Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Now that Li Yu possessed E+ rank strength, he no longer needed to keep Claptrap outside every single day. If Third Fatty happened to discover the robot, the loss would far outweigh the gain.

"What are you packing up all those firearms for?" Mo Duo watched Li Yu's actions with a bewildered expression.

"To sell to Fatty, of course..." Li Yu replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Mo Duo froze for a second before realizing that "Fatty" referred to Third Fatty.

"But..." He felt this was a bit too arrogant. After all, this group of enemies had essentially been drawn here by Third Fatty.

However, he left the thought unfinished. With the imposing aura of having just annihilated the Ghost Squad, Li Yu was more than capable of instilling sheer apprehension in the fat merchant.

Widow did not accompany them. She had no desire to provoke Third Fatty's hostility.

As the sky gradually darkened, Third Fatty did not receive his expected sniper rifle delivery. Instead, he was greeted by Li Yu, who arrived carrying several large and small bags.

'Could it be?'

A shocking notion surfaced in his mind, causing a violent shudder to run through his body.

"My brother, the gunfire from over there was deafening earlier today, and there were even sounds of explosions. It truly terrified me. Are you alright?"

Third Fatty asked with deep concern. He examined Li Yu from head to toe, his face plastered with worry, acting as if he was completely oblivious to the truth.

Li Yu chuckled cheerfully, showing no signs of anger. "I just got lucky. I was sound asleep when a massive pile of guns suddenly fell from the sky. I have no idea who dropped them."

"Is that so?" Third Fatty feigned profound astonishment. "Then your luck is quite extraordinary, brother. Let me see what you have here..."

He rummaged through the bags, his heart pounding harder with every glance. 'It really is the Vulture Squad. Were they completely wiped out?'

'The highly trained Vulture Squad, with every member performing their specific roles... even I would find them troublesome to deal with. How could Li Yu possibly wipe them out entirely with nothing but a single sniper rifle?'

His mind raced, yet he maintained a brilliant smile. "Brother, you have no use for these toys. How about I take them off your hands?"

'If I buy them, we can pretend everything that happened today never occurred. We let bygones be bygones and remain good brothers.'

Li Yu chuckled. "I brought them here specifically for you to collect. However, you cannot try to lowball me."

'No problem, but the price must be high.'

Thanks to the appraisal Widow had provided before she left, the price Li Yu demanded left almost no profit margin for Third Fatty. Still, he could only grit his teeth and buy them. After all, it was his fault the Ghost Squad had failed to kill Li Yu.

The total came to a staggering three hundred thousand Star Coins. If not for the fact that most of the armor was heavily damaged and could only be sold as scrap material, the price could have been multiplied several times over.

It was an entire suitcase stuffed full of Star Coins. Li Yu had never seen so much money in his life. Since he lacked proper identity papers, he could only use physical cash, which made lugging around a heavy suitcase incredibly inconvenient.

"Oh..." At that moment, Li Yu finally seemed to notice Hunter standing off to the side. He feigned surprise. "So you didn't die after all."

Hunter offered a strained smile. At this moment, his and Li Yu's status had completely reversed; they were no longer on the same level.

His heart bleeding, Third Fatty packed away the firearms and armor. Until he managed to sell these goods, he was operating at a loss, and even when he finally moved them, he would barely break even.

'Useless Ghost Squad!'

He cursed violently in his heart.

Watching Li Yu glance around the area with his feet seemingly nailed to the floor, Third Fatty felt a massive headache coming on. "Do you need something else, brother?"

"Nothing much. I am just looking around to see if there is a suitable place nearby to sleep for the night," Li Yu replied honestly.

"Sleep... for the night?"

"Yeah..." Li Yu sighed. "Tomorrow is the day we head to the Underground Black Market. If you happen to forget about me, I would be completely screwed."

Third Fatty sneered inwardly, though he shook his head on the surface. "How could that possibly happen? You are overthinking things, brother."

Third Fatty's Metal Apartment contained his entire life savings and livelihood. As long as Li Yu kept an eye on this apartment, he had no fear of the merchant ditching him.

............

When night fell, a campfire crackled softly. Three people and one robot sat in a circle around the flames. The flickering firelight reflected in Mo Duo's green eyes, making him look somewhat absent-minded.

Li Yu shot him a passing glance but paid no real attention. The bizarre deaths of Number Six and Number Seven earlier that day had already given him a few suspicions.

However, he did not press for details. After all, everyone had their secrets.

"Tell me, is this universe entirely filled with people who would abandon everything just for the sake of profit?" Mo Duo suddenly asked out of nowhere.

A heavy silence followed. No one responded, save for Claptrap, who chirped, "Are you talking to Claptrap?"

Mo Duo pursed his lips and shifted his gaze toward Li Yu.

Li Yu looked confused. "Are you talking to me?"

Hunter sighed. A love unacknowledged by secular society was bound to suffer immense hardships.

Mo Duo nodded, his eyes shining with anticipation... Li Yu pondered for a moment before saying, "Could you call me 'Daddy'?"

Mo Duo: "???"

Li Yu spread his hands in an expression of pure helplessness. "You are not even willing to call me Daddy, so why should I answer your question?"

Having made his lack of cooperation clear, he immersed himself back into the System, focusing intently on the Avatar that was steadily finishing its cooldown.

Mo Duo stared at the increasingly vacant-looking Li Yu. Gritting his teeth, he asked another question. "Where is your massive gun?"

During the day, Li Yu had entered the Tin Hut holding that giant weapon, but when he came back out, the gun had completely vanished.

Li Yu subconsciously thrust his hips forward, but upon remembering that the other party was a man, his expression darkened and he immediately stopped.

Mo Duo found Li Yu's actions entirely baffling.

"If you really have absolutely nothing to do, go watch Third Fatty have sex with his woman. I think that brother really enjoys the audience," Li Yu snapped irritably.

Mo Duo glared at him, stood up furiously, and delivered a vicious kick to the tire he had been sitting on. Hunter let out a long, weary sigh.

"Do not wander too far. Remember the rule—stay within a five-meter radius," Li Yu called out, not forgetting to remind him.

"I #@##..." Mo Duo spat out a long string of incomprehensible words.

Li Yu eyed him suspiciously. "What did you just say?"

"Nothing..." Mo Duo shook his head. His mood seemed to have improved significantly as he sat back down.

Li Yu guessed that there was a ninety-nine percent chance Mo Duo was cursing him out. However, his Avatar had finally finished its cooldown, so he unhesitatingly pressed the [Deploy] button.

[Searching for deployment world... Analyzing data... Locating coordinates for [The Matrix]... Opening World Barrier Smuggling Channel... Successfully opened...]

[Please select an Avatar Deployment. The Avatar possesses all the strength of the main body and can carry a Talent and a Title, which will influence the Comprehensive Evaluation.]

This time, he had new options in both his Title and Talent libraries. An Avatar could only carry one Title and one Talent at a time.

[Plot Disruptor] was definitely out of the question. Given the chaotic nature of [Act Randomly], equipping it would probably send the Avatar straight into a frenzied breakdown.

He immediately equipped the only useful Talent, [The Infected], even though there were no viral agents in [The Matrix].

'It would be a complete waste not to equip one of these Titles...' Li Yu pondered. Feeling a bit sheepish, he equipped the white-grade Title [Cao Thief Never Dies] onto his Avatar.

[Avatar Route Selection: Ally with the Protagonist, Neutral, Hostile to the Protagonist]

He naturally chose to ally with the protagonist. Sticking close to Neo would definitely pay off; after all, almost none of Neo's friends ended up dying.

Furthermore, he could leech off boss fights. Based on his previous experience in Resident Evil, piggybacking on boss encounters yielded substantial rewards.

[Deploying... Deployment successful. Host, please wait for the System Log to refresh. (Note: [The Matrix] contains dual worlds. The time ratio between the Real World and the Main World is 1:1, while the ratio between the Matrix World and the Main World is 1:10.)]