Open the Key Room

(Bonus chapter sponsored by Fengshen Jue Who Likes Apricot Trees.)

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 saw the Lower Hive rats lining up to collect water.

There were even more people in line this time. The queue stretched from the shops at the edge of 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 a dozen security guards armed with stun batons. Smiling, Li Qinwu walked over.

Reno was smiling as well. He had clearly already heard what had happened at the garbage tower. After all, it was only two or three kilometers away.

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

Li Qinwu showed no reaction to acquiring 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 would care 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 a lifeline the Spireborn had grudgingly bestowed upon the Lower Hive, and it was a real Safe Zone.

If you dared cause trouble in these shops, a major investigation by the PDF and the Arbites would leave you nowhere to hide.

So when Li Qinwu entered the shop, quite a few rats waiting in line for water began to stir.

The Clean Water Guild's shop was extremely simple: several enormous pipes connected to the building's structure, with workers filling and distributing water in low-grade Ceramite containers. That was all.

Reno led Li Qinwu into an office in the back and pointed at a cardboard box. "There. 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 water freedom in the Lower Hive.

Ding! Mission complete. Contact Reno's favorability has risen from lv0 to lv1. Products unlocked:

Filter Core, Water Purification Tablet, Filtration Fermentation Distiller, High-Energy Drink, water pouch, brewing starter.

The High-Energy Drink was the same kind from Arena Breakout—an energy drink that could refill his stamina bar to full after he drank it.

Based on Li Qinwu's ability to run three kilometers on one stamina bar, once his stamina was depleted, one bottle of energy drink would let him run another full three kilometers. It was a top-tier map-running tool, costing 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 this?"

Reno glanced at the item and smiled. "Oh, that? It's equipment I bought to brew moonshine in my spare time. But for some reason, the alcohol I made came out sour and tasted awful, so I put the machine aside. What, you want it?"

Li Qinwu nodded. "How much?"

Reno thought for a moment. "It's useless to me, and it's secondhand. How about five thousand? I'll let you have it."

Li Qinwu immediately counted out five thousand and handed it over. Reno was a decent man. Judging by its appearance, that equipment was worth far more than that. He was probably practically selling it to him at scrap value.

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

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

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

"This is a popular drink in the Middle Hive. It keeps you alert for an entire day after you drink it. You won't get sleepy even if you work through the night. Try it."

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

But his stamina bar was currently full, 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 pulled an entire case of drinks out from beneath the office desk.

"There are twenty cans in a case. There are eighteen left in this one. Ten per can."

Li Qinwu counted out one hundred and eighty and handed it over. Reno accepted it.

Reno did not care about such a small amount of money, but he understood how to deal with people. Sometimes, when someone gave you money, it was because they did not want to owe you. If you refused payment for this and that, what were you trying to do? Bestow favors on them? Did you want their life?

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

Reno hesitated. He really did have an important job on hand, but should he hand it over so easily to this ruthless man 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 remembered taking the elevator down with this man last time. He 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 enforcers just now. This man had completed the job beyond expectations. That ruthless streak...

"Yeah, 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, the Clean Water Guild had a Water Pattern Monitoring Station by Water Supply Lake. That station was responsible for monitoring underground water patterns across several hundred kilometers and storing the data in the Memory Panel.

"But the rebels came too quickly. Before our technicians could take away the Memory Panel, 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 from underground waterways, and those waterways are extremely complicated.

"Controlling those waterways is crucial to the Hive City's water extraction operations. So you understand the importance 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 be yours."

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

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

"The Water Pattern Monitoring Station has aboveground and underground sections. The underground section is sealed behind a Ceramite gate. Without the key, there's no way in—unless the rebels can get hold of a Melta Bomb."

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

Ding! Mission item acquired: 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."