Chapter Seventeen: Swallow.

The people in the mechanical settlement all looked over curiously.

“Who’s that?”

“I don’t know. Judging by the clothes, they probably aren’t from our Lower City. There’s no such fancy attire down there.”

“Could it be that the passage between the Upper and Lower City has opened again?”

“Look at that deer! It’s actually breathing fire!”

“No way! That deer’s incredible. If I had one at home, I wouldn’t have to worry about the cold anymore.”

“With your little tent? That deer would just set it ablaze the moment it steps inside.”

“Your tent isn’t any bigger, you know?”

Listening to the chatter around them, Ye Yun, Clara, Hook, and Rios arrived at a large gate. At the entrance, a traffic-light colored mech soldier was verifying visitor information.

“Verifying… Verification successful! Clara, welcome home!”

The gate opened.

A three-meter-tall humanoid robot appeared before Clara.

“Clara, welcome home.”

Clara instantly recognized the robot.

“Mr. Swallow!”

Clara jumped down from behind Rios and ran up to Swallow, showing him the medicine Ye Yun had sold her.

“Mr. Swallow, Clara has found the medicine! Everyone can be saved!”

Swallow glanced at the medicine and instructed a nearby mech soldier to take it away.

“Scanning… Scan complete: Healthy.”

After scanning Clara and confirming she wasn’t injured, Swallow said,

“Clara, don’t go to Rivet Town. It’s dangerous there; you could get hurt.”

Clara smiled brightly.

“It’s okay, Mr. Swallow. Clara didn’t go alone; there were others with me.”

She then introduced Ye Yun and the others to Swallow.

“Mr. Swallow, these are Clara’s good friends: Brother Ye Yun and Mr. Rios.”

As for Hook, Swallow already knew him—this little guy sometimes came to the mechanical settlement to play with Clara.

Swallow looked at Ye Yun and Rios, scanned them, and the red light on his head flashed wildly.

“Danger! Danger! Detected individual with extremely high combat capability! Protect Clara!”

Swallow swiftly shielded Clara behind him.

Clara hurried to explain,

“Mr. Swallow, Brother Ye Yun isn’t a bad person. These medicines were sold to me by Brother Ye Yun! Mr. Rios is also good; he protected Clara all the way back to the mechanical settlement.”

Hearing this, Swallow deactivated his combat mode.

“Clara’s friends, good people.”

Ye Yun looked at Swallow, contemplating whether to ask about the star core’s secrets as in the original storyline. In the original plot, at first, Xing and the others could talk normally with Swallow after Clara’s introduction. But once they asked about the star core, Swallow would go berserk.

After some thought, Ye Yun gave up on that plan. Fighting Swallow was still easy, but why seek trouble? Fighting is tiring.

Ye Yun waved his hand.

“So, you’re Swallow? Don’t worry, I mean no harm to you. I’m just here to escort Clara home and make a little trade with her.”

Swallow looked at Clara, then at Ye Yun.

“A trade? What kind of trade?”

Ye Yun took out the star gems Clara had just used to buy medicine.

“This. As long as you have this, you can trade goods with me.”

Swallow scanned the star gems in Ye Yun’s hand.

“Decorative items, worthless.”

Ye Yun heard Swallow’s verdict.

“Maybe worthless to you, but very valuable to me.”

“If you don’t believe me, you can try trading. After all, it’s worthless to you, right?”

The computer in Swallow’s head ran calculations and concluded.

“Agreed.”

He immediately ordered nearby mech soldiers to gather star gems.

Five minutes later.

Several mech soldiers returned with a dozen star gems, and Clara brought out some star gems she had collected.

Ye Yun counted them—exactly fifty.

He summoned a trading scale, placed all fifty star gems on it, and exchanged them for star coins.

Seconds later, fifty 100-denomination star coins appeared in Ye Yun’s hand.

Ye Yun handed them to Clara.

Curious, Clara examined them.

Ye Yun explained,

“These are star coins, the currency I use. With these, you can shop where I am.”

Then Ye Yun took out his phone and sent Clara some product information he had shown Natasha earlier.

Clara’s phone soon rang. Opening the communication app, the first message was from Ye Yun.

Clara opened it and was shocked. The items were incredibly cheap!

With 5,000 star coins, she could buy 500 bottles of the golden wound medicine she saw earlier.

Or purchase 50 tons of food!

Clara couldn’t help but wonder if Brother Ye Yun had sent the wrong message.

“Brother Ye Yun, did you send the wrong message? The prices here... are way too cheap.”

Ye Yun took the phone from Clara and checked.

“It’s correct.”

Clara was stunned.

By the gods! These star gems could exchange for so much food!

Most of the star gems she had found before were just a small fraction of what she had discarded on the spot!

What had she been doing all this time?

Panicked, Clara tried to rush off to places she had visited before to find star gems, but Swallow stopped her.

“Clara, complete the trade first; verify if this person speaks the truth.”

Hearing this, Clara had no choice but to finish the trade.

“Then... Brother Ye Yun, please exchange all this for rice.”

Ye Yun took the 5,000 star coins from Clara, summoned a bubble filled with rice, and tapped the coins onto it.

The star coins and bubble vanished simultaneously.

The rice bags inside the bubble gradually expanded and fell to the ground, neatly stacked—500 bags of rice appeared in the small plaza.

Swallow approached, reached out, and opened one bag to check.

“Scanning… Scan complete! High-quality rice!”

Clara heard this and was overjoyed.

“Great! Now everyone can be saved!”

Hook stared at the piles of rice, his eyes full of astonishment.

“Oh my! If all this rice goes to Hook, Hook should be able to eat well for a very long time!”

After inspection, Swallow immediately ordered several mech soldiers to take the rice for proper storage.

This rice could extend the survival time of the Lower City.

Ye Yun checked his task progress.

[Task 1: Serve 20 different customers.
Current progress: 7/20
Reward: 1 lottery machine]

[Task 2: Achieve total sales of 100,000 star coins from now on.
Current progress: 5.8/10
Reward: 1 command-level power]

Ye Yun saw the progress and figured that barring surprises, he should complete Task 2 by tomorrow.

Natasha’s side would likely produce a large sales volume, and Swallow’s side would surely generate plenty more as well.