The layout of the reserve is north-facing south, and outsiders need to enter through the red truck head entrance in the south, and after entering the courtyard enclosed by mountains and garbage walls, outsiders also enter the trade area open to outside traders, and in the north of the trade area there is a closed metal gate, which is also equipped with a city wall, and there are two defensive towers on the wall, similar to the south gate, with ghoul guards and hand-cranked rotating machine guns on it.

Andy looked at the gate and the sentry next to it, the fortifications were as strong as those to the south, and the inner part was probably the real reservation, which was the difference between the inner city and the outer city, as the usual settlement layout was called.

Since the tall ghoul wants Andy to stay away from here, Andy doesn't want to have any conflict with him for the time being, the slaves have been delivered here by the slave traders, and they already belong to the reservation, if they come hard, the watchtowers and guards in front and behind will inevitably attack him together, Andy, who is not wearing power armor, can't eat a few bullets at all, and even if he comes in power armor, he may not be able to retreat.

At this point, we can only think about it again.

The military truck that was relatively close to him was not far away, Andy walked over and saw several merchants buying goods there, they were haggling with the sound of urns in their radiation suits, the truck with the white pentagram pattern on the hood of the front of the car was obviously long enough and bathed in radiation for too long, the green patent leather had almost peeled off, the rust looked like the corpse of a huge beast, and a few words were written in black paint on the side of the car to form a word, which meant armor shop, which can be regarded as a simple signboard.

The horrible appearance of the tires meant that the truck had long since been incapacitated, and the metal plates welded to the sides and tops of the cabin allowed it to play its last bit of value as a small shop.

There were some holes in the metal plate, patches of various materials were hit on it, the patches made of cloth were not the most outrageous, the most outrageous was the one that Andy's eyes were now looking at, a hole about half the size of a fist was filled with some kind of solidified gum, which made Andy a little nauseous after careful identification, because those gelatinous substances were probably chewed gum, and there was a lot of indescribable dirt on them.

Just as he was holding back his retching, a hoarse and shrill invective came from the carriage.

"Do you buy it or not? Finally, I'll tell you once, if you don't buy it, get out of here! It's disgusting to see you slippery skins, disgusting! Do you understand? My good time is being wasted by you ugly and stupid guys! I don't have much time to talk to you, take out your bottle caps, take what you want, and get out! What the hell do you slippery skins don't understand about this process? Yes? The more I deal with you bastards, the less happy I become, damn it! ”

A few businessmen in radiation suits walked out of the carriage with a few boxes in an embarrassed manner.

A female ghoul dressed in metal armor carved with strange patterns stepped out of the carriage, where she yelled at the merchants in resentment, thanks to the fact that there was still a bit of feminine voice in her rough voice and her long hair, which was dull and yellow, but seemed to have been carefully groomed.

As Andy looked at her, the ghoul suddenly turned around and immediately made Andy take a step back.

The wrinkles on that face were almost like undulating mountains, especially the brow and nasolabial folds, like the details of the face of a dead old man who had run out of oil and dried his lamp.

"What the fuck are you looking at? You stupid skin! ”

Andy thought of the shop sign next to him and decided to put up with it.

"I'm attracted by your beautiful face, beauty."

As he said this, the corners of his mouth twitched in the mask of his own radiation suit.

The ghoul froze for a moment, then slowed down.

"Don't go there and say things that everyone knows, you're just talking nonsense, I know you flamboyant skins have the face to say anything in order to get a little discount... But, anyway, what you said sounds a little more pleasant than the bunch of idiots just now, if you want to buy something, hurry over and leave, don't waste my time, and don't think that you can get any special discount just by saying a few words. ”

Andy hurriedly followed her into the carriage along the steel plate that was attached to the back of the carriage, and saw that it was full of various sets of armor.

A large pile on the left is all leather armor, with a variety of materials, mostly coyote skin, lizard skin and double-headed cowhide, as well as high-end composite materials manufactured by complex tanning processes; The pile on the right is all metal armor, and the material is also different, some of which appear to be crudely welded from metal trash, like the same style worn by raiders and poorer wastelanders who have to go out for long periods of time to earn a living.

But some don't seem so simple.

Next to this ghoul shopkeeper are several sets of goods that are worth a lot of money at first glance, the appearance of these metal armors is a bit patchwork, but in the details, it can be seen that the manufacturer has a unique aesthetic logic, such as the helmet, which is welded using three different sources of materials, one-third is a pre-war military combat armor helmet, one-third is a thick piece of iron, as if cut from a military vehicle, and a third.... How does it feel a bit like a fragment of a certain model of power armor helmet?

This set of armor, in all fairness, can also be said to be a set of metal armor, but the materials selected are all first-class colors, and the weight problem is not much to say for the time being, just in terms of defense, it is estimated that it will be a few streets away from Andy's set of pre-war light combat armor that has fallen into disrepair and lacked maintenance from the Brotherhood of Steel.

The hoarse voice of the ghoul shopkeeper came.

"Yo, you have a bit of an eye for your slippery skin, and you fell in love with the few high-end goods in my store as soon as you came up? Of course you can buy it if you want to, but you have to give me the money first, 3500 caps for a fixed price, 1500 caps for helmets, and I can also help you install some additional accessories here, such as thermal detection auxiliary sights and night vision devices, as well as a higher lumen headlamp, all of which are fine, of course... Caps must be attached. ”

This price directly shocked Andy for a while, if the Brotherhood of Steel would sell their power armor at this price, it would be no problem, but this is just a set of metal armor, listen to what she means, the full match price is not even capped....

"Uh... For the price..."

Before he could finish speaking, the ghoul shopkeeper shouted.

"Don't tell me anything too expensive, you are too expensive and I still sell cheap! Do you know what this armor is made of? ”

Her gray, wrinkled skin slapped the armor around her with her palm.

"It's all special steel military materials before the Great War! Small-caliber bullets can't even leave a trace when they hit it, and I dare to guarantee that no one will make this piece now, and the strength is not as strong as that of the armor of the power armor, and there are even fragments of the power armor in the material, do you know who the craftsman who made it is? ”

The ghoul shopkeeper patted his chest.

"Me! Betty! ”

She pinched her waist and proudly puffed up her shriveled chest, as if waiting for some reaction, but when she looked down, Andy was not as shocked as she expected.

"What? Don't you understand, you slippery? Haven't you heard my name? ”

Andy scratched the hood of his radiation suit.

"This... I'm really not that knowledgeable, so Betty, are you a very famous master armor craftsman? Yes.... I didn't expect you to be so beautiful and so strong, it was so unexpected to me! ”

When Betty heard this praise, her face looked a little better.

"Humph! Talking useless nonsense again, slippery, how old are you this year? ”

Andy thought back to the file he had seen at Hoover Dam with the exact date of birth, and this time he finally knew something about himself, though he always felt that something was wrong.

“27。”

As soon as these words came out, Betty directly sneered disdainfully.

"No wonder you don't know me, little ghost, I'm 127 years old this year, and I lived for a century when you were born! You're not even a baby in my eyes. Listen, I'm definitely a pioneer in the field of armor, back in the days when the slippery skin in this place was all bare butts and poked people with spears, I was already researching how to make armor from the skin of those animals that had become strange because of radiation, those leather armor and iron armor on the market, their shape and design, who do you think started it? Who do you think they copied from? ”

Andy was shocked, he thought that the hundred-year-old ghoul he met before was already a living fossil in the wasteland, but the armor craftsman Betty in front of him was even more heavyweight..... What is this? The old grandmaster of the Wasteland armor craftsmen?

"Oh, forgive me, Betty, I really don't know Tarzan, your pride is worthy of that price..."

Betty Nose... Oh no, snorted with the hole in his nose facing the sky.

"Forgive your ignorance this time, after all, you are too young, then, do you want to buy it, hurry up!"

Andy glanced at the number of caps shown by the Pip-Boy, and in the face of the embarrassing number of 250, he knew that there was no way to take that powerful armor today.

"Well, let's be honest, Betty, I hope you don't get angry, I didn't bring enough caps..."

Betty's face sank as soon as she heard this, making her terrifying face even more terrifying.

But she was silent for a moment, not acting as violent as before.

"If it weren't for your little slippery skin, I would have asked the guards to drive you away, and now you take advantage of my good mood, or pick some of those slave-made bargains and buy them and leave, or get out of here, you choose for yourself."

Andy glanced at the so-called "slave-made bargains" that Betty was pointing at, highlighting a shoddy set of combat armor that looked and felt even worse than the one he had now put into the Pip-Boy in order to be comfortable in a radiation suit.

Looking at Betty, who was ordered to be evicted, Andy hopes to find a third option.

"Betty, don't be so cold, in fact, I've been helping people in the past, being a bounty hunter, a treasure hunter, a mercenary, a commercial spy, a soldier, a detective, a secret agent... Anyway, if there is something difficult and you want to do, give it to me, and maybe it will be solved. ”

Betty looked at Andy unexpectedly after hearing this, although he couldn't see the specifics clearly in a radiation-proof suit, but the strong body shape was not fake, speaking of which, there was indeed one thing in her heart that had been pressed for months, and she almost couldn't sleep all night for this, and when she thought about it, she felt scratching her heart and liver, maybe the new slippery skin in front of her might indeed be a possible solution.

"What kind of house of things are you? Well, since you say so, I do have one thing that I need help to do, but this thing may require some blood on my hands, and if one of them is not discovered, we will both be finished.... But I can't take it anymore, I have to do it, and I'm willing to take a risk for it. ”

Betty patted the armor that Andy had taken a fancy to.

"If you help me do this, this set of my work can be given to you for free, and I will help you with all the accessories, but in exchange, things must be handled by me to perfection and absolute secrecy, will you take this job?"

Andy's eyes couldn't help but drift to the set of fine metal armor, it is more sophisticated than combat armor and more low-key than power armor, with Hull's high-tech underwear and the special accessories that Betty said, it will definitely be able to greatly enhance his combat ability, this return can be said to be very cost-effective, and with a common secret, you can use this to ask Betty for a discount in the future to resell the armor for profit, it is definitely a sure profit.

As for the blood on his hands, it is believed that Betty asked him to help kill some of the ghouls who had a vendetta against her, and this was easily achieved with Hull's stealth function, no one would know who killed the deceased, and no impact would affect him.

"No problem, I'll take it and tell me what I need to do for you."

Betty nodded, walked to the back of the carriage and closed the two steel doors for a while, then went back to Andy and explained to Andy what it was that made her unbearable.

"Listen, I'm going to kill a slippery slave, there's a shop just north of me, and the shopkeeper there's a guy named Hank, and he's always been followed by a guy in a radiation suit, and that's your target. It's easy for you to find her and tell her, and then you can kill her quietly, don't let anyone else notice what this has to do with me, tell me when everything is done, and I'll go and check the situation myself, and then take your reward and never come back here, understand? ”

Andy carefully wrote down what Betty said, and to Betty's surprise, it was not a ghoul but a human slave that Betty was going to kill.

"Understood, but may I ask? Here you guys... Uh, slaves should have a very low status, right? Why don't you get your hands dirty? Is it because you're afraid that Hank will be angry? Did you do it because he robbed you of your business? ”

Betty had a look of unboredom.

"Why are you so tongue-in-cheek? If you want to know, I'll tell you a little bit. First of all, according to the rules of the reservation, the slave belongs to Hank, and it is his personal property, and I would like to kill him... Slippery, but this is a violation of the rules of the reservation, and the result of destroying other people's property without permission is to be sentenced to endless banishment, I don't want to lose everything, naked wearing a dirty bomb explosion collar, forced to go out in the desert until I lose consciousness. Secondly, I naturally have my reasons for doing this, you slippery skin better not ask more! ”

"I'm going to say ugly things in front, don't try to blackmail me with this matter, I have a way to find out the relationship between you and me to protect yourself, and then let you never recover, those children of the wasteland torture you These slippery methods are beyond your imagination!"

She opened the iron door of the carriage and pointed to the military truck to the north, where there were also merchants in radiation suits trading, and there were significantly more than Betty had here.

"Go ahead, do it quickly, the sooner the better."