Chapter 69: Before Move Ou
“Oh my god, Han Xiao, you bought a heavy truck‽”
The four teammates were invited to the garage, and Li Ya Lin and Lin Ya’s faces were soon filled with surprise and excitement. They climbed all over the heavy truck. As Lambert was particularly interested in the engine, he opened the car hood to admire it.
“Thank you,” said Zhang Wei solemnly to Han Xiao.
A logistical vehicle was a very luxurious item for a team like them. Zhang Wei felt embarrassed that Han Xiao had bought it with his own money.
Han Xiao laughed it off. “Hehe. Just treat it as my way of helping impoverished teammates.”
Zhang Wei’s mouth started twitching as he was lost for words. Although Han Xiao was saying the truth, it was still agitating for Zhang Wei.
“I wracked my brain to come up with a name for this truck.”
Zhang Wei listened expectantly.
Han Xiao cleared his throat and said in a serious tone, “Big Black.”
Zhang Wei’s body jerked upon hearing the ridiculous name. He gave an unwilling half-smile. “Nice… what a nice name.”
“Oh. You think so too? This name is very catchy and concise. I am quite proud of myself for coming up with this name,” Han Xiao said in a satisfied tone.
“I’m glad you are happy with the name.”
“Wow. The driving space is huge.” Li Ya Lin was having a lot of fun when she suddenly thought of something. “who is going to drive the car?”
“This is my truck. Obviously, I will be driving it,” Han Xiao said.
Immediately, Li Ya Lin’s face paled, and her body started trembling. “Can… can I not travel in the car?”
Zhang Wei frowned and reprimanded her. “Han Xiao spent so much money to let us enjoy some comfort and convenience. How can you reject this?”
Li Ya Lin’s face was now as pale as a sheet. She felt that nothing was more horrifying than this.
“You guys will regret this,” she mumbled.
Regret? Zhang Wei was puzzled. Is Han Xiao a terrible driver?
Then it’s nothing serious. How bad can his driving be? Everyone here is a well-trained agent in excellent physical condition. Nobody gets dizzy on roller-coasters. There’s nothing to fear about this, Zhang Wei thought to himself.
“Oh yeah. Our boss told us that we will be moving out in four days,” Lin Yao said suddenly.
Han Xiao’s eyes lit up. He had spent about ten days giving the truck an overhaul. He still wanted to install heavy firepower on truck. He had already mastered the knowledge required, but there was simply not enough time. He thought for a while and said to Zhang Wei, “Bring the Combatant Armored Suit to me. I will help you improve it.”
Zhang Wei’s eyes lit up. He had confidence in Han Xiao’s mechanic skills.
Li Ya Lin overheard their conversation. She jumped at Han Xiao and nudged his shoulder. “What about me! What about me! You promised to customize some equipment for me!”
“You have to wait till I have some inspiration.”
As a Pugilist, you should focus on using your fists to punch people. Why are you always eyeing my mechanic equipment? Han Xiao pushed the noisy Lin Ya Lin aside.
The original Combatant Armored Suit was brought out right away by a staff member from the logistics department. Just like the armor exhibited in museums, it was propped up with a plastic skeleton and stored in a human-height metal box.
“Since time is running out, I will have to focus on the most essential modification. Firstly, I will increase the energy capacity. Then, work on the structure will begin to reduce the weight and upgrade the skeleton of the mechanical parts. This will help to improve your overall movement.”
“That will be great!” Zhang Wei’s face brightened with happiness. The suit was extremely heavy for him. After every use, his whole body would ache badly, worse than after running ten kilometers.
“Next, I will modify the sensing system. I will fit a simple chip onto the suit to survey the situation outside, and I will personally donate a firepower control system, which will give your long-range weapons an auto-aiming ability.
“Lastly, if time permits, I will also add a simple close-combat weapon.”
“Sounds great!” Zhang Wei was exhilarated.
But suddenly, Han Xiao changed his tone. “And, of course, all of these things are chargeable. The total cost will be $360,000.”
“How… how much‽”
Zhang Wei stared him, his mouth agape in disbelief. His total saving had not even reached a million dollars.
“Do you think this is too pricey?” Han Xiao narrowed his eyes at Zhang Wei.
“Are your parents still alive?”
“Why are you asking about them? They have already passed on.” Zhang Wei was startled by the strange question.
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No. I’m their only child.”
“Do you have a wife or a girlfriend?”
“N…No. I’m all alone.”
Han Xiao shook his head with a perplexed expression. “Then what’s the point in saving so much money?”
The comment shot right to his heart!
“Fine. Fine… Stop talking. I will pay!” Zhang Wei gripped his chest in pain. He felt like his heart was being stomped on by a thousand rhinos.
…
Like an unscrupulous business man, Han Xiao received the payment from Zhang Wei’s trembling hand before he commenced the modification of the suit.
[Basic Energy Theory] Lv. 3 had given Han Xiao the ability to strengthen energy mechanics. However, he didn’t want to give Zhang Wei’s suit a mighty modification, so there was no need for a new energy blueprint. Good stuff had to be kept for personal use.
To build in a weight-bearing mechanical skeleton and a sensing chip, one could actually use blueprints. These two were rather common.
_____________________
Do you wish to proceed with talent fusion?
(Lv. 1 Basic Spatial Sensing + Lv. 1 Basic Virtual Electrical Engineering)
This fusion will cost you 10,000 EXP.
_____________________
Do you wish to proceed with talent fusion?
(Lv. 2 Basic Dynamics Principle + Lv. 4 Basic Mechanical Engineering)
This fusion will cost you 10,000 EXP.
_____________________
Fusion Success!
Congratulations, you have discovered [Low Level Smart Chip]!
_____________________
Fusion Success!
Congratulations, you have discovered [K600-type Mechanical Skeletal System]!
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
These two were common mechanical blueprints, so most Mechanics would have them. Han Xiao achieved fusion success on his first try without any hiccups.
[Low Level Smart Chip] was also sold on the market. However, by unlocking the blueprint, Han Xiao could tweak it by writing his own code. The words ‘low level’ indicated that there would be more advance versions of it, such as highly intelligent Al for large robots or even intelligent system control for huge space vehicles and war machines.
On the other hand, [K600-type Mechanical Skeletal System] was one of the basic models of inner mechanical skeletal systems.
The outer mechanical skeletal systems were worn directly on the body, while the inner type fitted the whole body seamlessly, hidden inside of the external armor. It retained the same functions as the external skeletal system but provided extra mechanical power. The inner skeletal system was a must for making a Mechanical Armored Suit. Needless to say, the more advanced versions were applied to small, medium, large, and extremely large armored suits.
Han Xiao removed the exterior of the combat suit, exposing the intricate parts in the interior. Han Xiao observed for a moment before he began his work.
First, he increased the energy capacity, then he added in the skeletal system and the smart chip, and lastly, he purchased some imaging devices, cameras, and infrared sensor for the sensing equipment.
On dawn of the fourth day, he finally finished upgrading the Combatant Armored Suit.
Despite the same old, black, and heavy primitive suit exterior, the inside of the suit had been changed tremendously. It finally resembled a powerful and advance mechanical armored suit.
But time constraints did not allow Han Xiao to add a close-combat weapon. Han Xiao was not bothered by it. Not delivering the promised product after payment was not new to him; he had already delayed the delivery of a High-Explosive Gunpowder for more than half a month.
Han Xiao yawned and looked at his interface.
[Combatant Armored Suit: Deriving progress 2%]
Retro-derivation of equipment was one of the methods for Mechanics to obtain blueprints. The requirements were very stringent because the progress would usually halt when they could not fulfil the pre-set conditions. Sometimes, just as the progress reached 30%, it would sometimes ask for INT to reach XX before it could continue the derivation. Furthermore, even when the progress reached 100%, a huge amount of EXP would have to be consumed in order to officially master the blueprint.
The core of the [Combatant Armored Suit] was part of the Advanced Mechanic Knowledge [Heavy Machine Modification]. When the progress bar reached 50%, it looked like this knowledge would be required. Since the blueprint for the suit was not essential for Han Xiao, he was not bothered with that.
It was move-out day. The team of four gathered in the garage. Lin Yao looked at the computer screen and said suddenly, “The department has gathered. The gathering point is the East Sentry Post.”
“Okay. Let’s board the truck!” Zhang Wei said solemnly.
As soon as he gave the instruction, Li Ya Lin moved rapidly onto the driver’s seat and stared at Han Xiao anxiously. “Can… Can I drive the truck?”
Han Xiao rubbed his eyes. He had been burning the mid-night oil for the past few days, so he was sleepy beyond measure. Thus, he did not insist on driving. He told her to drive steadily before moving to the back of the truck. He used a few backpacks as blanket and lay on the floor to sleep.
Li Ya Lin sighed in relief at once. She felt as if she had just escaped death narrowly. She didn’t even have the energy to point out the irony in Han Xiao’s words “drive steadily.”
Upon seeing that Han Xiao wanted a good sleep, the rest all sat in the driving space to avoid disturbing him.
…
West Capital, East Sentry Post, Military Train Station.
The superiors highly valued this attack on the base at Dark Crow Valley. Division 13 sent three covert ops teams to take part in this large-scale mission.
The first was Zhang Wei’s team, and the other was Ma Qing Yang’s team, the one that saved Zhang Wei’s team.
The last team was Covert Ops’ ace team, led by the team leader, Di Su Su.
The two ops teams were waiting at the train station, accompanied by an officer from the Staff Department. His role was to give advice and supervise the operations in order to keep the agents in check.
There were instances in the past where every team had a strong-opinionated elite agent, resulting in many differing opinions that led to poor teamwork and caused many hiccups to their missions. To counter this problem, Division 13 had modified their mission procedure: when there were multiple teams working together, a staff officer would be the overall brain of the mission.
Officers from the Staff department learned how to command on various battle situations all year round. Before the mission, they would study each and every agent from the respective teams to better evaluate mission plans. Although the agents all believed that the staff officers only knew how to write mission report and take responsibility, they had to obey orders from the superior. As long as the staff officer didn’t control them too much, everyone would be at peace with him.
“Why is Zhang Wei still not here? He’s very late.”
Ma Qing Yang looked at the Sun and took a puff on his cigarette. He was quite good friends with Zhang Wei, and their teammates had friendly relationships, too.
Di Su Su and her team waited on the other side. She was playing with a coin in her hand. The coin, reflecting beams of sunlight, was turning and moving rapidly under her agile hand. She was eager and excited to meet Li Ya Lin because it meant that she would get to bully and tease her again. Plus, she was quite intrigued by her new teammate, Han Xiao.
The leading staff officer, Qi Bai Jia, rubbed his good-looking brows. His eyes were irritated by the flickering reflections of sunlight from the coin. He had no choice but to turn his face toward the other side.
A loud engine sound travelled from afar. Everyone could hear the huge horsepower of the incoming vehicle. They felt the floor shaking as the vehicle got closer. Qi Bai Jia looked up at the source of the sound and saw a gigantic and ferocious military truck approaching.
Ma Qing Yang flicked his cigarette butt off and crushed it with his heel.
Di Su Su clenched her fingers tight, gripping the coin in her palm.
Qi Bai Jia adjusted his collar.
“They are here.”
