Volume 3, Chapter 55 – Countermeasure Operation

Stepping out through the doorway, there were another three steps leading down.

Anran stood right in the entrance, perfectly blocking Yajin, who was storming out in a rage.

She glared at Yajin in “anger.”

Yajin let out a cold chuckle. His tall frame suddenly loomed in front of the short Anran, radiating pressure. “Shorty, move aside. Don’t block the way.”

“…”

Anran was so annoyed she wanted to hit someone.

She had already wanted to mess with Yajin a little. Now that urge was even stronger.

So she stepped back a little, luring Yajin one step farther forward. Then Anran quietly slipped to the side. Yajin shot her a glance and lifted his foot to step down.

“Fuck!”

The instant he stepped into empty air, Yajin pitched forward.

He stumbled seven or eight steps in a row before finally regaining his balance. At that point, he no longer dared look back at all and ran off in a flash.

It was just too embarrassing, especially in front of Feilian!

“Hahahahaha…”

From behind came Feilian’s unrestrained laughter.

Anran watched Yajin’s retreating back.

Just now, she had deliberately stepped back a bit, leaving half a foot hanging off the edge. That was what had tricked the inattentive Yajin into taking too large a step and missing the stair.

Next time I should put a melon rind on the steps.

Anran thought.

She really wasn’t that mean after all.

…

After sending off Yajin, who had come over just to stir up trouble, Feilian, whose mood had been poor a moment ago, instantly beamed like a blooming chrysanthemum.

“All right, now that we’ve gotten rid of that annoying fly, I’ve got some good news for everyone next.”

“…”

The room fell silent at once. Anran dragged over a small stool, sat down, and offered no opinion.

And so Captain Feilian once again sank into the awkward predicament of being ignored by his entire squad.

But Feilian’s mentality was astonishingly good. Or rather, after prolonged training at the hands of Daogu and Anna, he had long since developed the iron nerves needed to deal with this kind of situation.

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After a light cough, Feilian said, “Because we successfully completed the task assigned from above, and even though it was only a simple D-rank mission, at least nothing went wrong. So the higher-ups specifically allocated some extra supplies to us.”

“We got money?” Anna, who had been flicking throwing knives around just a moment ago, suddenly had her eyes light up. Her figure blurred, and she appeared in front of Feilian in an instant.

Without changing expression, Feilian quietly took a step back.

Anna was a notorious chain smoker.

Of course, Feilian was too embarrassed to say much about her. After all, he was a notorious drunk himself.

The more he drank, the more excited he got. He could even pull off drifts with ease while driving drunk.

Ordinary people, please do not imitate that.

“We got money?” Anran’s eyes lit up too.

Over this stretch of time, she had saved up roughly 5,000 Bilu in total. She estimated that if she wanted to go to Sea Blue Forest, 500,000 Bilu was probably the correct figure.

That’s only one percent.

Anran let out a sigh.

The moment she thought about the upcoming costs of making exoskeleton armor, her head started to ache. Her income simply did not cover her expenses. It looked like she could only take on more missions and snatch more money from Morningstar.

They wanted her dead, so naturally Anran had no reason to be polite to Morningstar’s people.

“This is public funding,” Feilian said.

“Public funding my ass. If all the money turns into public funding, are you trying to embezzle it?” Anna was one step away from grabbing Feilian by the collar.

“…”

Feilian looked utterly dead inside.

Being captain of this squad was truly miserable. Thankfully, although Daogu and Anna usually never listened to him, those two were still obedient in battle.

They were not idiots. They knew that causing trouble in the middle of combat was just making things hard for themselves.

“Other than that pitiful salary, I’m about to be unable to pay even my rent, let alone upgrade my gear. The stuff they issue us is way too ordinary.” Even Daogu started complaining.

Li Zhuying, who had been reading, also glanced over a few times. Getting money from NPCs was such a good deal that only an idiot of a player would refuse it.

“All right, all right, you win.”

Feilian compromised immediately.

He also thought Daogu had a point. It was time for them to upgrade their equipment.

Why were the top-ranked squads always strong?

Because the rewards they earned from completing all kinds of missions were greater, which meant they could get their hands on more good stuff.

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The principle that the strong stay strong worked in most places.

Feilian knew that if their squad wanted to rise again, they had to keep completing missions to improve their rating, keep gathering more resources to strengthen themselves, and, of course, coordination was indispensable too.

Excellent command could multiply a squad’s strength several times over.

In the end, Anran received 3,000 Bilu.

That included the squad’s previously saved public funds as well.

Now that everyone had money, Anran started figuring out how to turn everyone else’s money into her own.

And so, Anran’s mysterious shop held its grand opening inside Nine Songs’ base.

High-Energy Explosives were 300 Bilu each. Flashbangs were 200 Bilu each. The sniper rifle was 1,500 Bilu, while the assault rifle Anran liked best was 500 Bilu apiece.

“…”

“Hey, you’re one of our squad members too. Do you really have to gouge us this hard?” Daogu complained.

As the squad’s main ranged damage dealer, Daogu had fairly high standards when it came to firearms.

And the guns Anran had brought out for sale were all better than the standard-issue weapons handed out by Nine Songs.

“It’s only because you’re teammates that I’m not putting a purchase limit on these. If it were other people, I wouldn’t sell them too many even if they wanted them!” Anran gave a snort.

In truth, she was just deceiving “honest man” Daogu.

If someone really came to buy weapons from her in bulk, Anran’s attitude would be summed up in one word:

“Sell!”

And she would even deliver them to their door!

Only an idiot wouldn’t sell!

She had already made quite a few of them.

If she did not sell them, wouldn’t they just pile up as inventory?

By the end, she might even have to lower the price to move them.

“If you can get a better scope, this sniper rifle can shoot even farther.” Anran began tempting Daogu.

“As for this rifle, its performance is already excellent for a budget model.”

All of the blueprints Colin had made were designed with mass production in mind, so their performance might not have been especially outstanding, but within the same price range, they were kings.

“I’ll buy it. Fine, I’ll buy it, all right?”

After testing the gun, Daogu, who had already been itching for it, finally surrendered to Anran.

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Adding some sniper rounds at 30 Bilu apiece, plus High-Energy Explosives and Flashbangs, Daogu’s freshly received 3,000 Bilu went straight into Anran’s pocket before it had even warmed in his hands, and he even had to pay an extra 300 out of pocket.

“Good equipment brings victory. Believe in yourself. Next time, you’ll definitely be the deciding factor!” Anran began encouraging Daogu.

Daogu nodded deeply in agreement.

A good marksman naturally needed a good gun.

But as he sat there cleaning his weapon, he had obviously forgotten something.

He no longer had money to pay the rent.

And so, the next day, Daogu ended up out on the streets and had no choice but to sleep on the floor at the base.

That was a story for later.

At the moment, Anran had already found her second customer. “Captain, would you like to buy something too?”

“…” Feilian’s mouth twitched.

Question: Why are my squad members each more unreliable than the last?

Answer: Don’t ask me!

“Then give me some High-Energy Explosives.”

Feilian said that the shockwave produced by this thing’s explosion was not especially strong by itself, but the splashing flammable liquid was far deadlier to people than an ordinary grenade. The key point was that it was hard to dodge.

“And the rest of you?”

With such a successful opening, Anran was in a great mood and turned to pitch her wares to the remaining three people.

In the end, even Anna bought a few Flashbangs.

“One thousand, two thousand, three thousand…” Hiding in the corner and counting money, Anran was grinning from ear to ear.

Her savings had shot up to 15,000 in one go.

Sure enough, trade was the true source of wealth.

Trade more, get rich fast.

After the commotion settled down a little, Feilian spoke again. “Besides what I just mentioned, there’s one more important thing I need to tell everyone.”

“What is it?”

Anna had stopped playing with her throwing knives now and was sitting at the table quietly watching Feilian speak.

“The mission we carried out last time was only the beginning. Morningstar has been getting pretty jumpy lately, and the higher-ups have decided to hit them hard. The matters on the front lines will be handled by the Security Department. But the little bugs Morningstar has sent over will be dealt with by us. And…” Feilian smiled. “It’s not just about wiping out those little bugs. The higher-ups also want to hit Morningstar back in kind, so infiltration and assassination missions are being handed out in large numbers too.”

“So we absolutely have to seize this chance and raise our squad ranking properly! First into the top five, then the top three, and finally first place!” Feilian swung his fist hard.

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He wanted to come across as fiery and passionate and stir up the squad’s enthusiasm, but clearly, he was disappointed once again.

“Cut it out. At our strongest, our squad only ever made it to third place,” Daogu said.

“That’s right, Captain.” Chu Yuan nodded in firm agreement.

“…”

Anran did not join in their messing around. Instead, she quietly opened the game panel and discovered that a whole bunch of faction confrontation missions had suddenly appeared.

All of them were missions targeting Morningstar.

These missions were not easy, and the rewards were generous. The key point was that many of them required you to investigate the enemy’s location yourself.

In that case, intelligence had to come first. Anran immediately realized the key point.

Whoever could control the intelligence would be the favorite!

“I’ll study these missions carefully first and pick out some suitable ones. Over the next few days, we’ll rest and gather our strength and be ready to move at any time,” Feilian said.

No one had any objections to that. Even Li Zhuying, enthusiast of erotic novels, wanted to level up.

Only by leveling up could she go to broader places and read more interesting books.

Leaving the base, Anran kept thinking as she walked.

This operation of Nine Songs’ against Morningstar would be of great benefit to her.

If she wanted to wipe out Morningstar, she had to do her best to cooperate with this operation. And for the moment, what she could do was gather intelligence.

If you asked who was best at gathering intelligence, then at least on No. 1886, it was definitely the players.

As long as players were willing to take the initiative, their intelligence-gathering ability was first-rate. After all, players would dare walk straight into a Morningstar meeting, listen in, and then kill themselves to return to the respawn point.

NPCs would not dare.

So how was she supposed to get players to work for her?

Of course, by issuing quests.

But for the time being, Anran could not expose herself. She needed a middleman.

And the moment she thought of a middleman, Anran thought of Leading the Escape.

She had not seen him for several days.

Time to go strengthen their relationship a bit more.

Without realizing it, Anran had already arrived at the entrance to the Security Department’s recruit training camp.