Though he didn't know what Bai Fu had just said to Digging Girl, it must have been something important, or else Digging Girl wouldn't have been smiling so happily.
They couldn't sit still any longer; by the time they unlocked Advanced Professions and came looking for Bai Fu again, they might be too late.
"Fufu, Fufu, look at me, I can help you too."
"Indeed, Fufu, we were once comrades-in-arms, can't you trust me anymore?"
"The bonuses from Advanced Professions are significant, but power isn't just about the numbers on paper, it's also about battle skills."
A crowd of players watched eagerly.
Seeing that the mood was ripe, Bai Fu said, "It's not that I don't trust you guys, but the task I have to undertake is dangerous. I only agreed to work with Digging Girl after she passed my test... Well, let me offer you a different challenge. If you can pass this test, I'll recommend you everywhere."
She signaled An Ya to give the players a task.
[The New Trial]: If you can wipe out the gang in Lynn, Bai Fu will recognize your power. Prove yourselves to the fullest!
After reading the task details, the players were ecstatic.
They had only approached Bai Fu tentatively, never expecting her to actually change the content of the test. Instead of a Level Restriction, the task was about fighting monsters. With some luck, they could complete the task today and catch the last train to join Bai Fu on her journey.
Great, NPCs as understanding as Bai Fu were indeed rare these days!
"I'm going right now!"
Several excited players immediately ran off.
The remaining players pondered seriously.
The task wasn't easy. The gang members weren't high-level, many even lower than them, but the gang had guns. If they rushed in without any preparation, they'd likely get shot to death and lose Experience.
They really needed to find a way to get some guns.
But since they were targeting the gang, wouldn't buying guns from the gang lower Bai Fu's Affinity?
"Do you guys have any difficulties?" Bai Fu asked thoughtfully.
Super Big Melon Skin scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed: "Fufu, do you know where we can buy guns in Lynn?"
All the surrounding players tensed up. They needed Bai Fu's help to pass the trial she had given them, which was a bit embarrassing.
Fortunately, Bai Fu didn't show any odd expressions: "Around here, there's a batch of discarded guns. Those guns are still usable, just not as good as the new ones."
"Anything is better than nothing."
Bai Fu said, "If that's the case, then I'll talk to the Manager. Anyway, those guns are meant to be destroyed. It shouldn't be a problem to sell them off cheaply."
The surrounding players cheered.
It had to be Bai Fu; any other NPC might have just told them to "get lost."
Bai Fu drove away and returned about an hour later, this time accompanied by An Ya, Xia Shi, and a heap of guns.
When Xia Shi first heard that Bai Fu wanted to sell those discarded guns, she thought Bai Fu had lost her mind.
Those guns were the kind that even rats and dogs in the Lynn Settlement despised. The settlement had tried to sell these guns cheaply to Scavengers, but the Scavengers were too savvy. They'd rather spend more on new guns than take these, which could break at any moment.
Having no choice, the settlement handed the guns over to her, the Mechanic, for disposal.
But seeing the players crowding around, Xia Shi realized she was wrong.
"This has only 3/4 of its durability left, but it's only 280 Credit Coins, less than half the price of a new gun, wow, so cheap."
"This one's only got 1/4 durability, but the price... damn, only 100? Even if it breaks quickly, I won't feel bad. I'll straight up buy three and swap them out!"
In an instant, Xia Shi found that each player in front of her bought at least two guns from her. Along with the money from the bullets, she made over 10,000 all at once. Before coming, Bai Fu had mentioned that there were over sixty more such customers; this meant that if the deal went through, she could make 50,000, and even after splitting half with Bai Fu, it was still way more than her usual salary.
Even Xia Shi, who usually didn't care much about money, had her eyes light up at this moment, looking at Bai Fu as if she were some sort of deity, "Where on earth did you find such a group of buyers?"
Bai Fu curled her lips. If she were the one selling, she had even more tricks waiting for players.
For example, selling the same weapons she used, or having weapon lucky draw events, or setting up a points system where spending equated to points and reaching a certain amount of points would allow one to purchase advanced weapons—there was always a way to empty the players' pockets without them cursing her as a dishonest merchant afterward.
Just like now, she and Xia Shi had spent a bit of time and made a large sum of money, but in the players' eyes, they had become saints in times of emergency.
"Thanks to Bai Fu and Xia Shi, otherwise I really wouldn't know how to complete the task."
"I think Sister Xia is both beautiful and kind-hearted."
"Charge, charge, charge, let's kill those gang members and return a peaceful world to Lynn!"
The players who had bought guns were overjoyed and ran off to deal with the local gangs.
Bai Fu smiled as she saw these players off. Once these players wiped out the local gangs, the guns in their hands would be pretty much scrapped, and they'd have to keep buying more guns to participate in new actions.
Considering the gangs were sent packing and the black market devastated, they could only come to Xia Shi if they wanted to buy guns. When the time came, she'd put the guns snatched from the gangs on the shelf to make another fortune from the players.
Since these guns were loot, she could totally set a bit cheaper price and rake in another round of player affinity.
Bai Fu stood with Xia Shi in front of the motel for two hours, during which a few more players came to take on tasks and buy guns. She told these players to head to Xia Shi's workshop if they wanted to buy guns afterward and then took Xia Shi and An Ya back.
She used the money won from the Dark Web to order a set of Power Armor from Xia Shi. To get the Power Armor sooner, she couldn't afford to waste any more of Xia Shi's time.
It was just sales; An Ya could handle that.
As for herself, she was watching the players launch their gang eradication operation in Lynn while sneakily dipping into the gang supplies.
The gangs of the Lynn Settlement were in a mess.
Not long ago, a group of ruthless people had shown up asking to borrow money, leaving them all paranoid and on edge. Now, another bunch had come, who without a word, sought to wipe them out.
"Don't you know we have a big backing?"
These people simply ignored them.
Big backing, impressive. Could a big backing stop bullets?
In just a short time, Lynn's gangs suffered a catastrophic blow. Except for a few who had the sense to run away quickly, the rest were pulverized by the players, and Lynn's public order was cleaned up.
This incident shook the Lynn Settlement's managers.
The gangs had been able to exist partly because of the chaotic times and partly because of collusion with certain backers. Now, with the gangs taken down, those hidden backers were restless and immediately started looking for people to lobby around, trying to get someone to step in and handle the players.
These higher-ups originally intended to meddle, but upon learning of the players' association with Bai Fu, they immediately abandoned the idea.
"You want to intervene? Do it yourself!"
With the combat prowess Bai Fu had demonstrated, who would want to provoke her for the sake of a bunch of gang members?
Three days later, watching most players amass enough Experience to unlock Advanced Professions, Bai Fu nodded in satisfaction.
She had the players tackle the local gangs not only to boost player affinity and earn those tens of thousands of Credit Coins from the players' pockets but also to take the opportunity to enhance the players' power.
The higher-ups got nothing from interrogating Li Cheng and hence planned to join forces with the Genetic Primordial's army for a surprise attack on the Truth Society base they had previously scouted.
Bai Fu intended to join this operation.
After taking out the second wave of Assassins, she had accepted a plot Task targeting the Truth Society, "The Unseen Truth."
Such a prime opportunity to score points was something she didn't want to miss, but for safety's sake, she planned to bring more players along to assist in the fight. The players' strength might not have much impact on the battle, but they were more than sufficient as cannon fodder. Therefore, before the action officially began, she needed to help the players increase their power to the max, lest the higher-ups be reluctant to bring these players along.
"Bai Fu, people from headquarters are coming over!"
That night, Bai Fu received news from Xia Shi.