Li Qinwu thought, No wonder there were so many armed people on the streets. The Underhive Gangs were fighting over territory.
A Hive City was an enormous metropolis, home to billions, even tens of billions, of people.
Yet planetary governors often lacked the ability to manage those in the Underhive, or simply did not want to. Naturally, someone would fill that power vacuum, which was how the major Underhive Gangs came to be.
Li Qinwu chose to accept the mission. Going by the nature of Search-Fight-Extract game contacts, the more missions he completed for them, the higher their favorability toward him would be, and the more valuable goods they would sell him.
Moreover, mission rewards would only get better and better. There was no downside to doing them.
Li Qinwu said, "Ten guns, right? I'll look for them on the surface battlefield. Wait for my news."
Black Merchant Nipall revealed a textbook fake smile.
"May the God-Emperor bless you, my kind customer."
Li Qinwu left with the mission. Departing the Fertilizer Gang's territory, he headed toward the surface through the steel passageway.
Five minutes after he started upward, a green countdown appeared in his vision.
Deploying. Map: Northern Theater. 10, 9, 8, 7...
The countdown reached zero. With a whoosh, Li Qinwu vanished from the passageway. His vision blurred, and he could see nothing.
When his sight returned, he had been deployed into a patch of farmland thirty kilometers outside the Hive City.
This was the strength of the Search-Shoot-Extract System. After selecting a map, he would be teleported to an absolutely safe location instead of spending a great deal of time walking there.
The same was true for returning. That ventilation duct extraction point was actually more than twenty kilometers from the Hideout. It twisted and turned all the way into the depths beneath the Hive City.
If he had to run on foot, it would take several more hours just to return to the Hideout after entering the Hive City. And that was without carrying so much loot—he would be exhausted to death!
Instead, reaching an extraction point sent him directly back to the Hideout. It was extremely convenient.
Having successfully deployed, Li Qinwu began surveying the terrain.
This was a farmstead. Most of the buildings had been blown apart by shells, leaving only two relatively intact three-story concrete houses.
Li Qinwu lowered his body and approached the houses under cover of darkness. Then he pricked up his ears and listened carefully. There was no movement; nobody was inside.
He climbed in through a window and began looting.
Agri-World 496b had two moons, so nighttime visibility was fairly good. Once his eyes adjusted, he could see very clearly.
Using the moonlight, Li Qinwu carefully inspected the room. This was a farmers' dormitory. Each building had sixteen such rooms, and the farmers were responsible for cultivating the nearby land.
After rummaging through everything, he found nothing valuable. The place had been repeatedly ravaged by rebels and the PDF, and anything useful had long since been stripped clean.
However, when he searched the innermost room on the third floor, he felt a wooden Emperor's Icon beneath the bed, roughly the size of a thermos.
"Fuck! I found a gold item!"
Li Qinwu opened the system in his mind and looked. This crude wooden carving of the God-Emperor was actually a gold-quality item.
Name: God-Emperor's Wood Carving Reference Value: Worthless Description: A God-Emperor Icon privately carved by a farmer. Though the craftsmanship is terrible, the creator was extremely devout. The statue contains a faint power of faith and can be used to construct an Emperor Shrine. Hint: An important Hideout upgrade item.
Li Qinwu was delighted. He had actually found a Hideout upgrade item!
The Hideout had a shrine upgrade option, and this was exactly what it required. Ordinary water and oil could be put into the shrine to produce Holy Water and Holy Oil.
Drinking Holy Water could clear Chaos Corruption from the body. Smearing Holy Oil on one's face could resist Chaos intrusion, while applying it to cold weapons granted bonus damage against Chaos creatures.
Grinning from ear to ear, he put the God-Emperor's Wood Carving into his backpack and crept toward the second farmers' dormitory. This time, however, there was nothing at all—not even a scrap of rag. The place had been picked cleaner than clean.
"This won't do. This place is way too poor."
Li Qinwu shook his head and opened the Search-Shoot-Extract System to check the map. He had two possible destinations.
Three kilometers north of him was a trench that might contain military supplies and firearms. However, it was rebel-controlled territory, and rebels might currently be stationed there.
Four kilometers northwest was a Grain Station. Before the war, the output from the surrounding land had been gathered there. It was now also under rebel control, and was likely a small gathering point with even more rebels.
Where should he search?
Li Qinwu hesitated. He had only a knife on him. A single armed rebel could kill him.
His favorite places were battlefields where a fight had just ended and both sides had begun pursuit, leaving them no time to clear the battlefield. Then he could rush in, gorge himself on loot, and run after he was done.
Just as he was thinking that, intense gunfire and cannon fire suddenly erupted from the direction of the trenches, jolting the entire night awake!
He instinctively threw himself to the ground, found cover among a patch of building ruins, and listened carefully to the sounds of gunfire and artillery.
Most of the gunfire came from PDF Automatic Guns. As for the cannon fire, it was not heavy artillery but some kind of large-caliber Autocannon, possibly one mounted on a vehicle.
PDF infantry and armored vehicles—this was a nighttime raid against the rebels!
Perfect timing. Li Qinwu was thrilled and planned to scavenge the battlefield. But he did not set off immediately. He had to wait for the right moment; charging into the line of fire would be disastrous.
The gunfire, artillery fire, and explosions continued for over twenty minutes. In particular, that Autocannon kept thumping without pause. It was firing live rounds, probably a 40mm cannon.
What vehicle mounted an Autocannon of that caliber? Based on Imperium PDF organization, it should be a Chimera Transport.
As he pondered this, the sounds of gunfire and artillery began moving. This meant one side had been routed.
Judging by the sound, the rebels defending the trenches had been defeated and were fleeing toward the Grain Station, while the PDF pursued them to expand their gains.
He immediately rushed from the ruins where he had been hiding and sprinted toward the trenches.
He guessed that both sides were focused entirely on the pursuit and had no time to clear the battlefield. He had to finish looting before the PDF returned.
Sure enough, when he reached the trenches, there was nobody there apart from the thick smell of gunpowder and blood. The PDF soldiers and vehicles were pursuing the fleeing rebel troops, while the sounds of gunfire and artillery continued toward the Grain Station.
Li Qinwu jumped into the trench, pulled an Autogun from a rebel corpse, slung it around his neck, then pounced on the next body and picked up a second gun, then a third.
As he collected guns, he observed the battlefield. This had been a battle involving hundreds of people. The PDF had deployed around a hundred men and one Chimera Transport to launch a surprise nighttime attack.
The rebels had numbered around two hundred. Caught in the ambush, they had suffered heavy casualties. The trenches were littered with bodies killed by kinetic rounds, as well as corpses torn to pieces by the Autocannon.
Before long, Li Qinwu had seven Autoguns hanging all over his body. Together with the twelve magazines he had stripped from corpses, his load had reached fifty-three kilograms, triggering the yellow weight limit and reducing his speed by 30%.
The seven Autoguns here, plus the three in his storage, were enough to complete Black Merchant Nipall's mission. Li Qinwu did not dare get greedy and immediately started running.
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