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 practically going sour!"

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 could not stand that smell.

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

Taking his self-defense pistol and the tattoos, Li Qinwu left the Hideout and headed for the Black Merchant Nipall.

When he arrived at the Fertilizer Gang's territory, he saw even more armed men there—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 fight a Beggar War against the Chemical Gang!

Li Qinwu walked toward the Black Merchant's shop just as the merchant's lackeys pushed two carts of machetes out.

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

Seeing Li Qinwu looking around outside, the Black Merchant Nipall hurriedly called him over.

Li Qinwu tossed eleven pieces of skin bearing periodic-table tattoos onto the table, and the Black Merchant whistled.

"Oh, my kind customer, you actually killed eleven Chemical Dogs all by yourself. You're incredibly tough!

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 stuffed it into his pocket without even counting it.

He pointed at the bustling Fertilizer Gang territory behind him.

"War's about to break out?"

The Black Merchant nodded.

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

But based on past experience, it won't work out. Rather than negotiating at the Bailiff Department, they're really just asking what the bailiffs think and how far they'll allow us to go."

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

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

A grave look flashed across the Black Merchant's face.

"Hard to say. Those animals in the Chemical Gang outnumber us, and their Chemical Dogs don't feel pain after getting injected. Then there are monsters like Chemical Pigs. You haven't 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."

The Black Merchant Nipall froze. Staring at the Rage Spine on the table, he was utterly stunned!

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

Li Qinwu waved a hand dismissively.

"Basic stuff, nothing worth showing off. Tell me, how many Fertilizer Coupons will you give me for killing one of these?"

The Black Merchant hesitated slightly. "3,000. I'll give you 3,000 for each one!"

Li Qinwu was fairly satisfied. Killing one of those things was not as good as finding an Autogun, but 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 anyway. Any extra money he could make was a bonus.

After thinking for a moment, the Black Merchant said, "My kind customer, if you want to make some quick money, how about joining the battle when we fight 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 considering it briefly, Li Qinwu said, "Fine, but I won't take orders. Any loot on the enemies I kill belongs to me."

The Black Merchant nodded.

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

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, members of the Fertilizer Gang 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 Merchant.

"Hey! Is that a refrigerator?"

The Black Merchant turned around, took a look, and nodded.

"Yeah. Some rat found it among the trash at the Great Elevator's Waste Outlet. It wasn't broken. Maybe one of those lords from the Spire got a bigger 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.

A 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 Merchant fell silent for a while before saying, "Hmm, the customer wants this...

How about this? Kill three Chemical Pigs and bring back their Rage Spines as proof, and I'll give you the refrigerator. What do you say?"

Li Qinwu only hesitated briefly before nodding. He currently had only a little over 40,000 Fertilizer Coupons in cash. He was rich by Lower Hive standards, but given his ambitions, that amount would never last.

Besides, he did not even know where to find the third piece of equipment needed for the Medical Station. He had plenty of time to take on missions.

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

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

After accepting the missions, he bought some more items from the Black Merchant to upgrade his Hideout. Since he bought too much, he also bought a small cart to haul it all away.

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

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

The Water Purifier had two stages. The first large barrel was a Settling Barrel. Feed in 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 of 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 in the pipes, which would remove the small amount of chemical residue remaining in the water, turning the clean water into safe water.

One filter cartridge could filter roughly 1,000 liters of water. In other words, by putting one Water Purification Tablet, 10% durability from a Biohazard Filter Cartridge, and 100 liters of dirty water into the Water Purifier, then spending twenty-four hours, he could obtain 99 liters of safe water. Old Li could finally enjoy something close to water freedom.

Li Qinwu carried a bucket into the passage outside the Hideout, found a leaking pipe, and filled a large bucket directly before carrying it back and pouring it into the Water Purifier.

The wastewater in that pipe looked very clear, but it could not be drunk. Its chemical content was severely over the limit.

It was industrial wastewater discharged from some Hive City Factory. It was probably used to cool machinery, and sometimes what came out was even boiling water.

After filling the bucket, he returned and poured it into the Water Purifier. He made several trips until the purifier was full, tossed in a Water Purification Tablet, and then all that remained was to wait until the next day for clean water to come out.