Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 207 - 106: Deceiving the Heavens, Massive Earnings!

Chapter 207: Chapter 106: Deceiving the Heavens, Massive Earnings!

"Great!"

Cheng Ye silently praised himself, doing his best to keep the camera steady while capturing the front and back of the badge.

The screen flickered for more than ten seconds before a line of notification appeared.

[Identity verification passed, Red Mountain Shelter City, Sea Province]

[Identity belonging: Free Merchant Team]

[Identity level: Level 3]

Not only was the authenticity clear, but also the affiliation and level of the merchant team were fully transparent.

Labeled as a Free Merchant Team, indicating that this group was merely affiliated with Red Mountain Shelter City and not an official unit.

As for the level...

The evaluation standards of the various shelter cities vary; this piece of information was not included in the intern assessment.

But Level 3 sounded like a mid-level classification—not the top tier, certainly not at the bottom.

"No problem."

"Alright, I’ll have them submit the cargo list now."

She pinched the badge and returned to the entrance, whispered a few words with Big Beard, and quickly came back holding an envelope.

Cheng Ye put on rubber gloves and opened the envelope, finding more than ten documents inside.

The handwriting on the first few pages was relatively neat and barely legible line by line.

But as he flipped through, the handwriting became so sloppy, it looked like chicken scratches; not only were the quantities written ambiguously, even the product names required guessing from the first few characters.

"Sir, these folks are old-time smugglers, hard to deal with."

She glanced at the documents, quickly concluding without examining closely, "The three merchant teams that came yesterday all used this scheme. If they really hid contraband, the list would surely be ambiguous, impossible to spot any tricks just by looking."

"Compared to the merchant teams from yesterday, how does the Red Mountain Merchant Team scale?"

"Yesterday was the checkpoint’s reopening, so those teams were larger. But generally, merchant teams capable of reaching our Happiness City from out-of-province shelter cities come in sizes of 3 to 7 trucks. Also, although they only drove trucks over, their armed escort vehicles are stationed in the wilderness and haven’t approached."

"Did yesterday’s inspector find anything?"

"Inspector Qiao was on duty yesterday. The recorded high-value items that passed were approximately 2100 points. Additionally, five items were discovered, valued at around 1400 points, though these five items..."

She suddenly hesitated and dared not continue.

"Were they deliberately left uncovered by the merchant team as a toll for the inspector?"

"Yes!"

She nodded. This wasn’t really shameful, but it couldn’t be spoken from her mouth, lest it seemed she was critiquing the inspector’s ability.

Value 1400...

According to a 15% calculation, that’s 210 points.

Cheng Ye’s thoughts flickered; yesterday, he had diligently worked a full day at Quarantine A entrance and only earned 150.

This Zone C merchant team’s toll was 210?!

Moreover, if they provided such significant tolls, how valuable were the concealed items?

"Based on previous cases, for this scale, how much contraband can typically be hidden?"

"Full inspection..."

She pondered for a moment, "There’s no exact number; it depends on the shelter city’s size, the route the merchant team takes, and the season. Generally, fall sees the most, with an average of at least five to six thousand contribution points worth of goods, while spring sees the least, potentially only two to three thousand. However, this year’s weather is unusual; winter arrived early, so the fall smuggling surge may also come early."

Hiss.

How much?

Five to six thousand?

Cheng Ye was secretly astonished. If such quantities could be uncovered, based on commission, wouldn’t he earn several hundred points?

"So, at this scale, the normal value of goods the merchant team carries should be around ten to twenty thousand points?"

"Correct."

She nodded, "Typically, the gross profit is 25% to 35% of the goods’ value. Discounting travel losses, contributions to their own shelter city, and various unforeseen expenses, they could finally pocket around 20%."

Based on goods worth twenty thousand points, the net profit would be four thousand points.

Compared to the risk of traversing the wilderness, this gain is not substantial.

However, the merchant team’s profit comes from flipping; for instance, converting those four thousand points into firearms in Happiness City, then selling them to places without the capability to produce weapons could triple the profits.

After completing a round back to their shelter city for winter, a year of trading could yield an estimated total revenue of about ten to twenty thousand points.

Furthermore, exchanging income for winter supplies en route means that for a hundred-man merchant team, aside from distributed contribution points, the supplies would be enough for everyone to have a sufficient winter.

Of course, to continue expanding the merchant team, solely relying on these is far from enough; "extra income" is necessary.

Cheng Ye suddenly understood that smuggling income is the key to the merchant team’s growth.

Profiting by bartering these goods among major shelter cities.

20% definitely isn’t profitable since high-value goods are universally in demand. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

30% would be a slight loss—not only nullifying profits but possibly incurring additional losses, yet still within the merchant teams’ tolerable range.

However, if smuggling succeeds, with a 20% profit calculation, five thousand equals an extra thousand points, equivalent to an additional truckload of goods.

"Got it, let them drive in and begin the inspection."

Since reading the cargo list was useless, Cheng Ye simply set it aside.

This was his first time inspecting a merchant team.

He felt excited inside, especially after experiencing the convenience of intelligence searches; he couldn’t resist wanting to try again.

It was so convenient, like peering into someone’s inner secrets.

Yet simultaneously, he was curious if searching for items would allow replicating the hidden high-value items.

"Previously, focused on searching skills; now realizing this intelligence and item search function is a perfect match for the inspector’s job—a truly divine feature."