Running Scav

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

"How much?"

The black marketeer Nipall said, "Two thousand."

Li Qinwu sucked in a breath.

"That expensive?!!"

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

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

Li Qinwu quietly cursed him for being a profiteer and paid the two thousand.

Nipall took the money and counted it bill by bill, pleasure written all over his face. At last, he was seeing returning customers among the scavengers. Awesome!

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

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

Nipall paused in the middle of counting his money.

"You want to start a gang?"

Li Qinwu nodded.

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

Nipall looked at Li Qinwu, confirmed that he was serious, rubbed his chin as he considered it for a while, then said, "Come with me."

He set aside his work and led Li Qinwu to a private room deeper inside the shop. After they sat down, he said,

"Gang organizations can be divided into two types. One is the wandering gangs attached to large gangs. They're small, with no fixed members or territory, no jobs, nothing. They're just a few slightly braver 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 from the Spire. 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 Celestial Court directly. You should know how important it is to have legitimate work in the Lower Hive."

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

But as long as you had work—any kind of work—your life received a certain degree of protection. You were already ahead of ninety percent of the people in the Lower Hive.

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

The Fertilizer Gang only recruited people with families. Their families worked in the factories, while the young and able-bodied went to war and risked their lives.

The Chemical Gang was much the same. Their legitimate output was some kind of chemical product, also offered as tribute to 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.

If he chose 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 and survive that way.

But he could not provide stable, legitimate work. Those people definitely would not stay with him for long, so turnover would be high, and loyalty would be nonexistent.

As for a large gang, he would need Spire status, registration with the planetary governor, and then a legitimate occupation.

Then, once he returned to the Lower Hive and claimed a patch of land, people would naturally come seeking work. By copying the Fertilizer Gang's model, Li Qinwu could gather a crowd of loyal and reliable subordinates around him.

Of course, the second option was definitely impossible. Li Qinwu did not yet have that kind of social status.

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

"If you're willing to pledge yourself 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 marketeer smiled and did not press him, but he now thought even more highly of Li Qinwu.

This man was not only willing to fight, and clearly had secrets, but also possessed ambition. Someone like that might rise to prominence someday.

Better to build goodwill with him now. If he gains power in the future and remembers my kindness, I'll prosper too.

With that thought, he called toward the outside.

"Little Knife, come in."

The door was pushed open, and Little Knife entered.

"Boss Nipall, Mr. Scavenger."

The black marketeer 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's face was full of confusion. Wait, had he just been sold off?

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

He truly needed someone to handle miscellaneous tasks for him. Doing everything personally was too exhausting.

Little Knife hesitated. He had been doing well in the Fertilizer Gang, with a bright and glorious career ahead of him. Suddenly being told to work for a lone wanderer meant his future had become 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...

"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 odd jobs. I won't send you to your death.

"You can also keep living here at the Fertilizer Gang's base. You can serve as the messenger between Boss Nipall and me."

As he spoke, Li Qinwu looked at the black marketeer.

"Is that all right, Nipall? My little place has nowhere to house a grown man. Let him keep living here. While working for me, he can also act as our messenger."

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

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

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

"Here, a settling-in allowance. I can't promise you great wealth 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.

A low-level gang enforcer like him only earned fifty Fertilizer Coupons a month, less than even a farmer outside the Hive City. Yet this was already considered decent treatment. The Lower Hive had its own peculiar economic system, where barter was still the main practice.

Receiving one thousand Fertilizer Coupons all at once made Little Knife one of the wealthy guys of the Lower Hive.

Overwhelmed, he wanted to kowtow to Li Qinwu. Li Qinwu said, "If you take my money, you have to work hard. Here, I have a job for you. Find ten steel pipes, twenty wooden boards, and some screws and nuts. Deliver them to that compartment by the pipes."

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

(P.S.: A scav is an AI local and scavenger in Escape from Tarkov. Its nature is similar to the disguised operators in Arena Breakout. It is essentially a way for players to enter a map and search for supplies at no cost.)