After closing the door, Lucy directly pinned Lin Miao against the wall.
"That woman, what’s her deal?"
Although she was less than 1.7 meters tall, she managed to pin Lin Miao, who was 1.9 meters, against the wall.
"What deal? I’m preparing to promote her to ERO’s leader, just doing some preliminary work, that’s all. Besides, isn’t it normal for a boss to care about the daily lives of their employees?"
Lucy leaned in and sniffed Lin Miao’s neck.
"Liar! Your whole body reeks of lies."
She could swear, if she hadn’t acted first, it would be unclear who would have been lying in this bed today.
Lin Miao looked up and down at the person almost face-to-face with him. She was wearing nothing but his white shirt, barely covering a quarter of her thighs. The shirt was so loose it wasn’t even buttoned, and the loose collar would reveal more if the wind blew.
"Well, this liar’s scent could only be yours. And now, there’s the scent of you, the liar, on my clothes too."
Lucy was baffled by Lin Miao’s words, "Me? What did I lie about?"
Lin Miao righteously said, "You stole my body, I swear to the heavens that it was my first time waking up in this world."
He broke free from Lucy’s pin, even forcing Lucy to retreat step by step.
"Breaking and entering, molesting a male, coercing me into a relationship with you."
"Do you think if I call the NCPD now, they’d arrest you and sentence you to ten or eight years?"
Considering the birth age, Lin Miao wasn’t even legally an adult; he might have just turned a month old.
At least that’s what he believes, as he hasn’t found any traces of this body before he woke up.
To treat an infant , anyone under fourteen is considered an armed minor!
You’re breaking the law, did you know?
In a daze, Lucy was already lifted horizontally by Lin Miao and tossed back onto the bed.
The second battle commenced.
At night, or perhaps morning
The players woke up from their dorms, hurriedly dressed, and rushed out like soldiers sprinting to the cafeteria during college military training.
The excitement from yesterday’s battle hadn’t faded yet.
A dozen people squeezed into the office and saw many new tasks in the system: constructing dorms, patrol security, inventory supplies, cleaning tunnels, recovering body part prostheses...
The only odd thing was, aside from a small drone, the usual BOSS who awaited them wasn’t there, nor was the new female hacker.
Where did those two go?
Inside an underground warehouse in Santo Domingo.
"Where did you get this thing?"
The Sixth Street Gang’s mechanic Dalek had already disassembled the exoskeleton William and the others brought back. A pile of steel plates and hydraulic rods were stacked to the side.
Dalek was connecting the dismantled one-way neural control system to a computer, trying to crack its software program with the gang’s hacker.
"Evil Land, a product from a company called Horizon. We thought it performed well in actual combat, so we accepted it. They even sent two sets."
William stood aside with his arms crossed, "How should I put it, I don’t think this thing has much technical content. Can you make it, Pepper Pot?"
"The technical content indeed isn’t high, and it’s possible to make it if we force it."
Dalek, being short and bald, looked like a cylinder when wearing a coat, hence the gang called him Pepper Pot.
He continued operating the computer as he spoke,
"One or two is fine, but if you want more, it’ll cost more."
"The gang has several factories and can use the lathes there to make parts, which isn’t a big issue. The real trouble is the neural control system and software."
"They use second-hand neural connectors and prosthetic motors taken from body parts, in full sets. The problem is where can we get these things."
William frowned, "Cheap second-hand prosthetics, aren’t those everywhere?"
"You’re right." Dalek nodded,
"The gang’s medical team does have a batch, but those are reserved for being spares for the brothers’ treatment. Truly useless prosthetic junkers have long been thrown away, who would keep those."
"You’re going to the Vortex Gang for supplies?"
"Isn’t there any other way?"
William felt that this thing could be very marketable and isn’t technically challenging, so why not make it themselves instead of paying outsiders?
"Many things we can solve through smuggling routes, but the price wouldn’t be lower than new ones."
"Take the simplest bulletproof steel plates and stainless steel frames, to achieve this level, you need to use legitimate alloy steel and process it with rolling and machining."
"The gang does have machinery, but we don’t have rolling mills or steel mills. We’ll have to specially order. The current market price for one ton of 301 stainless steel is 3000 Euro dollars, even if we go through smuggled routes, it won’t be less than 1500, and that doesn’t include processing fees. With processing fees, it might double."
"New motors and neural control systems are more expensive. Our best bet is to buy second-hand from the Vortex Gang, or directly kill and strip, choose one. Smuggled goods are pricier but, of course, perform better."
"I roughly calculated, even for personal use, the cost could be around eight thousand. To lower costs, we must expand production to push down costs."
"The best scenario is for the gang to acquire a steel mill and a rolling plant, then prices could be further reduced."