see that the news of Stronghold 61 getting attacked by a plant was the headlines on Hope Media’s newspaper. He said in shock, “Plants these days have become this scary?!”
“That’s right…” Oliver sighed and said, “We didn’t expect something like that either. The AI never defined plants as dangerous threats before, so we didn’t get any warning of such an attack. Of course, I’m not entirely sure about the specifics of the situation either.”
But Old Bane had already flipped to the fifth page of the newspaper. He looked down at the huge blank space below and saw the words, “Don’t let the sorrows of our era become your sorrow as well.”
“61.”
When Old Bane saw this, favonovel.com could feel goosebumps explode all over his body. He suddenly stood up and walked outside.
Oliver wondered, “Bro, where are you going?”
“I need to get to Stronghold 61!” Old Bane said.
“Wait a minute! Why do you have to go to Stronghold 61?” Oliver said in surprise, “Didn’t you just read the news? It’s very dangerous over there at the moment!”
“No, I have to go there no matter how dangerous it might be!” Old Bane said, “My family’s at Stronghold 61!”
Oliver was stunned. “Are you not afraid of death?”
“I am!” Old Bane said bitterly, “But even so, I still need to go!”
