Chapter 330

"Upgrade from 2000-class vessel to 2010-class, cost: $20 million..."

"Upgrade from 2010-class vessel to 2020-class, cost: $200 million."

Following a string of upgrades, Lin Yi saw in the vessel catalog

numerous subcategories, including cruisers, battleships, frigates, aircraft carriers, submarines, and so on.

Taking cruisers as an example, they included Ugly Nation's Bainbridge nuclear-powered missile cruiser,

(abcf) Leahy-class missile cruiser, Ticonderoga missile cruiser, Virginia-class nuclear-powered missile cruiser,

Su Lian's Kara-class missile cruiser, Kenda-class missile cruiser, and Mao Xiong's Kirov-class nuclear-powered missile cruiser.

Taking aircraft carriers as an example, Ugly Nation's Excellence-class carrier, Essex carrier, Midway-class carrier, Nimitz-class carrier, Ford-class carrier,

John Bull's Invincible-class carrier, and Gao Lu's Charles de Gaulle carrier.

Mao Xiong's Kuznetsov carrier, Su Lian's Gorshkov carrier, and so on — everything was available.

The last time Lin Yi auctioned a Ford-class carrier,

the system's catalog price was $500 million.

Read that right! It really was $500 million.

This price completely disregards labor, time, and so on.

In the real world, it probably wouldn't even cover the material costs of building a Ford-class carrier.

But upon seeing this price, Lin Yi was overjoyed.

After all, such a powerful weapon, at such a cheap price — he could easily buy several and auction off one every year.

Those nations aspiring to become aircraft carrier powers —

seeing they could buy the world's most advanced carrier without having to build it themselves, wouldn't they be thrilled to death?

For a weapon as advanced as the Ford-class carrier, he could easily bring in tens of billions of dollars worldwide.

After all, the first Ford-class carrier last time sold for $12 billion,

setting the starting bid for the second one at $5 billion isn't unreasonable, is it?

And among all the nations in the world intending to purchase aircraft carriers,

there must be seven or eight of them — wouldn't those tens of billions roll right in?

And this is just for the Ford-class carrier —

when carriers stop selling well, he can still sell nuclear submarines and other equipment.

It can be said that among all weapons, ships are the most profitable.

Then he heard the system prompt sound again.

"Ding... Congratulations to the host on upgrading the tech tree to 5 stars!"

"Unlocking the Combat Branch Mercenary Function!"

"Combat Branch Mercenary Function?"

At once, Lin Yi was stunned, and then he queried the system.

The system immediately began to explain.

The so-called Combat Branch Mercenary Function allows one to hire combat personnel from the system to fight in place of Lin Yi.

However, although these combat personnel possess various combat skills and piloting techniques,

they have no self-awareness.

All combat personnel are controlled by AI — absolutely rational, 100% loyal.

However, these hired troops have a limited duration of existence,

disappearing after a maximum of seven days,

with a maximum of 1,000 people hired each time.

Well, this function is basically equivalent to giving Lin Yi a temporary mercenary force of a thousand men.

Of course, if used well,

this flexible and mobile mercenary force could easily tip the balance of a local war.

Another benefit is that, because they are System-produced,

these mercenaries can use the Void Teleportation Skill to teleport anywhere in the world.

In terms of cost, each individual hire costs $10,000.

"Hmm, the price isn't expensive — this function is pretty good!"

Lin Yi remarked.

Although these mercenaries are non-permanent units,

he likewise doesn't have to worry about upkeep.

Moreover, although these mercenaries lack human emotions,

they possess AI's absolute rationality, 100% loyalty, and mastery of various combat skills and piloting techniques.

Such soldiers are absolutely the dream of any human army.

After thinking it over, Lin Yi said:

"System, activate the Mercenary Skill?"

"Host, please select the number of mercenaries to hire?"

"One person!"

"Host, please select the branch: Army, Air Force, Navy..."

"Army!"

"Please select: Sniper, Tanker, Artillery, Special Forces..."

"Special forces!"

As Lin Yi made a series of selections, instantly in his mansion in Huangpu District,

a blue digital wave appeared, and in the next instant, a soldier with a Long Guo face materialized before him.

He was 180 cm tall, with a square jaw and a face full of stern resolve, his muscles solid and well-defined.

He wore special operations gear.

A tactical bulletproof vest, helmet, binoculars, thermal imaging device, goggles, EOD (bomb disposal pliers), tactical gloves, tactical dagger, and more.

In his hands, he held a Type 95 assault rifle.

Lin Yi was momentarily stunned by the system's ability to summon a person out of thin air.

It was completely beyond his understanding—even beyond the comprehension of Earth's people.

"Are you the soldier I hired?"

Lin Yi said to the fierce soldier before him.

"Yes, Host!"

The big man's voice carried no emotion whatsoever—cold and lifeless.

"Do you have memories?" Lin Yi asked.

The fierce soldier shook his head and said:

"I am merely a temporary life form controlled by the system's AI!"

"Alright," Lin Yi said, running his hands over the soldier's gear and body,

finding not the slightest anomaly.

Yet he had just witnessed with his own eyes

a beam of light giving rise to a person.

Fortunately, because he needed to conduct business with Long Guo, he had returned to his mansion today—no outsiders were present,

otherwise, that very scene could have frightened people to death.

"You'll disappear in seven days, right?" Lin Yi asked the hired soldier.

"Yes, even the corpse will automatically decompose after seven days, but the Host may recover it early; however, the single-time hiring fee will not be refunded!"

the soldier said.

"So it's ten thousand U. S. dollars, and I won't get it back, right?"

Lin Yi said.

"Yes, Host. My existence is to provide the Host with necessary armed force.

A successful arms dealer must possess sufficient physical deterrence."