Chapter 155: Money Makes the World Go Round
No thief in this world would use an engineering vehicle to steal things, but Cheng Tian did.
After the Great Cataclysm, there were widespread signs of regression to ancient times, with exceptionally tall vegetation. Yet, under the power of the drill, these plants were either drilled down or had holes opened through them, forcibly carving out a path through the jungle that vehicles could barely traverse.
While Cheng Tian was personally responsible for clearing the path, his gaze was inevitably drawn to the scenery before him.
When playing the game, Cheng Tian would only focus all his energy on fighting dinosaurs and humans, thus overlooking many background details. However, after the Chosen Space expanded the dungeon, the natural scenery, which could only be presented in fantasy works, was directly exposed to Cheng Tian.
For example, Archaeopteryx fleeing in droves, startled by the noise; or some brightly colored fruits that were clearly atavistic but retained the genes from 21st-century cultivation; or—
A massive diamond buried beneath tree roots.
Whether it was Joe the poacher, who was forcibly restrained on the elephant's trunk, or student Eileen, who had somewhat dazedly followed along, both suddenly felt their minds weren't quite sufficient when they saw Cheng Tian pull out a fist-sized diamond from under the tree roots.
This scene also made them understand Cheng Tian's bizarre behavior up until then.
From the moment he entered the jungle, Cheng Tian would periodically lean half his body out of the cockpit, then pull out a missile launcher and fire a shot in a random direction. He had fired five shots so far, and the last small homing missile had wobbled and crashed into the roots of a towering tree. The diamond in Cheng Tian's hand was dug out from there.
"Does your organization also have a habit of hiding gems in the wild?"
Eileen, who successfully avoided being harassed by ancient giant mosquitoes thanks to the constant breeze around her, asked the hostage on the elephant's trunk.
"...I've been with the organization for a few years, and at least our boss, Butcher, doesn't have this delightful hobby. While our subordinates aren't exactly destitute, they're a bunch of scoundrels who can't hold onto any money they have, myself included. Let alone someone bringing such things to the jungle to scatter wealth."
Perhaps knowing that his life was not in immediate danger, Joe still had the presence of mind to slander his organization.
Ultimately, he chose this line of work simply because it was the fastest way to make money and had a low barrier to entry. For him, hunting dragons was no different from what ancient people, as recorded in historical data, did when they hunted wild boars, moose, or brown bears with guns. It was just a "not-so-legal" job and didn't mean that everyone in the organization was a brutal butcher who enjoyed dragon meat and was bloodthirsty like the boss... Although, poachers who chose this line of work generally had pretty rotten personalities and lifestyles.
Having received Joe's direct answer, Eileen understood that this diamond was a hidden item Cheng Tian found using a special method.
Since the current Cadillacs and Dinosaurs dungeon did not have the "authentic" modifier, some fixed resource supply spawn points did not exist. For example, the wooden barrels containing full magazines of Uzi submachine guns and large pieces of roasted meat, which were randomly placed on the inevitable path in the game, were optimized due to their "unreasonableness" in the wild. They were moved to human settlements where they could be "reasonably" accommodated, allowing players to find them in food storage rooms and weapon armories.
However, this optimization of unreasonableness would not include "hidden items." Or rather, these hidden items were extra rewards left by the Space for Chosen Players. If one could find them, it was a testament to their ability, and they could simply take them.
Moreover, it was imaginable that those who could unexpectedly acquire these hidden items would not go around telling everyone about their income, so the spread of relevant information was, as expected, relatively narrow.
In the original game flow, upon entering the second level, one only needed to advance a few steps to see two large trees blocking the view. The diamond in Cheng Tian's hand and a stack of un-dug thousand-dollar bills were hidden by the developers under the roots of these two trees, which players could not see at all.
Which normal player would think there would be something hidden here!?
It was based on his memory of this aspect that Cheng Tian frequently fired shots to test while clearing the path, and indeed, he dug up a wild diamond. Each was worth one thousand coins, and if used natively in "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs", its value would be even higher.
Even though only one main quest separated them, Cheng Mouren now seemed truly unfamiliar to Eileen. It felt as if he had suddenly transformed from a newcomer who needed her help into someone more reliable and experienced than most people in her circle.
Even though her combat power should still be higher, she felt as if everything was being led by Cheng Tian... Speaking of which, is my total combat power really still higher than his?
Eileen's gaze moved back and forth between the war elephant, the armored vehicle, and Cheng Tian himself, and she began to feel uncertain.
She wasn't angry; she had already developed resistance to Cheng Tian's provocations. It was just a subtle shift in her emotions.
"Do you want it?"
Cheng Tian's voice startled Eileen, and then she saw Cheng Tian hand the fist-sized diamond he had just dug up to Joe the poacher.
She could clearly see Joe's Adam's apple bobbing up and down, his expression full of a craving for money.
"You're going to... give it to me?"
The poacher's tone was filled with surprise and doubt.
"You probably poach dinosaurs mostly for money anyway, so if I give you money, you can be my guide in peace. As long as you don't pull any stunts, this thing is yours."
Cheng Tian said, then pushed the diamond into Joe the poacher's hand.
And in that instant, Joe, who had originally only compromised under threat of death and was still hostile to Cheng Tian in terms of personal reputation, almost instantly turned from red to green, directly bypassing yellow neutrality and reaching a friendly stage that was almost respectful!
"...Wait a moment."
Carefully tucking the diamond, still covered in dirt, into his in my arms, he then reached one hand into his waist, which was wrapped by the war elephant, and pulled out a very new map. He handed it directly to Cheng Tian, with five circles marked on it with a marker pen.
"This is a dinosaur distribution map of the swamp jungle, confirmed by satellite scans from the boss's employer and some of our on-site surveys."
A prompt popped up in front of Cheng Tian as he took the map.
"You have obtained the mutated dinosaur nest distribution map and some information for the swamp jungle area from 'Poacher Joe'.
North side of the jungle, cliff—mutated Pterodactyl, with a leader, communal.
South side of the jungle, low shrub area—mutated Stegosaurus, with a leader, communal.
East side of the jungle, gravel belt—mutated Triceratops, with a leader, communal.
Center of the jungle, swamp lake—mutated Mosasaurus, unknown strength and quantity.
Roaming throughout the entire area—mutated Allosaurus, solitary, multiple, roaming and hunting."