Why Did the Promised Delta Force Turn into Arknights?

Texas could not help thinking so, and she subconsciously gave the large rock a few more looks.

Before Texas could figure out what was different about the rock, she saw Han Fei suddenly take several steps forward, his tactical boots crushing a few clumps of withered grass.

Han Fei turned around. The moonlight behind him outlined his silhouette in silver, while his outstretched hand drew an inviting arc through the night.

"Are you ready to embrace a new life?" His voice mingled with the wind sweeping across the wilderness. "Countless adventures are still waiting for us ahead."

"That question."

Texas stepped forward and placed her right hand firmly in Han Fei's palm. "You already asked it once."

Han Fei's lips curled up. "Then let's go home."

The words inevitably left Texas somewhat confused. No matter how she looked at it, this did not seem like the road home—though she did not actually know where Han Fei's home was.

Just as Texas was about to voice her doubts, the thunderous roar of propellers tearing through the air suddenly shattered the wilderness's silence.

A violent gust pressed down without warning, kicking up countless clouds of dust and flattening the weeds. Texas instinctively raised an arm to shield herself. Her hair whipped wildly in the gale, and the hem of her uniform snapped loudly.

Through the gaps between her fingers, Texas saw a pitch-black helicopter descending through the moonlight like a giant eagle.

A fast-rope was thrown down from the helicopter. Han Fei gripped it steadily and said to Texas, "Let's go!"

At the same time, Emperor, who was also out in the wilderness, suddenly shuddered, vaguely feeling his fortune being taken away.

Texas looked up at the helicopter hovering in midair, the doubts in her heart growing thicker and thicker—she was utterly certain that this steel bird had appeared out of thin air beneath the night sky.

Otherwise, with how noisy its propellers were, she should have noticed it long ago.

But before she could ask, the world suddenly plunged into absolute darkness.

When Texas opened her eyes again, the moonlit Columbia wasteland was no longer before her. In its place was an unfamiliar metal dome. Cold white ceiling lights cast sharp beams overhead, pinning her shadow to the alloy floor.

"This is..."

Texas's pupils suddenly constricted. From the moment everything went black to when she regained her sight, no more than ten seconds should have passed.

Yet in that brief span of time, the Columbia wilderness around her had become an unfamiliar place she had never seen before.

The abrupt change made every hair on Texas's body stand on end. Instinctively, she reached for the hilt at her waist.

Only then did Texas realize that her right hand was still being held in someone else's palm.

"This is our headquarters. Welcome home."

The familiar voice from beside her gave the somewhat disoriented Texas a faint sense of security. She turned to Han Fei and asked, "How did you do it?"

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure either."

Han Fei shrugged and said half-truthfully, "I only know that the helicopter has some kind of special Originium Arts that can bring us here from different Nations, and also send us from here to all parts of Terra."

It was a well-intentioned lie. Otherwise, Han Fei truly had no way to explain the helicopter's transport capabilities.

When in doubt, blame quantum mechanics—no, Originium Arts!

"You don't know either?" Texas gave Han Fei another look.

"I truly don't." Han Fei answered honestly. "I'm not this place's creator. I'm its inheritor."

"I see."

Texas withdrew her gaze and looked around the Special Operations Center, remarking, "What a remarkable place."

"It is."

Han Fei agreed, then promptly changed the subject. "Let me show you around first."

The Special Operations Center was something they could talk about, but not in too much depth.

If they dug too deeply, there would be too many things requiring explanations. It was too troublesome, and Han Fei had no idea how many brain cells he would have to kill to make everything sound convincing.

"Alright."

Texas nodded.

Han Fei took Texas around the Special Operations Center and gave her a simple introduction to the surroundings before arranging a room for her.

"How about you stay here from now on? My room is right across the hall, so it'll be convenient if you need me."

Texas looked over the room's furnishings and nodded. "I have no objections."

"Alright. Get some rest first. We'll talk about anything else tomorrow," Han Fei said.

After saying goodbye to Texas, Han Fei headed straight back to the Special Operations Center. Having settled in the newly arrived department head, he needed to properly sort through this run's gains.

This normal Dam run had been extremely profitable. Even after returning Lappland's twin blades, his earnings had still surpassed one million.

1,086,523. That was the profit displayed by the system, only a tiny bit short of 1.1 million.

The most valuable item was naturally the champagne he had picked up from Texas. Two slots had been worth 340,000.

Next was the expensive mechanical watch he had lifted from Giuseppe—the kind commonly known as a Rolex.

Those two together were worth more than 500,000, only slightly less valuable than Lappland's twin blades.

But on-paper profits were just on-paper profits. As an old Delta Force player, Han Fei naturally understood the Special Operations Center's habits.

—No matter how high the listed value was, once it hit the marketplace, it all got discounted by twenty percent!

That was one of the reasons why assault runs were so hard to profit from. The haul might look like several million, but after losses and inflated valuations were deducted, the actual profit was not much.

No exaggeration: if he put together a loadout worth two million Haf Coins for an assault run and came out with two million in loot, then died in the next round, that previous two million would definitely not be enough to assemble the same loadout again.

However, Han Fei did not have much inflated value in this run, and his losses were low. Even with the twenty percent cut, he was still making a clean profit.

"Okay, let's see what I can sell. I need to get some Haf Coins and upgrade the Special Operations Center."

This Red Really Has to Be Sold ### "Ugh, this stuff is selling so slowly."

Han Fei looked at his Haf Coin balance, which had barely changed, and felt a little strained.

Items already sold slowly on the marketplace, and he was still using the lowest-level Command Center, which meant the marketplace only had five slots.

Not only did he have few slots, but he was also listing nothing but fashionable little pieces of junk.

Those things sold painfully slowly and did not bring in much money. Before, Han Fei would just toss them into the Special Operations Center rather than bother listing them on the marketplace.

But now, Han Fei was in the penniless, starting-from-nothing phase. Naturally, he could not afford to be so extravagant.

After waiting quite a while, he finally scraped together 100,000 Haf Coins.

"Finally, I've got money."

Without another word, Han Fei opened the Special Operations Center upgrade screen.

On the screen, only the Warehouse and Command Center still bore Lv. 1 markers. Every other facility had been reset to no level at all.

Han Fei glanced at the Warehouse, and its 130,000 upgrade cost immediately talked him out of it.

"No money. Next."

His current Warehouse was still sufficient, and since he had not finished selling everything, he decided not to upgrade it for the time being.

"Let's take a look at our Command Center instead."

Saying that, Han Fei opened the upgrade option for the Command Center. Upgrading it was cheap—just over 50,000—but he did not have the required materials and had to buy them again.

Han Fei casually bought the materials and was about to press the upgrade button when he suddenly realized something was off.

"Huh? What does expanding the trading range and communication range mean?"

Han Fei remembered clearly that the Command Center had two upgrade effects. One increased level experience gained during match settlement, while the other increased marketplace slots.

Match experience was meaningless to Han Fei now. Though his Special Operations Center had been wiped, his level remained. A max-level account did not need extra experience.

But now, the experience bonus was gone, replaced by two range-expansion effects.

That left Han Fei rather bewildered.

"Forget it. Whatever. I'll upgrade it first and figure it out later."

Upgrading the Command Center from level 1 to level 2 was especially fast—just one second. Han Fei did not even have to wait. The moment he pressed the button, the Command Center immediately reached level 2.

With the Command Center upgraded, the marketplace gained two more slots.

After a brief hesitation, Han Fei listed the champagne and Rolex he had picked up.

"I'm short on money right now. Better not keep them."

The champagne and Rolex were both red-tier items, but in terms of rarity, they certainly could not compare to those huge nine-slot reds.

As for small reds, even back when he played Delta Force, Han Fei had always followed one rule: sell them if he was short on money.

After all, they were not like nine-slot items. Nine-slot items were genuinely hard to find, but small reds could always be looted eventually unless one had exceptionally bad luck.

Now that he was physically doing extraction runs, each round took far longer than simply playing the game. His Haf Coin farming efficiency could not compare with what it had been in-game.

Therefore, Han Fei saw no need to keep these two small reds. If they should be sold, they should be sold.

The Demon Fragment, on the other hand, was far rarer than those two reds, which was why Han Fei had kept it rather than selling it.

Besides the Demon Fragment, the only other thing Han Fei wanted to keep was a pair of Lappland's Shoes.

That was also considered a rare item. Its name was simply "Lappland's Shoes."

It was obviously the sort of rare item that would not drop easily, so Han Fei planned to keep it.

Other than that, everything except helmets, armor, guns, and chest rigs could be sold.

As items continued selling on the marketplace, Han Fei leisurely listed more fashionable little junk and sighed, "This normal Dam run was seriously not bad."

The last Tundra run had also brought in quite a bit, but the listed value had actually depended entirely on the Demon Fragment and that level-four set. Everything sellable had only been minor blue-tier items, so after returning, Han Fei had casually sold a few things and resupplied once without even looking at the Special Operations Center's upgrade screen.

—Why look when I have no money?

But this time, he had plenty of items he could sell, giving him enough of a balance to upgrade some of the Special Operations Center's facilities.

For example, even after upgrading the Command Center, Han Fei still had a little over 600,000 Haf Coins on hand, while the Warehouse held plenty of unsold blue- and purple-tier items.

With supplies on hand, there was no need to panic. Only with Haf Coins in his balance did Han Fei dare upgrade the Special Operations Center without restraint.

"I've still got some money left. Should I upgrade something else?"

Han Fei rubbed his chin and sank into thought.

There were two kinds of facilities in the Special Operations Center. One kind was functional, strengthening the player's attributes. The other was production-based, allowing the player to slowly accumulate funds even without going on extraction runs.

For example, once those four production facilities were fully upgraded, simply logging in and collecting their output twice a day could bring in several hundred thousand.

Functional facilities were just as important. Without upgrading them, stamina would be insufficient and carrying capacity would remain low.

Put simply, in the game, using a Shield Dog without fully upgrading stamina was exhausting. A couple of shield bashes would drain all his stamina.

And without enough carrying capacity, heavy armor was basically out of the question. If he forced himself into heavy armor, merely wearing the set and carrying a gun would make him overweight. Once overweight, stamina drained extremely quickly, and he would be exhausted after running only a few steps.

If possible, Han Fei truly wanted to max out the entire Special Operations Center in one go, but he clearly did not have the means to do that yet.

Considering that he needed to save money for the next extraction run, Han Fei ultimately upgraded only the Armor Bench by one level after a brief hesitation.

The Haf Coins in his balance immediately dropped by 73,000.

A level 1 Armor Bench could not craft level-five sets and could only make level-four sets. Still, considering how versatile level-four sets were, Han Fei upgraded it first.

That way, after returning from his next extraction run, he would have another level-four armor at home and would not need to buy a new piece of level-four armor.

As for functional facilities, Han Fei decided to hold off for now.

He currently had no opportunity to wear heavy armor. That stuff was too expensive, and it was obviously beyond what he could afford right now.

As for stamina, he had not yet felt that it was insufficient, so he set that aside as well.

"Okay, I'll craft a level-four armor first and save the rest for the next round. I still have some money left, and my level-four set isn't ruined yet. After repairs, I can use it again. I think I can challenge a confidential operation next round."

Honestly, Han Fei had never crafted level-four armor before. So when he saw that the materials for crafting it were purchased through the Special Operations Center, he froze for a moment.

Then, as another 50,000 Haf Coins vanished from his balance, a new piece of level-four armor began production at the Armor Bench.

Watching the countdown on the production screen, Han Fei could not help sighing. "This thing is really cheap. It just takes time. If only I could craft several at once."

Buying a piece of level-four armor cost more than 100,000 Haf Coins. Han Fei remembered that before he had transmigrated, a 110-durability MK2 level-four armor could sell for as much as 300,000. He had no idea who was buying them.

But crafting one at the Armor Bench cost less than 60,000.

Just then, Texas's voice suddenly came from behind him: