Running Scav

Li Qinwu took the bottle and glanced inside. There were about thirty poison pills.

"How much?"

Black Merchant Nipall said, "Two thousand."

Li Qinwu sucked in a breath.

"That expensive?!!"

Black Merchant Nipall pulled out a pistol, hooked a finger through the trigger guard, and spun the gun around.

"This one's cheap. Only two hundred. Want it?"

Li Qinwu quietly cursed him as a profiteer and paid two thousand.

Black Merchant Nipall took the money and counted it bill by bill, delight on his face. He was finally seeing return business from a Scavenger. Sweet!

Li Qinwu put away the medicine, then remembered something and asked.

"Say, if I wanted to start a gang too, what would I need to do?"

Black Merchant Nipall paused in the middle of counting.

"You want to start a gang?"

Li Qinwu nodded.

"I want to find some people to handle miscellaneous work for me."

Black Merchant Nipall looked at Li Qinwu, confirmed that he was serious, rubbed his chin in thought for a while, then said, "Come with me."

He set aside his work and led Li Qinwu into a private room deeper inside the shop. After sitting down, he said:

"Gang organizations can be divided into two kinds. One is wandering gangs attached to larger gangs. They're small, with no fixed members or territory, no jobs, nothing. They're just a few bolder Lower Hive rats huddling together. They have no future.

"The other kind is like our Fertilizer Gang. We have fixed core members, a fixed boss, a fixed base, and legitimate production work.

"My boss, Electric Eye, is Spireborn. He's registered with the planetary governor, and the fertilizer we produce is tribute for the planetary governor.

"Someone like Boss Electric Eye can reach the Heavenly Hall directly. You should know how important it is to have legitimate work in the Lower Hive."

Li Qinwu nodded. Lower Hive society was brutally cruel. If someone had no job, he might be alive today and dead tomorrow. There was no security at all.

But as long as you had a job, no matter what kind, your life received a certain degree of protection. That already put you above ninety percent of the Lower Hive.

The ones capable of providing jobs in the Lower Hive were usually large gangs. The Fertilizer Gang, for example, had to recruit workers to produce fertilizer for tribute.

The Fertilizer Gang only recruited people with families, making their families work in the Factory while the young and strong went to fight and risk their lives.

The Chemical Gang was much the same. Their legitimate output was some kind of chemical product, also tribute for the planetary governor. Poison Needle was merely a byproduct.

In short, Li Qinwu could choose to establish either a small gang or a large gang.

For a small gang, he could simply spend money to hire a few people to do things for him, then attach himself to a large gang to survive.

But he could not provide stable, legitimate work. People certainly would not stay with him long-term, turnover would be high, and loyalty would be nonexistent.

As for a large gang, he needed Spire status, registration with the planetary governor, and then a legitimate line of work.

Then, once he returned to the Lower Hive and claimed a piece of land, people would naturally come looking for work. If he copied the Fertilizer Gang's model, Li Qinwu would have a group of loyal and reliable underlings around him.

Naturally, the second option was impossible. Li Qinwu did not yet have that kind of social standing.

Black Merchant Nipall said, "Right now, you can only establish a rat gang. With your abilities, maintaining ten or twenty people won't be a problem.

"If you're willing to pledge allegiance to Boss Electric Eye, I can provide you with some support."

Li Qinwu shook his head.

"I'd rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. Forget being some underling ordered around by others."

The Black Merchant smiled and did not press him, but he now regarded Li Qinwu even more highly.

This man was not only willing to fight and full of secrets, he also had ambition. Someone like him might rise to prominence someday.

I might as well build goodwill with him now. If he rises in the future and remembers my kindness, I'll prosper too.

With that thought, he called out toward the outside.

"Little Knife, come in."

The door opened, and Little Knife came through it.

"Boss Nipall, Mr. Scavenger."

The Black Merchant said to Li Qinwu, "You need someone to handle tasks. Little Knife will follow you from now on."

Li Qinwu looked at Little Knife. Little Knife wore a bewildered expression. What, he had just been sold off like that?

Li Qinwu looked at Little Knife, thought for a while, and asked, "Little Knife, are you willing to work for me?"

He truly needed someone to handle miscellaneous tasks. Doing everything himself was too exhausting.

Little Knife hesitated. Things had been going well in the Fertilizer Gang, and the career prospects were bright and glorious. Suddenly being told to work for a lone drifter made his future unpredictable.

But... he remembered the Duel Arena, where this man had fired calmly and killed Muscle Dog and Chemical Pig.

This man was one of the very few individuals in the Lower Hive who could control his own fate. If he followed someone like this, then perhaps he...

"I'm willing! Boss Scavenger!"

Little Knife made his decision and immediately dropped to one knee.

Li Qinwu said, "Don't worry. I'll only give you some odd jobs. I won't send you to die.

"You can keep living here at the Fertilizer Gang's base too. Consider yourself the messenger between me and your Boss Nipall."

As he spoke, Li Qinwu looked at the Black Merchant.

"Is that alright, Nipall? My little place has nowhere to house a grown man. Let him keep living with you, working for me while serving as our messenger."

Nipall smiled. "Of course. In fact, this is even better."

Li Qinwu nodded, looked at his outsourced underling, Little Knife, and felt he should give him a bonus.

He took out one thousand Fertilizer Coupons from his clothes and slapped them into Little Knife's hand.

"Here, settling-in money. I can't promise you wealth and glory if you follow me, but a comfortable life won't be a problem."

Little Knife looked at the thousand bills in his hand and nearly rolled his eyes in bliss.

As a low-level gang thug like him, his monthly salary was only fifty Fertilizer Coupons, less than even a farmer outside the Hive City. Yet this was already considered decent treatment. The Lower Hive had its own special economic system, mainly based on barter.

Receiving one thousand Fertilizer Coupons at once made Little Knife one of the Lower Hive's rich guys.

He was so excited that he wanted to kowtow to Li Qinwu, but Li Qinwu said, "If you take my money, you need to work properly. Here, I have a job for you. Find ten steel pipes, twenty wooden boards, and some screws and nuts, then deliver them to that compartment by the pipes."

Mm, Li Qinwu was using Little Knife as a scav, having him help search for construction materials to upgrade the Hideout.

(P.S.: scav was an AI, a local and a scavenger, in Escape from Tarkov. It was similar in nature to Arena Breakout's disguised operators, essentially a cost-free way to enter a map. Players could run scav to search for supplies without any cost.)