Business

When Li Qinwu opened his eyes, he had already revived naked on the bed in the Hideout. Eight hours had passed since he had been beaten to death.

Smacking his lips, he got out of bed, roasted a few potatoes, filled his stomach, then sat there blankly for a while.

Being beaten to death by so many people was a first for him. It was quite a novel experience, one worth savoring properly.

Once he had savored it enough, he got up to check the Hideout's output.

The Brewing Apparatus had produced one bottle of liquor. He took it out and loaded in more materials, setting the apparatus to produce the next bottle.

Carrying the bottle to the Emperor Shrine, he found that its Holy Wine had also finished producing and the candle had gone out.

Li Qinwu took out the second bottle of Holy Wine and stored it properly, then fed in another bottle of liquor to resume production.

After finishing all that, he found a set of clothes, tucked the large-caliber pistol into his waistband, grabbed all the Holy Biscuits, and prepared to head out.

He planned to visit the Stillwater Guild first to see how Little Joel's family was doing, then take the Great Elevator up to the Middle Hive for a look around.

He walked all the way to the Safe Zone. It was still the same shitty place as before, with a pack of Lower Hive rats trying to scrape out a living there.

They picked through trash everywhere and searched everywhere, their eyes full of schemes and calculations as they sized one another up.

If the Great Elevator sent down a fresh batch of convicts, they would swarm over and celebrate.

Li Qinwu's brutal killing spree last time had not taught them even the slightest lesson. They continued living in this world, cruel and vulgar as ever.

Ignoring those rats, he headed straight for the Clean Water Guild's shop.

As usual, a long line stretched outside for water distribution. The Lower Hive rats waited there to receive clean water, one of only two ways they could obtain a clean water source in the Lower Hive.

Li Qinwu bypassed the crowd and walked directly into the shop. Several security guards at the entrance instinctively drew their guns to threaten him when they saw someone approaching, but froze when they recognized him.

"Huh? Aren't you dead?"

The Clean Water Guild's security guards knew Li Qinwu. He had a good relationship with their boss.

Li Qinwu walked over, pulled out cigarettes and a lighter, and lit one for each of them.

"I didn't die. I carved a bloody path out from another direction!"

He casually made it up. The situation had been chaotic at the time, with hundreds of rats surrounding him. Who could say for certain that they had actually seen him beaten to death?

As for the ground full of minced meat, perhaps it belonged to some unlucky rat. In any case, it was not Li Qinwu's.

In the world of Warhammer 40,000, everyone had secrets. There were plenty of things that defied common sense, so any barely plausible explanation would do.

The Clean Water Guild guards looked at Li Qinwu uncertainly, but still stepped aside and let him in.

The moment Li Qinwu entered the Clean Water Guild shop, he saw Joel's family using cheap Ceramite buckets to fill water from the pipes, portion it out, then carry it to the front of the shop to sell. They looked as though they had been working for quite some time already.

Joel's father was carrying several buckets of water and turned around to restock the shop, only to run directly into Li Qinwu.

The instant he saw Li Qinwu's face, his entire body froze, and the words spilled from his mouth.

"Ah! You... weren't you dead?"

Li Qinwu took a drag from his cigarette and said casually, "I didn't die. I fought my way out from another direction!"

With a thud, Joel's father dropped to his knees before Li Qinwu and heavily kowtowed.

"Benefactor! You saved my entire family! Benefactor, if you ever need anything done, just tell me. I'll give you my life to repay you!"

His attitude was exceptionally sincere, which pleased Li Qinwu. At least he had not saved an ungrateful bastard.

Afterward, Joel's father called over his wife, Little Joel in his wheelchair, and Little Joel's younger brother to thank Li Qinwu.

Little Joel in particular tried to get out of his wheelchair and lie on the ground to kowtow to Li Qinwu, but Li Qinwu hurriedly held him down.

"Your company commander asked me to look after your family. He gave me quite a lot in return, so you don't need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank your company commander."

The family launched into another round of thanks, but Li Qinwu interrupted them again and asked Little Joel,

"What's going on with you now? How did you end up working here? Did Reno give you jobs?"

Little Joel shook his head.

"Sir, yesterday we broke out of the crowd and reported your name here. Lord Reno gave us protection.

"Lord Reno did not give us work. My father believed that if we accepted someone's protection, we had to offer something in return.

"We have nothing on us now. The only thing we have is my father and mother's labor, so they voluntarily began taking on whatever work they could manage."

Li Qinwu nodded inwardly. It had to be said, Joel's family had solid values. Even at a time like this, they still thought of paying for someone's protection through labor.

Joel's father kept saying that Li Qinwu could call on his life whenever he needed it. The man intended to sell his life to Li Qinwu, hoping that Li Qinwu would look after his wife and children in the future.

In just one day, the man had understood how difficult it was to survive in the Lower Hive. There were still several freshly gnawed skeletons near the Great Elevator!

As they talked, a door deep inside the Clean Water Guild shop opened. Reno poked his head out, looked surprised for a moment when he saw Li Qinwu, then waved him over.

Li Qinwu told Little Joel's family to wait there and followed Reno into the office.

After closing the door, the two sat down. Li Qinwu said, "I got the Memory Panel. It's stored somewhere absolutely safe in the Middle Hive. I'll head up there later and bring it down for you."

Reno nodded with a smile, then very straightforwardly pulled out a stack of Fertilizer Vouchers from his desk, placed it on the table, and handed it to Li Qinwu.

"Here. Your payment. One hundred thousand Fertilizer Vouchers, not one less."

He was not worried at all that Li Qinwu might be deceiving him. Yesterday, he had clearly watched this man get beaten to death by hundreds of rats, yet today the man was standing right in front of him. How else could that be explained?

He was a minor supervisor in the Clean Water Guild and had seen plenty.

He had once heard of a Clone Cult where every clone looked identical, their genes all originating from the cult leader. Yet every one of them was also the cult leader.

He had also heard more secretive stories, stories about Perpetuals.

Whatever the man before him was, he possessed tremendous potential. Reno believed that someone of his caliber would not abandon his credibility over one hundred thousand Fertilizer Vouchers.

Li Qinwu put away the one hundred thousand Fertilizer Vouchers. He felt Reno was a decent man, trusting him so much. In the future, he could finish Reno's jobs a little sooner.

Having finished discussing the handover, Li Qinwu brought up Little Joel's family. He told Reno that they were actually wounded soldiers and asked whether he had any suggestions for settling them down.

Reno stroked his chin and said, "I have no way to arrange long-term accommodations for outsiders here. The workers employed here all hold positions within the Guild. If outsiders remain in the shop for too long and my competitors find out, they might impeach me.

"If you want their family to survive in the long run, you can only follow the rules of the Lower Hive and find them some work that can support them.

"Even working as thugs for a gang would be better than wasting away outside and waiting to die."

Li Qinwu sighed. He did not want to do that.

Lieutenant Rudosen had given him benefits and asked him to look after Little Joel's family. How could he throw them to a gang?

If this family were thrown into a gang, Joel's father would become a thug and die in gang warfare.

Little Joel's mother would become a female laborer, working herself to death or being noticed and toyed with by some gang boss.

Little Joel himself was disabled. He would probably not survive half a year before dying for one reason or another.

Little Joel's younger brother was too young, only around ten. Either gang members would seize him for experiments or organ trafficking, or he would remain beside a boss to be trained as a disposable loyalist.

Whenever the boss encountered trouble, he would be thrown out to take bullets. In short, none of those were good destinations.

At that moment, another idea came to Li Qinwu. Should he form a small gang of his own?

With his abilities, the supplies produced by the Hideout, and the firearms and ammunition he had stockpiled, running a small force would not be difficult at all. The only thing requiring consideration was a base.

But after thinking carefully, he realized that a base was not a problem either!

A base did not have to be located somewhere spacious. The Lower Hive had countless interconnected pipes. If he found some boards and blocked both ends, would that stretch of pipe not become his private territory?

Wouldn't the section of pipe outside the Hideout work perfectly? The pipe was quite large, roughly a six-meter-diameter circle. Its walls were made of construction-grade Ceramite, covered with countless pipes of unknown purpose, while a metal walkway had been built along the bottom.

He only needed to find some Ceramite Powder and metal plates, then block off both ends of the passage. The farther apart he blocked them, the larger his territory would be!

Once he occupied a place, he could recruit underlings and cultivate his own power.

But there was still one issue. He had to provide work. He could not just keep people in a tunnel doing nothing and let them eat and drink for free. They still needed jobs.

Li Qinwu pondered for quite a while without getting anywhere. He looked at Reno across the desk and asked,

"Are there any products in the Middle Hive or Spire that are selling especially well right now? Could I get involved?"

Reno considered it very seriously for a while before saying, "If you truly want to invest, the only path should be brewing alcohol.

"There really is not much this part of the Lower Hive can export upward, aside from liquor.

"And as long as you brew liquor that does not taste outrageously bad, it will always sell.

"The situation is special right now. All the land outside the Hive City has been occupied, and everyone throughout the Hive City is anxious. At times like this, demand for liquor is very high.

"Furthermore, with the grain-producing regions lost, food is in short supply throughout the Hive City. The planetary governor has already ordered the reserve grain warehouses opened and begun rationing. Under those circumstances, there is simply no excess grain to spare for brewing plants.

"If you can find a way to obtain a stable source of grain, you might really be able to build a moonshine business."

Li Qinwu was somewhat tempted. No matter how many tens of thousands of years humanity developed, there would always be demand for liquor.

The Hive City now had something of the economic depression of the World War I and World War II era. At times like these, many countries produced moonshine dealers. The market demand was booming.

Li Qinwu felt this had real potential. As for a sales channel, Lieutenant Rudosen's channel seemed quite good, didn't it?

With PDF's damned discipline, heavy drinking could practically count as a virtue. Since those lousy soldiers could drink themselves senseless, why should they not drink the liquor Li Qinwu brewed?

Li Qinwu could tell Lieutenant Rudosen that if he helped sell the liquor into the military, Li Qinwu could take in more wounded soldiers demoted to the Lower Hive in the future and provide work for them and their families.

He could even share part of the profits with those soldiers so they could support their families. Everyone would make money, everyone would have security. Wouldn't that make this business incredibly promising?!

The more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed. Li Qinwu grew increasingly excited.

A vast business empire took shape in his mind. He would start with moonshine, dominate every black-market industry in the Hive City, then eventually buy a warship, fly into space to do business, and completely break free from the restrictions of this Agri-World!

He was a man of action. He sprang straight up from his chair.

"Mr. Reno, let's stop talking for now. I'm going to the Middle Hive to retrieve the Memory Panel and bring it back to you. Little Joel's family can stay with you temporarily. It won't be long before I take them away."

Reno smiled and nodded.

"If you need any help, contact me. As for brewing, I'm very interested in it and have studied it extensively. If you open a Brewery, I can come over and offer guidance."

Li Qinwu kept saying, "Sure, sure, sure," but inwardly he muttered, Didn't this bastard say before that the liquor he brewed was sour?

After leaving the office, Li Qinwu told Little Joel's family that he was going to the Middle Hive and asked whether there was anything they needed help with.

"Sir, could you please deliver a letter to my younger sister and tell her we're safe? Before we were demoted into convicts and thrown into the Lower Hive, we used connections to send her to the Imperial Cult Cathedral as a nun."

Li Qinwu nodded. He also wanted to wander through the Middle Hive's various facilities and see whether he could unlock new contacts and accept other missions.

The Imperial Cult Cathedral was such an iconic Warhammer 40,000 building. It looked like an important location for triggering key plotlines, and he really wanted to take a look.

Li Qinwu borrowed paper and a pen from the Clean Water Guild staff and had Little Joel's family write the letter. Once he received it, he bid the family farewell and headed toward the Great Elevator.

An announcement happened to come from the Great Elevator at that moment. The elevator was about to arrive at the Lower Hive, and the Lower Hive rats began stirring, surrounding the Great Elevator with all kinds of weapons as they waited to feast.

Li Qinwu scanned his genes in the Safe Zone and waited quietly for the elevator alongside the Lower Hive staff.

A small area to the right of the Great Elevator was enclosed by iron railings. To enter that area, one needed Middle Hive identification and had to undergo a genetic scan.

Waiting for the Great Elevator there was absolutely safe. The Lower Hive rats did not dare act up in front of those staff members.

Before long, after a burst of mechanical roaring, the Great Elevator successfully arrived at the Lower Hive.

The doors slowly opened, revealing nearly a thousand convicts surrounded by Arbites, as well as shift workers huddled in a corner with utterly ordinary expressions.

Li Qinwu and the workers boarded the Great Elevator, waiting for the Arbites to drive the endlessly crying Middle Hive convicts off the elevator.

After being busy for quite a while, the Great Elevator's doors slowly closed, and the elevator began ascending.

Li Qinwu found it rather strange. This was not the first time he had taken the Great Elevator, but he had always gone downward before. This was his first time riding it up.