Chapter 156.1: Envoy From Boulder Town

In the distance.

The flying snow and more than a dozen gunshots rendered the funeral with sadness.

The three fallen Marines were sent to the morgue, and the crew of the Pioneer held a simple funeral for them.

In order to prevent the corpses of their comrades from being eaten by the mutants, they would freeze the corpses, store them in the morgue, and bring them back to Ideal City for burial after the triumph of the expedition.

There were 100 people on the Pioneer when it set off, and now there were only 90 people left, and three others were lying in the Medical Pod for treatment, waiting for the prosthesis to be implanted.

Looking at the remains of his comrade-in-arms, Lu Yang felt a little heavy and even felt a little lost.

He didn't doubt the decision of the top management of Enterprise, and he wasn't afraid to die in the search for Shelter 0, but what worried him was that he didn't know how many people would die on their trip.

They had just arrived at the River Valley Province, but they lost 10% of their members.

If they continued westward deep into the wasteland...

His adjutant, Yi Hai, walked up to him and said in a low voice, "We should increase the stockpile of weapons. We need at least another 500 tons. The further west we go, the more likely we will encounter the Army's forces. I'm afraid... Things will be completely different then.”

Lu Yang nodded. "Last night, I discussed this issue with Chief Li of the logistics department. While we need to increase the weapons reserves, we also need to actively get reinforcements from the Enterprise headquarters. I plan to help the residents of Shelter 404 to strengthen their base of operations. If reinforcements from Enterprise headquarters arrive here, they can get supplies from them."

That wasn’t all.

What worried Lu Yang was that if General Klaas of the Army's expeditionary force learned that Shelter 404 had acquired the title of Enterprise's Permanent Strategic Partner shortly after he lost a thousand-man brigade, that would undoubtedly tell them that Shelter 404 played a decisive role in the outcome of that war.

Maybe General Klaas wouldn't lose his mind over a Brigade Commander and forget what he was doing in River Valley Province.

But it was hard to say whether they would take other retaliatory actions.

After all, those marauders were the number one fans of the Army, and many methods of recruiting marauders and taming slaves were simply copied from the Army.

Yi Hai nodded lightly. "I think so too."

.....

The sky was getting brighter.

In the distant operation camp, the industrious residents of Shelter 404 have already started cooking on a fire.

Ample Time, who was sitting in the camp, had a bandage on his left arm and a bowl in his hand. He took a sip of the noodle soup and muttered with great emotion, "Sigh, fortunately, Tomato Eggs is still alive, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to eat this bowl of noodles."

His crossbow and his life were all saved.

The only unfortunate thing was that Night Ten was sacrificed, Old White couldn't play for the day, and Gale lost an arm and was currently receiving treatment in the Pioneer.

He could only eat his bowl of noodles alone.

"I'm also a constitution type player, how can I die that easily?" Tomato Eggs, who had a plaster on his face, did not forget to shout while speaking to Ample Time, "Next."

Although more than 100 people died last night, the living people did not seem to be affected. They only sighed occasionally during the chat, as if feeling sorry for the dead.

Leaning on the water truck and eating the buns he just bought, Yuan Hao looked at the white smoke floating in the distance and couldn't help but sigh, "Maybe we should learn from their optimism."

"Yeah..." Wei Te nodded, his eyes full of admiration and emotion. "Maybe, this is the reason why they can survive in this tragic world."

"Speaking of which, today's soy milk is quite good."

"Indeed! To be honest, I really wish I could leave the planting module to them... It's a waste to let the freeze-drying workshop and mobile kitchen handle those precious ingredients."

At this time, in the direction of Linghu Lake in the south, appeared a jet-black transport plane.

Its shape resembled a dolphin, with a broad nose and a slender fuselage. The two engines, one behind and the other at the bottom of the fuselage shot blue flames, propelling the plane forward.

The electromagnetic point defense turret on the top of the Pioneer aimed at it, followed its outline slowly for a while, and then fired two thick bullets as a warning.

The sound of sonic boom forced the plane to stop and land slowly in the open area south of the Pioneer.

After the engine was turned off, four men wearing exoskeletons jumped out of the cabin agilely and walked towards the Pioneer.

Many players in the operation camp saw this scene, and their faces were full of surprises.

"Holy shit!"

"Helicopter without propellers!"

"The engine that ejects blue light is so handsome..."

"If only I could buy one!"

"It will be a million silver coins, so go buy it."

"Shut up, you guys, the developers will hear it."

The Pioneer did not sound their alarm for these uninvited guests, but it still entered first-level combat readiness stage.

The staff of the logistics department took the elevator back to the interior of the fortress, and four Marines wearing exoframes got down from the elevator to replace them.

Leading his three teammates forward, Captain Lu Yang stared at the four in front of him and frowned slightly. "Who are you?"

The man in the lead stepped forward and said politely, "We are from the Boulder Town Militia, my name is Li Hua."

Lu Yang stared at him before he introduced himself, "I'm Lu Yang, Captain of the Silver Wing Corporate Group's First Pioneering Corps, state your purpose of visit."

"We don't want to intervene in your conflict, but this conflict happened on our territory after all..."

Catching a glimpse of the fixed-wing drone flying from above the fortress out of the corner of his eye, Li Hua reluctantly raised his hands. "Don't be nervous, friends from afar. Your fight is over. We are only here for a negotiation. Can you leave the captives to us? Of course, we will pay the ransom. It's useless for you to keep them anyway, right?"

"You're here on behalf of the Army?" Lu Yang's tone dropped.

Li Hua said, "We are a neutral third party. Of course, if you refuse, we won't say anything. He is your captive after all, so you have the right to deal with him."

After thinking for a while, Lu Yang said, "We cannot make decisions on our own. I have to ask our ally for their opinions."

"Ally?" The man was stunned for a moment, then exchanged strange glances with his teammates before finally looking at Lu Yang while nodding helplessly. "Okay... We can wait."

Someone dared to

intervene in the Army's affairs?

Are they not scared of the consequences!?

Watching those people return to their plane, Lu Yang also brought his subordinates back to the Pioneer to contact Chu Guang.

When the call came, Chu Guang happened to be at the office taking the compensation payment list from Luo Hua.

It was 117,000CR and a magnetically confined plasma machining tool.

Yes, the latter was free.

After the battle, the head of the logistics department changed his attitude and decided to repair the machine free of charge as a reward for Shelter 404 for helping out in the battle.

However, the technology of that machining tool was relatively complicated; it would take about a week to completely repair it, so he needed to wait patiently for a while. Luo Hua assured Chu Guang that they would definitely deliver the thing to them before leaving.

Of course Chu Guang didn't mind waiting, and he wasn't in a hurry.

Saving 100,000CR was already a huge profit!

The price he paid was only 117 portions of active matter. But since the Army left more than 2000 corpses, he basically didn't lose anything after tossing them into the Active Matter Extractor.

In addition, there was also a compensation of 117,000CR; whether it was used to buy guns or food, it would still be great, right?

Of course, since the amount of materials involved in tens of thousands of CRs was too large, Luo Hua also reminded Chu Guang that the production capacity of the Pioneer was limited. There would not be a lot of reserves, and it would take time to arrange production, so if he needed anything, he had to place the order in advance.

For example, if he wanted assault rifles, or agricultural products.

If it couldn't be delivered before the Pioneer's departure, he could only give them the money and let them buy it from the Enterprise's caravan.

Of course, none of those were problems for Chu Guang.

If Shelter 404 became Enterprise's Permanent Strategic Partner, even if the CR could not be spent now, it wouldn't be a problem because it would eventually be used one day.

Chu Guang was overjoyed, but he couldn't show too much excitement on his face. He felt that all his 16 points of strength were used to hold back his laughter.

However, before he could get excited for too long, he received a call from Lu Yang...

"Boulder Town? They want to ransom captives?" After listening to Captain Lu's words, Chu Guang was dazed.

Two days ago, he was still wondering why there were no movements from the people in Boulder Town, but it turned out they came over very early in the morning.

"Yes." In the hologram, Lu Yang nodded. "Their people have just arrived in the northern suburbs."

Chu Guang asked immediately, "How did they get here?"

Wasn’t there heavy snow?!

The road from the northern suburbs to the third ring was blocked. That was not a matter of just 10 or 20 kilometers, but a matter of climbing over a few mountains and passing a few ruins!

The most important thing was that they didn't pass through the out-of-the-city viaduct in the north, and the Hummingbird wandering in this area didn't even see them at all.

Is it possible that they went here through the lake?

Lu Yang’s projection explained, "They used a twin-engine rotorless helicopter."

"..."

Okay.

I wasted my brain cells thinking...