Little Gold, the God-Emperor's Wood Carving

Li Qinwu thought, No wonder there are so many armed people on the streets. The Underhive Gangs are fighting over territory.

A Hive City was an enormous metropolis, home to tens or even hundreds of billions of people.

Yet planetary governors often lacked the ability to manage the people of the lower hive—or simply could not be bothered to. Naturally, someone would fill that power vacuum, and that was how the major Underhive Gangs came to be.

Li Qinwu chose to accept the job. Going by the usual habits of Search-Shoot-Extract System contacts, the more jobs he did for one, the higher their favorability toward him would become, and the more valuable goods they would sell him.

Besides, 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."

The black-market trader Nipall gave him a textbook fake smile.

"May the God-Emperor bless you, my kind guest."

Li Qinwu left with the mission. He departed the Fertilizer Gang's base and headed for the surface through the steel passageway.

Five minutes after he started upward, a green countdown appeared in his field of vision.

Deploying. Map: Northern Theater. 10, 9, 8, 7...

When the countdown reached zero, Li Qinwu vanished from the passageway with a whoosh. His vision blurred, and he could see nothing.

When his sight returned, he had been deployed to a stretch of farmland thirty kilometers outside the Hive City.

That was the strength of the Search-Shoot-Extract System. Once he selected a map, he would be teleported to an absolutely safe location without having to spend a great deal of time traveling there.

The same applied when returning. The ventilation duct extraction point was actually over twenty kilometers from the Hideout, winding this way and that, all the way into the depths beneath the Hive City.

If he had to run there on foot, it would take several more hours to get back to the Hideout after entering the Hive City, not to mention carrying so much loot. It would exhaust him to death!

Instead, he could simply teleport straight back to the Hideout upon reaching an extraction point. It was incredibly convenient.

Having successfully entered the map, Li Qinwu began surveying the terrain.

This was a farmstead. Most of its houses had been blasted apart by shells, leaving only two relatively intact three-story concrete buildings.

Li Qinwu lowered his body and approached the buildings under cover of darkness. Then he pricked up his ears and listened carefully. There was no movement. No one 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. It was a farmer's dormitory. There were sixteen such rooms in one building, housing those responsible for cultivating the nearby land.

He rummaged through everything but found nothing of value. Rebels and PDF troops had ravaged this place repeatedly, and anything useful had long since been looted.

However, when he searched the innermost room on the third floor, he felt a wooden Emperor's Icon beneath the bed, about the size of a thermos.

"Holy shit! I got a little gold!"

Li Qinwu opened the system in his mind and saw that this crude God-Emperor's Wood Carving was actually a gold-tier item.

Name: God-Emperor's Wood Carving

Reference Value: Worthless

Description: An Emperor's Icon privately carved by a farmer. Though his craftsmanship was terribly poor, he was extremely devout. The statue contains a faint power of faith and can be used to build an Emperor Shrine.

Tip: 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 placed into the shrine to produce holy water and Holy Oil.

Drinking holy water could cleanse Chaos Corruption from the body. Smearing Holy Oil on the face could resist Chaos incursions, while applying it to melee weapons gave them 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 farmer dormitory. This time, however, there was nothing at all—not even a scrap of rag. The place had been picked completely clean.

"This won't do. This place is way too poor."

Li Qinwu shook his head and opened the Search-Shoot-Extract System to inspect the map. He had two destinations to choose from.

Three kilometers north was a trench line, where there might be military supplies and firearms. But it was rebel-controlled territory, and rebels might currently be stationed there.

Four kilometers northwest was a Grain Station. Before the war, the produce from the surrounding land had been gathered and distributed there. It was also under rebel control now, and was likely a small settlement with even more rebels.

Where should he search?

Li Qinwu hesitated. He had nothing but a knife on him. A single armed rebel could kill him.

His favorite places were battlefields where the fighting had just ended, both sides had begun pursuit, and neither had 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, fierce 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 amid a patch of ruined buildings, and listened carefully to the gunfire and artillery.

Most of the gunfire came from PDF Automatic Guns. As for the cannon fire, it was not heavy artillery, but some sort of large-caliber autocannon, possibly mounted on an armored vehicle.

PDF infantry and armored vehicles—this was a nighttime raid against the rebels!

Perfect timing! Li Qinwu was thrilled and planned to go scavenge the battlefield, but he did not set out immediately. He had to wait for the right moment. If his timing was wrong and he ran into their guns, he would be finished.

The gunfire, cannon fire, and explosions went on for more than twenty minutes. That autocannon in particular kept booming nonstop. It was firing live rounds, probably a 40mm cannon.

What vehicle mounted an autocannon of that caliber? According to Imperium PDF organization, it should be a Chimera Transport.

As he pondered this, the gunfire and cannon fire began moving. That meant one side had been routed.

From the sound of it, 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 rushed straight out from the ruins where he had been hiding and charged toward the trenches.

He guessed both sides were focused solely 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 no one there apart from the thick smell of smoke and blood. The PDF soldiers and armored vehicle were pursuing the fleeing rebels, while the sounds of gunfire and cannon fire stretched toward the Grain Station.

Li Qinwu jumped into the trench, pulled an Autogun from a rebel corpse, slung it around his neck, and pounced on the next body to pick up a second, then a third.

As he collected guns, he observed the battlefield. This had been a battle involving hundreds of people. The PDF had deployed roughly one hundred men and a Chimera Transport for a surprise nighttime attack.

The rebels had numbered around two hundred. Caught by surprise, they had suffered severe casualties. Corpses killed by kinetic rounds lay everywhere in the trenches, alongside bodies blown to pieces by autocannon fire.

Before long, Li Qinwu had seven Autoguns hanging from his body. Together with the twelve magazines he had stripped from corpses, his load had reached fifty-three kilograms, triggering the yellow encumbrance level and reducing his speed by 30%.

With these seven Autoguns plus the three in his storage, he had enough to complete Nipall's mission. Li Qinwu did not dare get greedy and immediately took off running.