Opening the Key Room

(Thanks to Fengshen Jue, who likes apricot trees, for the donation and bonus chapter.)

After finishing the job and exchanging pleasantries, Li Qinwu tossed aside the water pipe and disappeared into the crowd.

He happily headed toward the Clean Water Guild. Before he even saw the shop, he spotted the Lower Hive rats lining up to collect water.

There were even more people in line this time. The queue stretched from the shops by the Great Elevator all the way to the shantytown, easily numbering over a thousand.

Just as Li Qinwu was about to follow the crowd forward, he saw Reno waving at him with more than ten security guards carrying electric batons. Smiling, Li Qinwu walked over.

Reno was smiling too. Clearly, he had already heard what had happened at the garbage tower. After all, it was only two or three kilometers away.

Reno laughed. "Mr. Honest Business, you work fast!"

Li Qinwu showed no reaction to gaining a nickname and went straight to the point. "Where's my reward?"

"Come with me."

Reno led Li Qinwu deeper into the Clean Water Guild's Lower Hive shop. The Lower Hive safe zone was a joke—no one cared if you murdered or set fires there.

But the ring of shops near the Great Elevator was all managed by Middle Hive people. It was the lifeline the Spire had granted the Lower Hive, a true safe zone.

If you dared cause trouble in these shops, once the PDF and the Arbites launched a major investigation, there would be nowhere you could hide.

That was why Li Qinwu being allowed into the shop stirred up quite a commotion among the rats waiting in line for water.

The Clean Water Guild's shop was extremely simple: several enormous pipes connected to the building's structure, while workers filled and distributed water into low-grade ceramite containers. That was all.

Reno led Li Qinwu into an office at the back and pointed at a cardboard box. "Here. Your payment."

Li Qinwu opened the box. Inside were one hundred Water Purification Tablets wrapped in plastic film, along with ten Filter Cores.

He smiled. With these things, he would have complete freedom of water in the Lower Hive.

Ding! Mission completed. Contact Reno's favorability has increased from Lv. 0 to Lv. 1. Products unlocked:

Filter Core, Water Purification Tablet, Filtration Fermentation Distiller, High-Energy Drink, water pouch, distiller's yeast.

The High-Energy Drink was the same kind from Arena Breakout, an energy drink that could completely refill the stamina bar after being consumed.

Based on Li Qinwu's ability to run three kilometers on one stamina bar, once he had exhausted it, a single energy drink would let him run another three kilometers. It was perfect for traversing maps, at ten Fertilizer Coupons per bottle.

As for the Filtration Fermentation Distiller, it was an upgrade component for the Water Purifier that could add a brewing function to it.

Li Qinwu's eyes lit up. Pointing at the Filtration Fermentation Distiller in the corner of the office, he asked, "How much for that?"

Reno glanced at the thing and smiled. "Oh, that? I bought it before because I wanted to brew private liquor in my spare time, but for some reason, the alcohol I made came out sour. It tasted terrible, so I left the machine sitting there. What, do you want it?"

Li Qinwu nodded. "How much?"

Reno thought for a moment. "It's useless to me, and it's secondhand. How about you give me five thousand, and it's yours."

Li Qinwu immediately counted out five thousand and handed it over. Reno was a decent man. Judging by its appearance alone, the machine was worth far more than that. He was probably giving it to him at the price of clearing out junk.

Reno accepted the money with a smile. As a minor supervisor in the Clean Water Guild, he truly did not care about such a small sum.

He had spent fifty thousand on the Filtration Fermentation Distiller in the first place. More importantly, he thought someone like Li Qinwu, who handled dirty work, could be useful. Since Li Qinwu wanted it, he found an excuse to give it to him.

Then Reno took two bottles of High-Energy Drink from a cardboard box under the desk. He handed one to Li Qinwu, opened the other, and took a sip.

"This is a very popular drink in the Middle Hive. It keeps you energized all day after you drink it. You won't get sleepy even if you stay up working all night. Give it a try."

Li Qinwu pulled the tab and took a sip. Mm, it was a lightly sweet drink with a complicated flavor, like Red Bull but several times stronger in taste. It was pretty good.

But his stamina bar was full right now, so he could not tell what effect it had.

Li Qinwu said, "I like this flavor. Do you have any more? I want to buy some."

Reno lifted an entire case of drinks out from beneath the office desk.

"There are twenty cans in a case. There are eighteen left inside. Ten dollars a can."

Li Qinwu nodded, handed over one hundred and eighty, and Reno accepted it.

Reno did not care about that little money, but he knew how to behave. Sometimes, when people gave you money, it was because they did not want to owe you. If you refused payment for this and refused payment for that, what were you trying to do? Shower them with favors? Were you after their lives?

Li Qinwu liked this kind of straightforward money transaction. He asked, "Do you have any other jobs for me? Whether it's work in the Lower Hive or work outside Hive City, I'll take it."

Reno hesitated. He really did have an important job on hand, but should he simply hand it over to this ruthless man standing before him?

Seeing his hesitation, Li Qinwu said, "I always work first and take payment afterward. You can tell me what the job is. If I can't do it, I won't ask you for money."

Reno recalled the last time they had ridden the elevator down together. This man had looked like an ordinary Lower Hive rat. How had he gotten into the Middle Hive? Did he have connections?

Then there was the report from the thugs just now. This man had exceeded expectations on the job. That viciousness of his...

"Hmm. I do have a job. I'm not sure whether you'd be interested."

Li Qinwu said, "What is it, and how much does it pay?"

"Before the war, our Clean Water Guild had a Water Pattern Monitoring Station near Water Supply Lake. That station was responsible for monitoring the underground water patterns across several hundred kilometers around it, then storing the data in a Memory Panel.

"But the rebels came too quickly. Before our technicians could take the Memory Panel away, the entire Water Pattern Monitoring Station fell."

Li Qinwu understood.

"You want me to retrieve the Memory Panel?"

Reno nodded.

"Yes. Water Supply Lake is actually a lake formed by underground waterways, and those waterways are extremely complicated.

"Mastering those waterways is very important to Hive City's water extraction operations. So you understand the value of the Memory Panel now."

Li Qinwu nodded, then rubbed his thumb and index finger together.

Reno continued, "If you can bring back the Memory Panel, I'll give you one hundred thousand. And everything inside the Water Pattern Monitoring Station will belong to you."

Li Qinwu asked doubtfully, "Didn't you say the Water Pattern Monitoring Station was under rebel control? Is there still anything inside?"

Reno took a mechanical key from his pocket and handed it to Li Qinwu.

"The Water Pattern Monitoring Station has an aboveground section and an underground section. The underground section is sealed behind a ceramite gate. Without the key, it's impossible to get in—unless the rebels can get their hands on a thermal bomb."

Li Qinwu accepted the key, and a system prompt appeared.

Ding! Obtained mission item: Water-Pattern Monitoring Station Underground Key. Durability: 1/1.

He slipped the key into his pocket and looked at Reno. "Fine, I'll take the job. Have my one hundred thousand ready."