Black Merchant Sells Guns

The Hideout was a PMC's happy nest, a task force member's comfort zone, and an operator's beloved home.

In Search-Shoot-Extract games, the Hideout was where the player-controlled character rested. They could stockpile supplies, upgrade equipment, and craft advanced items such as firearms, armor, and ammunition. They could also make food, drinks, medicine, and injectables.

The higher the Hideout's level, the more advanced the items it could produce. In Warhammer 40,000, the Hideout could also make localized high-end items, such as Power Armor, Power Swords, and Boltguns.

However, all that required the Hideout to be upgraded to a very high level. Right now, Li Qinwu's Hideout was merely a rundown room in the Lower Hive.

The Hideout was quite spacious. It might once have been a warehouse, covering more than five hundred square meters. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all built from black steel and Ceramite.

The air was stuffy and smelled of rust. The only illumination came from several bubble lights that gave off a dim glow. There was no electricity or running water, and the living conditions were terrible.

But this was Li Qinwu's home, located in an absolutely safe space within the Lower Hive. A large locked iron door completely separated the inside from the outside!

Once he was somewhere safe, Li Qinwu immediately felt exhausted to death. He had stayed up all night and spent the entire day running around outside.

He tossed his backpack and the guns he had recovered into a corner, then lay down on a floor bed made of synthetic fleece and went to sleep.

He slept so deeply that he did not wake until his stomach began protesting.

He held his sore lower back and groaned.

"If I keep sleeping on this floor bed, my back's gonna break."

He got up, walked to the corner of the room, and used a plastic bucket to relieve himself.

"Ugh, I need to figure out how to install a toilet. If I keep doing this, the whole room's going to stink of piss."

Afterward, he ate some biscuits and drank some water. Then he went to where he kept his guns, picked one up, and moved beneath a bubble light.

This bubble light was actually a regional status light for the Hive City. Green meant the area was functioning normally. If it turned red, it meant something had gone wrong in the area and someone needed to be sent to repair it.

Li Qinwu had set up a metal Workbench beneath the bubble light. It was covered with all kinds of tools he had tinkered together over this period. This was a Workbench certified by the Search-Shoot-Extract System, capable of crafting certain items.

Li Qinwu sat beside the Workbench, placed the Autogun on it, clamped the gun body in place with pliers, then began filing away the serial number and Imperial Aquila marking.

Level 1 Workbench, manual.

Input: PDF Standard Automatic Rifle ×1, file ×1.

Output: Unmarked black-market gun (Autogun) ×1.

Crafting time: 10 minutes.

Li Qinwu sat in the Workbench chair, scraping away at the gun with the file. The Hideout filled with the screeching sound of metal grinding against metal.

Ten minutes later, the file snapped. The gun's serial number and Imperial Aquila emblem were gone, leaving ugly abrasion marks in their place. A fresh black-market gun, fit to circulate among the Lower Hive gangs, had been born.

If the markings were not removed, the gun could only be sold to the Black Merchant for half its value.

From time to time, the officials of the Spire would send people down to inspect the Lower Hive. The Black Merchant was in business and did not want trouble, which was why this rule existed.

That was why Li Qinwu had bought a file from the Black Merchant. He would handle it himself before bringing the gun back to sell.

The materials in the Warhammer World were just too tough. For a few small markings, he had spent ten full minutes grinding with a file. It took too much effort. He needed to upgrade his tools and improve efficiency.

"Mm, it's about time to upgrade the Workbench to level two."

Li Qinwu stood up, wrapped the black-market gun in cloth, slung it over his shoulder, pulled a small-caliber pistol loaded with live ammunition from beneath his pillow and tucked it into his waistband, then pushed open the iron door and went out.

This iron door could also be upgraded, increasing the Hideout's security level. Right now, it was simply a relatively thick steel door with a knob-style mechanical lock. Only he knew the password.

Outside was a pitch-black steel corridor. Going left led to the map exit, where he could reach the surface through the ventilation ducts.

Going right led deeper into the Hive City, where many Lower Hive residents were active.

The Hive City was an enormous metropolis. Its highest point pierced straight into the atmosphere, while its bottom reached deep underground.

The officials lived in the upper levels, enjoying their atmospheric gardens.

The middle levels were where the respectable people of the Hive City lived and worked, including merchants, soldiers, and laborers. They were the planet's middle class and lived fairly well.

As for the lower levels, they were places where every sort of monster and misfit lived together: society's dregs, pitiful people who had fallen from the upper levels, criminals, malformed children, mutants, foot-washers, and perhaps even Warp specialties such as Daemons.

In short, the Lower Hive was full of talent. It was a true lawless land.

Li Qinwu switched on a flashlight and walked more than thirty minutes into the depths of the corridor. Gradually, light appeared ahead, along with a huge open space.

This was the activity area for Lower Hive residents. There was a fertilizer factory here, where slaves controlled by the gangs synthesized fertilizer. The gangs then handed that fertilizer over to the officials, who gave the gangs resources in return. The two sides had reached a certain kind of cooperation.

Ignoring the pungent stench of fertilizer in the air, Li Qinwu walked into the vast space, only to be stopped by two gang members holding homemade shotguns.

"Stop! What are you doing here?"

Li Qinwu pulled out a pack of cigarettes and handed each of them one. The two accepted the cigarettes, and their expressions relaxed slightly.

He put one between his own lips, lit it with a flip-top lighter, then lit theirs as well. The three began puffing out clouds of smoke.

Li Qinwu said, "I'm looking for Nipall, the Black Merchant, to move some good goods."

He bounced the cloth-wrapped gun on his shoulder.

The moment the two gang members heard Nipall's name, they immediately stepped aside.

"Go in. Don't cause trouble."

Li Qinwu tossed the entire pack of cigarettes to them, waved, and went inside.

It was fairly easy to get tobacco on an agricultural world. He had heard that ordinary people on the neighboring industrial world could not get plant tobacco at all, and instead smoked a byproduct of the waste gases produced by steelmaking.

Li Qinwu entered the gang-controlled area and headed straight for a special shop built into a steel-and-Ceramite structure.

Calling it a shop was generous. It looked more like a garbage dump. Electronic parts, metal fertilizer, chemical canisters—anything one wanted could be found here, though the quality was not high.

Nipall, the Black Merchant, was a gloomy, gaunt man. When he saw Li Qinwu arrive, he revealed a fake smile.

"Kind customer, buying or selling?"

Li Qinwu opened the cloth bundle and placed the gun on the table.

"Sell first, then buy!"

At the sight of the gun, Nipall licked his dry lips.

His somewhat shriveled hands grabbed the gun and dismantled it into parts in a few quick motions. Then he carefully inspected the components.

After glancing down the barrel and confirming that the rifling was intact, Nipall named his price.

"PDF Standard Automatic Rifle, eighty percent new, markings removed. I'll offer 2,700 Fertilizer Coupons."

Li Qinwu placed a fully loaded thirty-round magazine on the table.

"Add this in. I've got other things to buy too. How about you take it all for 3,400?"

After considering it briefly, Nipall said, "3,200, and you spend all the money in my shop."

Li Qinwu nodded.

"Deal!"

Nipall had one of his lackeys take the gun away, then asked, "What do you want to buy?"

Li Qinwu began listing items.

"One Posu Battery, two thirty-meter electric cables, one motor, one angle grinder, ten lightbulbs, fifty sets of screws and nuts, four one-meter steel pipes, one standard toolbox, and four electric control switches."

Mm, those were all materials needed to upgrade the Hideout.