Zachary, who had already gotten used to the environment around Pengcheng, truly didn’t know how to comment on the approach of the group as they were about to arrive at the campsite.

As the few people below hastened their pace, Zachary, flying above, was the first to spot the campsite in the distance.

Having confirmed the destination, Zachary no longer needed the guide below, so he flew directly past them and arrived near the main gate of the campsite.

He first used Divine Sense to observe the situation at the main gate and found that although there were guards on duty, much like the campsite in Saxon County, unless one was carrying bulk goods subject to inspection, the guards did not stop and check lone survivors.

After watching for a while and determining this was the case, Zachary found a concealed spot to land and then walked through the main gate of the campsite with a natural demeanor.

Perhaps some would consider flying straight in to be more convenient, but Zachary, cautious after being detected at another campsite and learning from the experience, despite the big gains from that episode, still preferred to proceed in the safest manner to avoid a repeat of last time.

Upon entering the campsite, instead of recklessly opening up Divine Sense to probe the internal structure of the campsite, Zachary limited the range of his Spiritual Sense Scanning to about thirty meters around his body.

Common folk entering an unfamiliar place usually first look for the most bustling areas—before the disaster, this would mean looking for tourist attractions or snack streets.

After enduring various disasters, tourist attractions would surely have been destroyed, and although food was no longer as scarce, the variety of food available was no longer as plentiful as before the disasters.

Leaving aside whether snack streets still existed, even if they did, the limited ingredients and lack of seasoning would have significantly reduced the diversity of the snacks available, so going there or not didn’t really matter much.

Since Zachary had just arrived at this campsite and was not familiar with it yet, if it was anything like the campsite in Saxon County, the busiest place would likely be the Trade Market.

In Saxon County’s campsite, for instance, there were two Trade Markets: one organized by the Officials—the goods there were somewhat expensive, but every merchant had their own shopfront, maintaining the principle of "you get what you pay for." The value for money might not have been the best, but the quality of goods was definitely guaranteed,

Besides the Official-run Trade Market, there was another one similar to pre-disaster flea markets, which was just an open space. One could set up a stall as long as a cloth was laid on the ground.

The quality of the goods there varied greatly—you might spend little and find a treasure, or spend a lot only to buy counterfeit goods. In most cases, the merchants there today could be selling elsewhere tomorrow, or might not even return to the market at all.

When Zachary initially discovered rarities, he had tried his luck at finding bargains there, but what disappointed him was forgetting that though he could verify the authenticity of rarities, the verification was based on the absence of scanning by Divine Sense.

If the rarity was held in hand, although Divine Sense couldn’t scan it, he was aware that the treasure was right there in his grasp.

But if the rarity was hidden among a pile of items at a stall, unless Zachary picked up each one to check, it would be difficult to know if there were any rarities among the goods.

After a few initially enthusiastic days at the market that ended in no gains, Zachary never returned there.

After all, wasn’t it more rewarding to cultivate, and weren’t role-playing games more fun to play than to waste time there?

However, the first place Zachary visited upon entering the campsite, much like the typical protagonist in novels, was an establishment where one could drink leisurely and shoot the breeze—either a tavern or a bar.

The information spread at such places might be hard to differentiate between truth and falsehood, but for a newcomer, it was undoubtedly a place where one could quickly blend into the campsite.

Furthermore, one did not need to ask others to find such a place; just looking for a group of three to five men heading towards a certain location was enough. Before the disaster, they might have been going to an internet café or a billiard hall,

But now, men either headed to a bathhouse or a bar for relaxation—after all, regardless of pre- or post-disaster, there were only a few favorite relaxation spots truly beloved by men. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Zachary was quite fortunate. After changing targets three times, he arrived at an open-air tavern.

After finding this place, Zachary didn’t go straight in. Instead, he opened Divine Sense to learn about the payment methods used here.

After all, post-disaster, each place’s situation differed, and taking Pengcheng as an example, because most people were accustomed to mobile payments before the disaster, many found themselves impoverished when disaster struck.

To facilitate trading, Pengcheng initially reinstated the use of pre-disaster paper Currency, which worked well at first. However, due to the chaos brought by the disaster, some illicit money that had gone unspent pre-disaster and unsupervised reappeared, leading people to start buying resources with it. They were spending real money, making it impossible to distinguish whether purchasers were using the Currency issued by Officials or the hidden illicit money from pre-disaster.

The reckless actions of these individuals caused the purchasing power of paper Currency to plummet. Although the Officials confiscated all their possessions once they realized the situation, by then, the survivors in Pengcheng had already lost faith in the pre-disaster Currency.

Without the Currency, not only trading but many other aspects became very inconvenient, as the Currency essentially represented the trust of the Officials. To prevent the recurrence of such a scenario, Pengcheng simply created a new paper Currency exclusive to the region, which could only circulate in Pengcheng and its surroundings.