The safe zone opened its makeshift gates to allow the two vehicles to enter its domain. The walls appeared to be made from scrap materials scavenged from across the city, and had "guard towers" stationed behind them where men with sniper rifles stood vigilant.
It was not unusual for Humvees to leave the gates and come back for re-entry. After all, most of the equipment that was used by the national guard prior to the revolution was now distributed among the awakened teams who began to go out into the city and farm the undead for xp.
Thus, nobody thought anything of it when Zane and the girls entered through the gates and followed Garth into the interior of the secluded area. The safe zone was relatively unmolested, unlike the rest of the city. There were few signs of damage to the buildings that existed within it.
But what was noticeable were the tents that were placed everywhere. There simply were not enough buildings to house the population and because of this, people dwelled in tents, and some in makeshift shelters fashioned together with whatever could be found.
Some of these tents operated as stalls where people would exchange whatever they had to sell for blood crystals. This included everything from food, water, ammunition, building materials, and of course someone's body, if they were particularly desperate.
As Zane finally stopped the car outside the city center, he exited the vehicle with the girls in tow, where he immediately spoke to the man who had helped them find the safe zone, and gain access to its interior.
"Thanks for the escort... I'll see you around."
It was incredibly clear by the tone in Zane's voice that he did not really want to associate with anyone who was not already in his group, and thus was saying the bare minimum to get Garth off his back.
This was not surprising, as things had drastically changed across the world, and society was no longer remotely civilized. It was only natural for someone like Zane who had been out in the wastes since the start to be cautious around other living beings.
Garth simply smiled, extending a hand of friendship towards Zane as he allowed the young man to go off on his own.
"No problem man, if you ever need anything that I can help with, come find me in my tent. It's easy enough to find, as I have painted the tarp in a way that will immediately catch your eye!"
Zane nodded his head, before turning away from Garth, and instead spoke to Olivia and Elena.
"Olivia, get in the car and consume our blood crystal supply. However, just use enough to level up. We have no idea how much our shit is worth, or the general value of blood crystals. Elena, you keep watch over Olivia while she's in her debuff state."
Olivia did not resist Zane's orders and immediately nodded her head. She knew Zane did not like being asked questions for shit like this, and thus she remained silent. Once Zane knew that the woman had understood his intent, he accessed the storage of their vehicle and grabbed some excess supplies where he went out to sell them.
---
Zane had spent several hours wandering through the safe zone, stopping every tent that had a stall outside where he inspected what was for sale. He very quickly learned the value of blood crystals. A single Tier I blood crystal could buy a magazine worth of ammunition. While Tier II blood crystals were worth significantly more.
"Two hundred blood crystals!"
Everyone was shocked when they heard this bid. After all, Zane and the girls had an enormous head start on the rest of humanity. In fact, they were probably the only human beings on the planet, or at the very least within this city, who were beyond level five.
This meant that the xp required to level up was significantly lower for these other awakened survivors than what Zane needed. This also meant that because they were significantly lower levels, they had a much harder time harvesting blood crystals, and as a result, naturally had less than Zane and the girls.
To put this in perspective, 200 Tier I blood crystals were essentially 2,000 XP to Zane, and 1,600 XP for everyone else. This small fortune, if consumed by Zane, would not even grant him one tenth of the XP he needed to level up to 12.
But for everyone else? This was two or three levels' worth of blood crystals. Nobody would ever part with such a fortune, even for a slave girl as beautiful and tempting as the girl on display.
But 200 blood crystals were a fraction of what Zane and the girls had recently scavenged. Olivia herself had just consumed substantially more than that the moment they entered the Safe Zone. And though this was a staggering sum to the plebs around Zane, he and his girls were powerful enough to wipe out flash mobs of the Undead with little difficulty.
Meaning that harvesting Tier I blood crystals was extremely easy for them, and because of this, they had entire duffle bags full of them.
Even if Olivia consumed 90% of the fortune they were sitting on at the moment, Zane would easily have enough left over to outbid the rest of these plebs. He was definitely confident in this, as the 50 some blood crystals he had on him from selling the booze and cigarettes he had scavenged were worth enough to buy two or three other slaves.
The auctioneer didn't even believe Zane had this many and was quick to ask for proof.
"My friend, two hundred blood crystals is an absurd sum. This is a serious auction, and thus we expect you to have a serious bid to offer!"
Zane rolled his eyes and tossed a sack at the man. The sack contained the fifty blood crystals Zane had on him, and though this was a far cry from what he had promised, it was still a shocking number of crystals.
"consider this my down payment. I'll have to go back to my... Tent to fetch the rest. With this payment, that girl is now my property. Nobody is to touch her without my consent. It should take me no more than fifteen minutes to collect the rest of the funds. This will suffice, yes?"
Obviously Zane did not reside in the safe zone, but since he had tossed out such a huge sum as if it were nothing, he knew he would attract the greed of everyone else around him, and thus he did not say he had to go back to his vehicle, where Olivia was currently resting.
The auctioneer truly believed Zane was telling the truth and immediately broke out into a wide grin as he confirmed that Zane had indeed won the auction.
"Congratulations, sir! This girl is indeed yours! We will hand her over to your possession when you return with the promised funds!"
Zane silently nodded his head as he walked off, casting one last glance at the blonde bombshell who he had saved from a terrible fate.