Mia was overjoyed and quickly sent her request to Waldo.
"I need 200 bottles of water and 10 boxes of bread, hehe."
Upon seeing the listed items, Waldo raised an eyebrow. They were quite expensive when converted.
It was almost as expensive as the price Waldo had auctioned off the fortified walls.
However, despite the higher price, Waldo could still afford it. As long as it was a trade for essential supplies, he didn't have to worry about affordability.
But Waldo didn't want to be taken advantage of either. The design for a samurai sword was good, but not worth that price. After all, there were additional material costs to consider. If the produced samurai swords didn't sell for a fortune, it would be a loss-making deal.
So, Waldo wanted to tease Mia a bit and try to lower the price.
"Hehe, go and rob then. There are plenty of supplies in the zombie horde. I can't afford that price; go find someone else to buy it," Waldo replied sarcastically.
Mia became anxious. If Waldo didn't buy it, she would have to either keep it or sell it at a lower price.
"10086, we're already acquainted. I can give you a discount!" Mia tried to negotiate.
Waldo found Mia's words irritating. He replied with each word carefully: "Acquainted, as in roasted? That's right! We don't have such a good relationship. You failed to deceive me last time, and now you're trying to get close to me again."
Mia felt a bit embarrassed. It was true that she had failed to deceive Waldo last time. If it were someone else, they would have put her on a blacklist or even hunted her down. The fact that Waldo was still willing to talk to her meant he was relatively easy to deal with.
"10086, I admit I was wrong last time, but you almost burned me alive. If I hadn't been lucky, I wouldn't be here talking to you. So, I think we're even now," Mia explained, trying to make amends.
Regarding this business deal, we're trading online, so you don't have to worry about me deceiving you," she added.
It seemed that Mia was in a hurry to make the trade and obtain essential supplies. She might be running out of resources.
Waldo chuckled at Mia's series of attempts to please and explain herself. It was clear that he wanted the samurai sword. It was time to negotiate the price.
"Hehe, then make it cheaper. Fifty bottles of water and twenty pounds of rice. This is a fair price. If you agree, I won't hold our past against you, and we can continue discussing future cooperation," Waldo proposed.
Mia disagreed when she saw the price. She sent a message in response, "That price is absolutely impossible. It's too low."
Waldo didn't waste any more words. He replied, "Then keep it for yourself. I'm not interested, and I can't offer a higher price."
Suddenly, Mia sent a threatening message, "10086, what if I demand the same amount of supplies as before in exchange for your video? How about that?"
Then Mia sent a short video of Waldo driving away from the zombies.
Waldo's expression turned serious. If his identity were exposed, it wouldn't be a good situation. Many people coveted his resources as 10086.
Even though many survivors had moved into the gated community where he resided, they only knew that 10086 was there but had no idea what 10086 looked like. Waldo kept his identity well hidden.
Whenever he and Alanna went out to collect supplies, they wore hats or masks in the car. Inside the community, the tall fortified walls concealed their internal activities perfectly. As for survivors who infiltrated the community, Waldo made sure they didn't leave alive.
So, most people didn't know what 10086 looked like. If Mia exposed the video, Waldo would be in a vulnerable position, surrounded by enemies. Even when going out to hunt zombies, he would have to be cautious of other survivors.
It was inconvenient. He needed to find Mia's location quickly and retrieve the video from her. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Waldo immediately purchased an uncharged unmanned camera from the trading platform and started charging it. The trading platform now had a wide variety of appliances available, such as rice cookers, washing machines, and drones.
However, many people lacked electricity, not these appliances themselves. Once the camera was fully charged, Waldo deployed the drone to search for Mia's whereabouts.
Coincidentally, Mia wasn't far away. In fact, she intentionally came near the gated community where Waldo resided. Waldo wondered what her intentions were.
But because they were close in proximity, Waldo's drone quickly detected her location. Waldo wasted no time and headed towards the forest where Mia was located.
It had to be said that Mia's choice to hide in this forest was a very wise one. Many survivors were wary of forests, fearing that there might be many zombies inside.
But in reality, the zombies in the park's forest had long since perished. There were only a few stragglers, if any at all. Zombies were a collective group, and if their numbers started to dwindle in a particular area, they would naturally gather together again, forming a new horde.
This was why it was impossible to completely eradicate zombies, new waves would appear quickly. Waldo was familiar with the environment around the gated community, and he knew there were no zombies in that forest.
However, many people still believed it was dangerous. It seemed that Mia had a good hand in gathering intelligence.
Waldo was fast.
He ran at full speed, comparable to a cheetah. But just like a cheetah, he couldn't maintain that extreme speed for long.
After a short while, Waldo reached the forest. The drone in the sky continued to provide him with Mia's location. Mia was still waiting in place, but her expression showed confusion.
Why hadn't she received a reply from 10086 despite sending messages for so long?
Little did she know that at that moment, someone was silently approaching her from behind. Mia felt something and suddenly turned to look behind her.
No one was there.
She thought she might have been overly sensitive and muttered to herself, "Is it because I haven't been sleeping well lately, making me paranoid?"
Snap!
A sound of a broken branch came from behind her. Mia drew her crossbow and turned to look behind.
The forest was still dense. Mia furrowed her brow.
She had clearly heard the sound of a branch breaking, and it couldn't be a natural occurrence. It had to be caused by something heavy applying pressure. But why couldn't she see anything when she turned around?
If there were a person or animal, how could they hide so quickly? Just as Mia was puzzled, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck. Before she could react, she lost all strength and collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, Waldo deactivated his invisibility and appeared in front of her.