Water Purifier

Back at the Hideout, Li Qinwu collapsed into sleep. When he woke, he caught the smell of gunpowder and blood on himself and frowned.

"Fuck! Not being able to bathe whenever I want is unbearable. I'm fucking starting to stink!"

He hurriedly got up and cleaned himself, wetting a towel to wipe down his body.

Cleaning his body was easy and used at most 500 ml of water, but there was no way to wash his clothes and pants. He truly couldn't stand that smell.

Looking at the three Filter Cores he had just retrieved, he muttered, "I can't take this anymore. I have to achieve water freedom!"

Taking his self-defense pistol and tattoos, Li Qinwu left the Hideout and headed toward the black marketeer Nipall.

When he arrived at the Fertilizer Gang's territory, he saw even more armed men—nearly a thousand of them!

They were using steel plates to make crude armor and grinding iron sheets into machetes and axes. They were preparing to wage a Beggar War against the Chemical Gang!

Li Qinwu headed toward the black marketeer's shop just as one of his lackeys pushed out two cartloads of machetes.

"Ah, my kind customer, come over quickly! You bring me good news every time!"

Seeing Li Qinwu looking around outside, the black marketeer Nipall hurriedly called him over.

Li Qinwu tossed eleven pieces of skin bearing periodic-table tattoos onto the table. The black marketeer whistled.

"Oh, my kind customer, you actually took down eleven Chemical Dogs all by yourself. You're truly formidable!

Here, as we agreed, each Chemical Dog is worth 300 Fertilizer Coupons, for a total of 3,300 Fertilizer Coupons."

Li Qinwu took the money and shoved it into his pocket without counting it.

He pointed at the bustling Fertilizer Gang territory behind him.

"War's about to start?"

The black marketeer nodded.

"My boss and Mother of the Chemical Gang are currently negotiating at the Bailiff Department in the Middle Hive. If they reach an agreement, there won't be a war. If they don't, we fight. Whoever wins gets the Reactor.

But based on past experience, there's no way they'll reach an agreement. Rather than negotiating at the Bailiff Department, they're really just asking what the bailiffs think—how far they'll allow us to take this fight."

Li Qinwu took out a cigarette and offered one to the black marketeer. The black marketeer pulled out a lighter, and the two began puffing away.

Li Qinwu asked, "Can you take the Chemical Gang?"

A grave expression flashed across the black marketeer's face.

"Hard to say. Those animals in the Chemical Gang outnumber us, and after their Chemical Dogs get injected, they don't feel pain. They also have monsters like Chemical Pigs. You've never seen a Chemical Pig, have you? Let me tell you, a Chemical Pig is—"

Li Qinwu took the Rage Spine from his bag and placed it on the table.

"I've seen a Chemical Pig. I killed one, too."

Nipall froze. Staring at the Rage Spine on the table, he was stunned!

"By the God-Emperor! My kind customer actually killed a Chemical Pig!"

Li Qinwu pressed a hand down.

"Nothing special. Tell me, how many Fertilizer Coupons will you give me for killing one of these?"

The black marketeer hesitated slightly. "3,000. I'll give you 3,000 per head!"

Li Qinwu was fairly satisfied. Though killing one of these things wasn't as worthwhile as finding an Autogun, it was easy enough if he happened across one.

He would need Rage Drugs to make medical supplies in the future, so he had to kill Chemical Pigs for their drops. Any extra money he could make along the way was still money.

After thinking for a moment, the black marketeer said, "My kind customer, if you want to make some quick money, how about joining the fight once we go to war with the Chemical Gang?"

Li Qinwu asked, "How much are you paying?"

"5,000 as a participation fee. As long as you join, you get 5,000!"

After a brief consideration, Li Qinwu said, "Fine, but I won't take orders. Any loot on enemies I kill belongs to me."

The black marketeer nodded.

"That's only natural. Once the war begins, you may choose your own position to fight from. If you kill an enemy, you also have priority rights to loot them."

As he spoke, he handed Li Qinwu an armband. It was black, with a red bag of fertilizer painted on it.

"This is an identification armband. As long as you wear it, Fertilizer Gang personnel will provide you with a certain amount of support."

Li Qinwu accepted the armband, then suddenly spotted a refrigerator inside the shop behind the black marketeer.

"Hey! Is that a refrigerator?"

The black marketeer looked back and nodded.

"Yeah. Some rat found it in the sewage outlet of the Great Elevator. It wasn't broken. Maybe some lord from the Spire replaced it with a larger refrigerator and threw this smaller one away."

Li Qinwu's breathing grew heavier. This was one of the three crucial components needed to build a Medical Station.

Chemical Purification Equipment, Temperature Controller, and Mixing Precipitator.

The Temperature Controller could be dismantled from a refrigerator. If he got it, he would have two of the key components!

"Sell it to me. How much do you want?"

The black marketeer fell silent for a moment. "Hmm, the customer wants this...

How about this? If you kill three Chemical Pigs and bring back their Rage Spines as proof, I'll give you the refrigerator. How does that sound?"

Li Qinwu nodded after only a slight hesitation. He currently had just over 40,000 Fertilizer Coupons in cash. He might be considered wealthy in the Lower Hive, but with his ambitions, that amount definitely wouldn't last.

Besides, he still had no idea where to find the third piece of Medical Station equipment. He had plenty of time to do missions.

"Fine. Three Chemical Pigs. I'll find a way to kill them."

Just like that, Li Qinwu had accepted two missions: one to kill Chemical Pigs in exchange for equipment, and another to serve as a hired fighter when the Fertilizer Gang went to war with the Chemical Gang.

After taking the missions, he bought some things from the black marketeer to upgrade the Hideout. Since he had bought too much, he also picked up a small handcart to haul it all away.

Back at the Hideout, he began sorting through the things he had bought.

First were several large plastic barrels and several Ceramite water pipes. Li Qinwu used tools to cut holes in the barrels, connecting the barrels and pipes together to make a Water Purifier.

The Water Purifier had two sections. The first large barrel was a Settling Barrel. Add 100 liters of dirty water and one Water Purification Tablet, wait one day, and it would produce 99 liters of clean water.

The Water Purification Tablet would settle the large particles and filth in the water to the bottom. At that point, the Electronic Timer would activate, and the clean water would flow through the pipes into the next large container.

There was a Biohazard Filter Cartridge inside the pipes. This would remove the small amount of chemical residue remaining in the water, turning the clean water into safe water.

One Filter Core could filter roughly 1,000 liters of water. In other words, by putting one Water Purification Tablet, 10% Biohazard Filter Cartridge durability, and 100 liters of dirty water into the Water Purifier and spending 24 hours, he could obtain 99 liters of safe water. Li Qinwu could finally use water freely.

Carrying a bucket outside the Hideout into the passageway, Li Qinwu found a leaking pipe and filled a large bucket directly from it before taking it back to pour into the Water Purifier.

The wastewater in this pipe was very clear, but it couldn't be drunk. Its chemical content was far beyond safe limits.

This was industrial wastewater discharged by some Hive City factory. It might have been used to cool machinery, and sometimes the water it discharged was even boiling.

After filling the bucket, he carried it back and poured it into the Water Purifier. After several trips, he filled the purifier, tossed in a Water Purification Tablet, and all that remained was to wait until the next day for clean water.