Chapter 44

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Protagonist:

Milton

Mins

Old Street, Black Pharmacy.

"The generator's diesel has been replenished... the water purifier and water pump are both working normally."

Brandon checked the equipment, scanning left and right a few times.

He pulled a hundred-dollar bill from his pocket, carefully examining the ugly face of Franklin on the bill, his face showing strong reluctance, then quickly turned around and stuffed it to Liya, who was cleaning nearby.

"Kid, take it."

Liya was frightened by this huge sum, she hurriedly shook her head: "Uncle Brandon, I, I can't take it... are, are you trying to chase me away?"

Could it be severance pay?

Milton, who had been sitting nearby thinking, casually interjected: "He just got rich recently, just take it if he gives it to you."

Brandon tried not to look at the hundred-dollar bill, moved close to Milton, and asked: "By the way, boss, what are you thinking about?"

Milton took a sip of water and said: "I'm thinking, our team has too few combat personnel now, how to recruit more people, and they must be reliable."

"Didn't Luz and Veronica just join us? Not enough manpower?"

Milton scoffed: "Those two don't count as combat personnel... letting them fight battles of yesterday's intensity is their limit, any stronger and they simply can't handle it with their abilities."

The position of these two in the team is still field work, responsible for helping Milton handle miscellaneous taxes and dealing with street thugs at that level, not direct combat personnel.

Internal affairs, field work, and combat actually have essential differences.

Brandon can barely handle high-intensity combat missions, the other two are not quite up to it.

And even if Luz and Veronica were forced to fight, four people are still far from enough.

To ensure someone is on sentry duty at the Black Pharmacy 24 hours a day, at least two people are needed for shifts.

How are the remaining two supposed to fight?

"How about reinforcing our bunker?" Brandon thought for a moment and made a suggestion, "Continue fighting them indoors?"

Milton shook his head decisively, with a firm tone: "The same loss, how could they suffer it twice? Next time they come, they'll definitely bring a large amount of explosives, we can't hold out."

Brandon came up with another idea: "Um... I heard our side's civil war is about to end, there are many mercenaries who either have nothing to do or want to make money through us using the uprising situation on the northern side... how about hiring mercenaries?"

"After the news of our attack on the hospital spread, many people started hiring security, now the business of these cheap mercenaries is quite good... but those guys who charged high prices before, either voluntarily cut their salaries or they can only be fired, haha!"

Speaking of mercenaries, Milton remembered seeing mercenaries posting small flyers everywhere to drum up business, making him can't help but sigh at the absurdity of this weird small country.

However, Milton still shook his head: "The mercenaries here are all money-grubbing guys who do things for money, maybe they have some professionalism, but they are too unreliable."

If in the previous pharmacy battle, the "Boss" was replaced by a mercenary, who knows they might have surrendered long ago, and might even have defected.

And the vast majority of mercenaries don't have good equipment either—the kind of well-equipped, armed-to-the-teeth, fearless mercenaries in movies definitely don't represent the majority.

Brandon was out of ideas now, he smiled wryly: "That's indeed no way, our current situation is too bad, and we don't control official forces... if I controlled the Police Station, or boss you controlled the Checkpoint, things would be simple."

Milton thought for a moment and asked: "You and the 'Boss' have been operating in the black market for so long, do you have any reliable channels we can use? We can't think of a way to recruit people, others might be able to find some."

"Maybe there is." Brandon thought carefully and answered, "But the scope definitely won't be too large, if the news spreads, having people with ulterior motives come is a small matter, what if a spy from the Fan Kang Gang is recruited, we're finished."

Milton nodded: "Let the scope be smaller then, try it out, test our luck."

To be honest, for these "teammates" hired with money, Milton didn't have high requirements.

When at a disadvantage, just run away, at least don't defect, at least can't be easily bought off and betray the employer.

Put simply, as long as we can fight battles with the wind at our back.

"Alright... let's try it." Brandon agreed, "Let's go straight to the Black Gun Shop, he might have some recruitment channels, and we can buy some equipment along the way."

The owner of the Black Gun Shop is someone the "Boss" knows and trusts, and Milton's side is temporarily no longer in a crisis of living day to day, so it's indeed possible to make contact.

Milton tapped the cash in his hand and stood up: "Let's go, bring that gold bar along too, I believe the gun shop won't refuse hard currency like gold."

Including gold, deducting the expenses for maintaining the Underground Fortress and emergency reserves, Milton now has over 80,000 US dollars in available funds.

Brandon hurriedly stood up, and together with Milton left the pharmacy through the Main Gate.

Veronica is now responsible for protecting the pharmacy; Luz rented a house with good visibility near the Police Station in advance, covering Brandon's road to the Police Station to attend the Commendation Conference.

The two left the pharmacy, and Brandon immediately walked in front of Milton to lead the way.

"Boss, this way, the road is a bit winding..."

Milton casually asked: "On the black market side, what businesses are still operating?"

"Go deeper inside, roughly there are gun shops, brothels... even deeper, I don't know much. Um, if you're not trusted, you simply don't know the existence of certain merchants, let alone do business with them." Brandon introduced, suddenly a bit nervous, "Um, boss, you wouldn't be thinking of going there to collect taxes, right?"

Milton sighed: "Do I look like a fool to you?"

Not to mention how high the difficulty and how time-consuming collecting taxes in such a place is... I already have enough enemies, offending the entire black market is an extremely unwise choice.

Besides, the black market doesn't completely mean evil, especially in places where supplies are scarce.

After order, production, and imports return to normal, many black market industries will naturally disappear or be legalized, becoming low-cost stable tax revenue. The remaining industries that are still illegal are the abscesses that need to be cleared out.

Now recklessly going on a killing spree will only uproot the tax sources that could have been legalized and long-term.

Collecting one wave of taxes is out of the question, this money might not even be enough for the cost of going to war with the entire black market.

Brandon "hehe" laughed: "Boss, this way, it's inside here. The gun shop owner is called 'Ghost Wolf', you don't need to be polite with him."

The gun shop's location is very hidden, very easy to defend and hard to attack.

The security guard on sentry at the Door obviously knew Brandon, let him in without questioning his identity.

"Brandon, as usual, you two, have to leave your weapons at the front desk."

Huh?!

Milton looked over with an unfriendly expression.

If he absolutely had to hand over his weapons, he'd rather not make the trade at all; he'd rather take a heavy loss and redeem weapons with Red Points.

Once he freed his hands, a place like the Black Gun Shop could just wait to be investigated to death.

Brandon quickly tried to smooth things over: "We're old friends, let's just let this slide this time."

The Security Guard coldly stared back, refusing to budge an inch; the Gun Shop's powerful firepower gave him the qualification to look down on these two: "This is the rule, or rather, you don't have the strength to make Mr. Hell Tax Collector make an exception."

Milton looked deeply at the Security Guard, then turned to leave.

Suddenly, a voice came from inside the Gun Shop: "Let the two friends come in."

"I believe that Mr. Hell Tax Collector, who dared to bomb police cars with cannon fire, being able to stand here means he bears us no ill will."

The Security Guard was stunned upon hearing this, and his expression immediately changed drastically.

"You, you're that... 'Hell Tax Collector'?! Uh, sorry, sorry... I just now didn't recognize you, sir; you and Mr. Brandon can both go directly inside, please come in, please come in!"

Milton took a deep breath.

This damnable, unpleasant nickname—had it already spread to this side of the black market?

And he hadn't even bombed police cars with cannon fire; where exactly had this rumor leaked from?

Milton suppressed the impulse to turn and leave, looked deeply at the Security Guard once more, then stepped into the Gun Shop.