"Xing Chen, what do you mean?" Theresa was a little confused by Xing Chen's question.
While listening to the weak Blood Demon report to Theresa, Xing Chen was also pondering the unusual behavior of the people in the tavern.
Originium Radish Town is located at the border of two factions. Due to Terra's unique concept of wasteland geography, it can actually be considered ungoverned. At least Leimbieta's defense and security forces are not present here.
"Then why wouldn't it be ordinary wasteland bandits?" Xiao Pa Cai asked.
"This is the border between Leimbieta and Kazdel. Ordinary wasteland bandits are not uncommon. If they were just attacked in the wasteland outside the town, I believe that for a Sarkaz merchant caravan that has been trading here for years, they would definitely have a standard set of response procedures," Xing Chen analyzed, describing his actions in the tavern at noon. "Everyone in the town, whether Cattus or Sarkaz, is on high alert. This means that the enemy might not be content with just robbing in the wasteland, but is preparing to attack the town."
"And, the main force of Scarred Market was taken away by my brother, so this operation wasn't organized by those experienced mercenary groups—I'm very clear about their information control capabilities. So, Xing Chen, you infer that this should be carried out by refugees who escaped from Kazdel," Theresa continued Xing Chen's line of reasoning. "If I'm not mistaken, your next sentence should be that there's a spy in town?"
"You're right, but we might not need to catch that spy. He might already be dead."
"So what should we do next, leave?" Xiao Pa Cai asked. She had no combat power, and this wasn't her home.
"We should stay and help," Xing Chen glanced at Theresa. He actually didn't want to get involved either, but if he said that, Theresa would agree and then secretly feel sad. "I think we should go to the tavern to check. I don't believe Leimbieta would truly ignore this small town entirely."
Returning to the tavern, the townspeople had all gathered outside, surrounding a white Cattus.
"Did Iron Trough only send one person?" "Yes, I'm sorry, the mobile city is also short-staffed right now."
"Are you some legendary mercenary?" "Uh, no, I just participated in the Enclosure Incident and happened to be nearby, so I was sent."
"Then what should we do? It's said that the number of attackers this time might be two to three groups." "Please rest assured, the mobile landmass had me bring a large quantity of high-energy explosives, the kind used against solid rock formations."
Evidently, this Cattus's Originium bomb support did not bring much sense of security to the town. Some people even began to plot to snatch the explosives and flee.
When Xing Chen and his companions arrived, seeing such a chaotic situation, they had no choice but to create a bit of a commotion to calm the crowd.
"Everyone! The bandits are very close! Panicking is useless!" After Xing Chen spoke, Theresa picked up a stone from the ground and threw it near the crowd. Seeing everyone's attention turn to him, he continued, "I have a way to annihilate these bandits."
Annihilating a group of wasteland bandits who hadn't received much military training wasn't very difficult for Theresa. The elite forces of the allied army had all been left in the ruins of Kazdel by her and the Banshee's large-scale witchcraft.
The difficulty was how to achieve this without exposing her identity. Once her existence was revealed, Theresis would surely organize a force to impede Theresa's actions.
"Sir, what method do you have?" Charlotte, taking advantage of everyone's attention being drawn, quickly emerged from the encirclement with her hammer.
"I want to confirm something first. There should have been mining activities here before, right?"
"Yes, there were. But the ore vein dried up many years ago, otherwise this wouldn't just be a transit station." The bartender answered the question for Charlotte.
"Then do you have a map of the goaf areas?"
"What is a goaf area?" The people present asked.
"It's an area where ore has been extracted but not backfilled in time."
As a major mining nation, Leimbieta should have known the concept of goaf areas, yet the people in the town were completely ignorant. Xing Chen guessed that either these people were uneducated, or the mining engineers simply hadn't considered this aspect. Anyway, it was all wasteland, and people were on mobile cities; if it collapsed, it collapsed. How much greater could the threat be than a natural disaster?
"Are there any of you who have studied geophysical prospecting?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Alright, then there must be some with good hearing, right?"
Several Cattus, including Charlotte from before, raised their hands.
Then, Xing Chen assigned them tasks.
He drew six equidistant radial lines centered on the town, arranging three groups of people on each line. In each group, one Sarkaz would strike the ground with a hammer, and a Cattus would place an ear to the ground to listen for echoes. If the echo changed, they would mark a point on the line.
"Mr. Xing Chen, will this really work?" Charlotte asked worriedly.
"If I dared to do this, my mentor would strangle me," Xing Chen shook his head. The accuracy of doing this was completely unguaranteed; it was basically a matter of luck. "I can only say it's a gamble."
Then, he waved his hand, signaling Charlotte to follow him. While the Cattus were surveying the geological conditions, they needed to assemble high-energy Originium bombs for causing large-scale ground collapse. Besides that, they also needed some crossbow bolts that could attack outside the range of Sarkaz witchcraft, in order to focus fire from a distance after the enemy lost mobility.
"Are you tying such a small amount of explosives because you want to fight the Bug Kazdel?" After scolding a Cattus, the Camel saw a civilian from a Sarkaz merchant caravan tying a large lump of Originium explosives to an arrowhead, making it look like a javelin. "If you tie so many, can you even carry them? Do you want to test whose range is longer, your arm strength or the enemy's witchcraft?"
While everyone was busy making weapons, Charlotte remembered the activities the Victorians had conducted on Leimbieta's land during the Enclosure Incident. Although this small town was not involved in the dispute, Victorian mining personnel still left some traces here.
Based on the information provided by Charlotte and the reports from those responsible for surveying the geological conditions in the evening, Xing Chen roughly identified a relatively wide fragile zone.
"Charlotte, did you bring iron chains?" Xing Chen asked.
"I did, but they're for securing cargo. The strength might not be enough." Charlotte said, taking out a section and handing it to Xing Chen, who then passed it to Theresa.
"Indeed, the strength is not enough. There's a significant difference compared to Kazdel's stable chains." Theresa squeezed it with her hand, and the iron chain severely deformed.
"I see. I originally hoped to use the chains to weaken the bandits first, and then lure them into the ambush zone," Xing Chen said, taking the deformed chain. "Are there many such chains?"
"These are just for securing cargo; not many are needed. But I guess there should be similar chains in town, it's just the quality..." Charlotte shook her head.
"How about I act and use Originium Arts? I can also weave chains that meet the requirements," Theresa suggested to Xing Chen.
"That would be too easy to expose." Xing Chen's words left Charlotte a bit confused. What was going to be exposed? "Wait a minute, I have an idea."