RC Chapters 201-225 (Patreon)

RC Chapters 200-225

Chapter One: Don't You Want To?

"So, what happened to all these injuries on you?"

There was no deep affectionate gaze, nor any heartfelt exchanges.

This was supposed to be a touching reunion, but it was abruptly interrupted by Reno walking in.

UMP40 and UMP45 had a lot to say and ask, but Reno interrupted them all.

UMP40 could only smile helplessly now, asking UMP45 about her injuries.

"You'll know if you ask that Commander. I thought he was the weakpoint in the team, but turns out... he's just a monster."

UMP45 rolled her eyes and then chuckled helplessly.

Even though she had just broken her own neck too forcefully, she couldn't hide her good mood now.

"Well, looks like you'll have to lie down here for a while. Maria and I have been waiting in this computer for over half a month."

Seeing UMP45 unable to move, UMP40 chuckled softly, covering her mouth.

"Maria? Isn't she the Sangvis Ferri destroyer? Is that the name you gave her?"

"That's my own name! Lycoris gave it to me!"

Just hearing Maria mention Lycoris made both UMP45 and UMP40's faces stiffen.

They didn't know what to say. Lycoris was dead, and the main reason was their mission...

Reno ignored the three doll figures behind him who were exchanging emotions.

Compared to the severe damage to UMP45 and UMP9, repairing HK416 and this petite doll would be easier.

It was just surface damage.

HK416's side was a bit troublesome, as the hole in her torso from removing the fire control core needed to be filled.

As for internal repairs? Why bother?

Just wait to replace the neural core and get a new body.

He couldn't be bothered to repair a doll body with poor performance.

"Alright, just prop this thing up a bit, then go to the repair pod and patch up your skin." Reno casually grabbed a leftover piece of material from the workbench and stuffed it into HK416's original fire control core position, then pointed to the nearby repair pod.

"What... what did you put into my body?! This isn't a fire control core! Why is there no reaction at all?"

"Of course not, I don't have those kinds of things here. You don't need that right now. Hurry up and patch up your skin in there, we're almost ready for dinner."

Reno said as he checked the materials in the repair pod and then picked up the petite doll and placed her inside.

So small, even smaller than the Nagant revolver at first.

Those folks at IOP really make everything. With such a small size, not suitable for combat or regular work, the only reason was probably that it closely resembled a doll's neural cloud, making it very suitable for this size of body.

After closing the repair pod, Reno looked at HK416, who was still glaring at him.

He raised his hand and knocked on another open repair pod, signaling her to go in.

Seeing Reno's unchanged expression, HK416 gritted her teeth and had to obediently enter the repair pod.

"Um, Commander, when are you going to fix me... I don't want to lie here forever! Especially when 45 is chatting happily with that guy called 40!"

Especially when 45 is still next to me and 40, and I can't even see what she looks like!

"Both of you don't need to worry. If you want to move around, I have spare units here. Do you want to switch?"

Reno said as he pulled out a box from under the workbench, containing some Dinergates with slightly worn shells.

These Dinergates were all picked up by the household dolls during patrols recently, mostly fools who rushed into the sea or got stuck in some corner and ran out of power. Sangvis Ferri wouldn't go all out to search for one or two automata units, so Jaeger's team simply brought them back.

"I don't... want..." Hearing Reno's words, UMP9, who had wanted to refuse immediately, suddenly thought of UMP45 still whispering with UMP40 next to her, and then changed her mind and whispered.

"Hmm? So, are you going to switch or not?"

"Switch!"

Hearing UMP9 say that, Reno nodded and took out his tools, quickly removing UMP9's neural core and stuffing it into the doll's body, then replacing the battery.

"Yay! I'm alive again! 45! 45! Come and see my new body!"

With the power on, UMP9 jumped up from the workbench, skillfully jumped from the table to the ground, and bounced to the ground between UMP45 and the laptop.

"What!? Reno!? Did you really put 9 into the doll's body!?"

UMP45 suddenly screamed as she saw the Dinergate frolicking under her nose.

"It was her request. Anyway, your bodies won't be fixed anytime soon, so it's okay to use the doll's body temporarily." Reno said as he walked to another device and started checking the condition of the bodies he had previously manufactured.

These two bodies of Maria and UMP40 had already begun manufacturing before the power outage. This was also the first time he used the new printing equipment to manufacture bodies. It took a little longer than expected, and they could have been completed yesterday, but unexpectedly there was a sudden power outage.

"Um... Commander Reno, can I also temporarily use a Dinergate?" Just as UMP45 was about to persuade UMP9 to give up the doll's body, UMP40 suddenly raised her hand in the screen and asked Reno.

"Of course, but your body will be completed in another hour or two. Are you sure you don't want to wait a little longer?" Restarting the printing equipment, Reno looked at the remaining time, which would be shortly after dinner.

"I see... If it's not too much trouble..."

"No trouble, the doll's shells are all ready-made. Just put your neural core in and it's done. It's just a bit awkward for dolls to use Dinergate shells, so if you don't mind, I can put you in now."

"Oh, then please. After all, using a Dinergate's shell is quite a novelty, and I haven't experienced it yet."

UMP40 said, looking down at UMP9, who was moving freely below.

"I want one too! I don't want to be alone here! What if that jerk MDR comes again!"

With UMP40 taking the lead, Maria also didn't plan to continue staying in the mental space, otherwise she would almost suffer MDR's torment every meal.

Just watching others eat was unbearable!

"45? Don't you want to switch too?"

Seeing Reno walking over with several Dinergate shells, UMP40 smiled and asked UMP45.

"Uh! Um... I..."

Chapter 2: Lack of Appetite, Eight out of Ten Times...

"What's this? Returning to basics? Surprisingly, these Dinergates are quite agile."

Except for places too high to reach, the Dinergates had better mobility than the prowler guards.

With their lightweight bodies and decent jumping power in their hind legs, they could propel themselves over a meter, not onto the wardrobe, but at least onto the table.

"Finally free! I've been going crazy confined to the mental space these days!"

Maria, now in the body of a Dinergate, immediately began frolicking in the room. It seemed merely moving freely in the mental space wasn't enough to satisfy her.

Joining her was UMP9, paralyzed along the way.

Perhaps it was having a companion, or maybe these two were naturally suited to the Dinergate body, but after being fitted into the Dinergate's shell, they immediately adapted.

One was an elite doll of Sangvis Ferri, and the other a tactical modified doll.

Now, their behavior patterns were almost indistinguishable from real Dinergates.

If it weren't for Reno installing voice modules in these Dinergates, ordinary people wouldn't be able to distinguish UMP9 and Maria from normal Dinergates.

As the repair bay emitted a light sound, HK416 was the first to walk out.

However, she was startled by the Dinergates on the ground.

"These are Sangvis Dinergates! Where did they come from? Why are there so many?"

As she exclaimed, HK416 picked up the semi-scrap weapon she had just placed on the workbench.

Unfortunately, the gun had no bullets, and the magazine was damaged. Besides using it as a comfort or as a stick for burning fires, it had no other use.

"Alright, put that thing down. Among these Dinergates are UMP45 and her companions. Over there, the ones running around crazily are Maria and UMP9, while these two over here are UMP40 and 45."

Reno picked up HK416's cap from the workbench and put it on her head.

The cleaned cap looked much cleaner than before, but the holes on it seemed even more obvious.

"What if my original body is damaged, will you also stuff me into there?"

Adjusting her cap, HK416 suddenly had a bad feeling.

"It depends. If there are no Dinergates, prowlers and rippers are also possible. Anyway, they are all bodies. It doesn't matter which one is used. I also have other dolls who have used the shell of Dinergates, as well as others who have used the chassis or quadrupeds of prowlers."

"Eh..."

Upon hearing Reno's words, HK416 looked at her intact original body and couldn't help but feel fortunate that she didn't lose any limbs during her escape.

Otherwise, she might have been one of those Dinergates on the ground now.

While they were talking, the repair bay behind them opened again, and another silver-haired autonomous doll timidly walked out.

"What's your name?"

Seeing this autonomous doll coming out, Reno directly asked, figuring it wouldn't be right to keep calling her that, without even a nickname.

However, probably because Reno looked a bit fierce, the silver-haired autonomous doll just came out and directly hid behind HK416, cautiously showing half of her face to look at Reno.

"Do I look scary?"

Seeing the little one's frightened look, Reno frowned, subconsciously raised his hand to touch his chin.

He hadn't had time to shave in the past few days, and stubble had grown out.

"Not only scary can describe it, I have never seen anyone suddenly use a hand axe on the street without care in the world..."

HK416 rolled her eyes. Just as she was speaking, she felt the small hand holding onto her coat tighten, and the head also leaned towards her.

Obviously, Reno's behavior on the street had left this little one with a rather unpleasant psychological shadow.

"What did Commander Reno do on the street?"

UMP40, who was next to them, also listened to the conversation, and when HK416 stopped speaking, she whispered to UMP45 beside her.

"Ah, it's just... on the street..." UMP45 also lowered her voice and recounted what Reno had done in that city.

Hearing the cause and effect as told by UMP45, UMP40 instinctively wanted to nod, but found that she didn't have a neck now.

She could only control the camera of the Dinergate to blink a few times, indicating that she had understood.

"Hmm, it doesn't sound strange at all. Actually, just the day before yesterday..." UMP40 also, like UMP45, recounted the deeds of Reno in wiping out dozens of mercenaries in that city.

As the two of them whispered, Reno could only turn back to check the inventory of the mental core, which was quite abundant. After all, there was more than enough to replace the mental cores for HK416 and her group of four.

"Commander, it's almost time for dinner. Do you need me to bring it over?"

The knocking sound from G36 interrupted the actions of the group of Dinergates in the workshop.

Upon hearing the word "dinner," all the dolls involuntarily looked at Reno.

"No need, I'll go over now."

With that, Reno walked straight to the door. However, seeing Reno heading to the door, the only one who actively followed was Maria, a Dinergate.

The others, whether it was UMP45 and her group or HK416, who still retained their doll forms, all stood in place and watched him.

"Are we going? Why is everyone looking at me?"

It was truly strange. Not being enthusiastic about eating, perhaps there was a problem with their neural core.

"Yay! Let's go eat!"

UMP9 was the first to react and ran out with G36, who left first, followed by Maria.

"But Commander Reno... it seems like we can't eat right now..."

UMP40 looked at UMP45 beside her, not sure if she should stand up and follow.

"Just find someone to share the taste with you. What about you? Why aren't you moving?" Waving his hand, Reno looked at HK416, who still hadn't lifted her foot.

"I just need to recharge."

Seeing Reno's gaze on her, HK416 paused for a moment, then turned her head.

Reno immediately gave her a glare and pointed to the small autonomous doll who had been hiding behind her the whole time.

Reminded, HK416 remembered the little one locked behind her, her face suddenly flushing. "Go! I'll go!"

HK416 stomped her foot angrily and dragged the little one behind her to follow UMP45's group.

When the group of people and Dinergates arrived at the dining hall, Jaeger and Vector, who had been prowlerling outside, had already returned.

Jaeger, who already had two Dinergates with her, lit up when she saw the group of Dinergates behind G36 and hurriedly ran over.

With a hug, she directly took all four Dinergates into her arms, and even used her cheeks to rub against them.

"Waa! Let me go!"

UMP9 and Maria struggled in vain, while UMP40 and 45 looked somewhat bewildered at Jaeger, not realizing what was happening.

Chapter 3: The Victim Comes Knocking

"Though it's not as satisfying as eating it myself, it still takes the edge off. Jaeger! Hurry up! That last piece! Quick! The last one's the best!" Maria commanded Jaeger, seated beside her on a custom chair, to wield her chopsticks across the table.

Only those linked to Maria and her fellow ants displayed such eagerness, relishing the food.

Others didn't react much, knowing they could eat too; it was just a regular dinner.

As for HK416, who had previously claimed she didn't need to eat and only needed to recharge, she now had a face like a contented cat, and the small doll beside her was like her mini-me.

"Hehe! These two look like a mother and daughter! They're like two peas in a pod!"

When HK416 wasn't paying attention, MDR used the chopstick movements to cover the shutter sound of her phone, taking a picture and quickly posting it anonymously online.

After finishing the meal, everyone returned to their respective dormitories. The evening was usually free time for them to engage in their own activities.

However, besides browsing on their phones, there wasn't much else to do here during free time.

MG3, who had been slacking off somewhere before, didn't immediately leave this time. Instead, she stayed in the kitchen and helped G36 with washing dishes. As she put it, if she slacked off all day, she might get fired by the boss.

So she wouldn't refuse to do some work when necessary.

Reno knew where this girl had been slacking off before; it was in the newly completed breeding facility.

The air conditioning facilities there were very complete, so the temperature was very comfortable. MG3 even made herself a lounge chair out of scraps.

While Reno checked on the condition of the animals, she napped in the small office at the entrance of the breeding facility.

After dinner, Reno didn't immediately rest; there was still plenty of time left, and he had to make use of it.

Now that the basic frameworks of the vertical farm and the breeding facility were in place, the remaining task was to manage them slowly.

He didn't aim to produce a large quantity of various crops, but at least they should be self-sufficient.

Currently, most of the expenses were for the food and drinks of his girls. With the farm and breeding facility, this situation should improve, and it would also give his people something to do.

To be honest, Reno didn't feel safe in this world where he frequently encountered ELID infected. Just a few hundred workers or a few dozen sailors could mutate into seemingly invincible infected individuals.

And with so many people in this world, the true situation of the ELID infected was probably not optimistic.

As Reno sat at the dining table, scribbling and drawing in his notebook, the small doll who had been following HK416 approached, rubbing her swollen belly.

She glanced at Reno, who was working with his head down, then got up and walked toward the kitchen.

"Hmm? What's wrong? Haven't you eaten enough?" Seeing the timid girl walking in, G36 was surprised, restraining herself from frowning and asked softly.

"I want... to help..."

"Oh? You're such a good kid! Have you done this before?"

Before G36 could speak, MG3, with a smile on her face, greeted the girl and took off her rubber gloves, patting the girl's head affectionately.

As for why everyone liked to pat heads? It was just highly appropriate; one could easily put their hand on the head of a child. Why pat anywhere else? Some strange place?

"Yeah." Hearing MG3's words, the small doll nodded, took the gloves from MG3's hand, and awkwardly started to work.

"MG3, don't slack off all the time. Don't just stand there foolishly. There are gloves in the cabinet, and there's someone outside who wants to help. If you want to help, just come in directly, no need to hide." G36 wasn't as polite with MG3 and directly spoke up, also pointing out HK416 who was hiding outside.

While Reno was sketching designs at the dining table, a slight vibration suddenly came from outside the window.

Without surprise, someone was coming.

Tsk, it seemed that some warning devices needed to be installed in the factory area. How could they rely on him as a living radar every time someone came?

It wasn't enemies arriving, otherwise, if armed helicopters came, his newly built factory would be completely wiped out by a round of rocket fire.

Another transport helicopter arrived, but it wasn't as exaggerated as the one he snatched before; it was just an ordinary transport helicopter used to deploy small groups of troops.

As Reno walked towards the exit, G36, who had just taken out two boxes of homemade rum-flavored ice cream from the freezer as a reward for HK416 and her, handed them to HK416 and then ran out with MG3.

When Reno walked out of the dormitory building, M1 Garand and SPAS-12 had already picked up their weapons and were standing guard outside.

Of course, if they hadn't seen that the helicopter wasn't carrying any external weapon systems, they probably would have worn their powered exoskeletons and not just carried their imprinted weapons.

"Commander, it's the Statesec's helicopter," M1 Garand informed Reno as he approached.

"Yeah, I figured it was them," Reno replied. He hadn't had much interaction with the Statesec before. He hadn't seen those people from Statesec Three for a long time, and they wouldn't deliberately come to a place like this to find him.

The only ones who might come knocking soon after their recent conversation and with two of their underlings in his hands were probably just Angelia.

As the helicopter landed on the open space in the factory area, M1 Garand and the others immediately raised their weapons, while a few doll figures gradually emerged from behind them.

If they hadn't seen that the helicopter wasn't carrying any external weapon systems, they probably would have worn their powered exoskeletons and not just carried their imprinted weapons.

"Commander, it's the Statesec's helicopter," M1 Garand informed Reno as he approached.

"Yeah, I figured it was them,"

Reno replied. He hadn't had much interaction with the Statesec before. He hadn't seen those people from Statesec Three for a long time, and they wouldn't deliberately come to a place like this to find him.

The only ones who might come knocking soon after their recent conversation and with two of their underlings in his hands were probably just Angelia.

As the helicopter landed on the open space in the factory area, M1 Garand and the others immediately raised their weapons, while a few doll figures gradually emerged from behind them.

Chapter Four: My Two Large Dolls!

Waving to signal his dolls to lower their weapons, Angie and her two companions stood unarmed. Whether they were armed beneath their protective suits remained unknown, but at least on the outside, there wasn't even a tiny dagger in sight.

"Why did you rush over here? Don't tell me you're here to compensate for my losses?" Reno asked.

"You! Reno, where are my two dolls?" Annoyed, Angie glanced around Reno's side at the several dolls but didn't spot UMP45.

This guy, causing trouble with her assignments was bad enough, now he had taken her dolls! She didn't have many hands to spare, and although she had some authority, deploying tactical dolls was unprecedented in the Security Bureau.

Therefore, while she commanded UMP45, it was technically under a contract, and now that UMP45 had no owner, her authority over them had vanished from this world.

Except for M16, who was part of the Butterfly Operation, no one else survived among the combat personnel and dolls. Was UMP45 just an accident?

"They're lying in my workshop. If you want to see them, go take a look yourself," Reno said, sizing up the two people Angie had brought with her—a man and a woman, both looking quite young beneath their helmets.

Was she short on manpower? Coming all the way to the Red Zone with just these two?

Under the scrutiny of the dolls and Reno, Angie walked boldly into the sterilization room, not fearing what Reno might do to her. She had only met him once before, but she had a good sense of his character—he wasn't much of a thinker, and action always took precedence over words for him. But as long as she didn't threaten him, Reno was reasonable.

Although occasionally, his bad side would show, under normal circumstances, there was no need to worry about Reno stabbing her in the back.

However, Angie strode in confidently, but her two companions were not as comfortable. They hesitated as they walked, as if they couldn't walk properly with so many eyes on them.

But one of them seemed more curious than nervous. His eyes were fixed on the dolls, as if he were studying the difference between these dolls and the ones produced by IOP.

Facing such scrutiny, M1 Garand and the others frowned in displeasure.

"Commander, can we just knock this guy out?" SPAS-12 asked Reno bluntly.

Hearing SPAS-12's words, all the dolls turned their gaze to Reno. Clearly, SPAS-12 had spoken their minds.

"It's up to you," Reno said. Of course, it was just to scare them. While SPAS-12's words were harsh, it was only talk, not enough to provoke Reno to shoot them down.

"Huh!" When Reno spoke, the guy who had been looking around aimlessly hadn't moved. Instead, it was the girl in front who exclaimed and ran after Angie.

Perhaps the girl's cry had reminded Angie, who quickly turned around and saw the guy standing there dumbly, as if he had been frightened by SPAS-12.

"Del, what are you doing? Hurry up and come over!" Angie roared, grabbing Del and dragging him into the isolation room.

"Idiot! Behave! Don't do stupid things on someone else's turf!" Angie scolded Del as she dragged him into the isolation room, lowering her voice.

Before, she had said Reno was easy to deal with, but that was only when she hadn't provoked him! If he wasn't angry, he was like a good old man, but if he was provoked, sorry, you're done for!

Didn't the destruction of several major doll trafficking organizations in District F prove his violent temper?

"Um, but the dolls here look completely different from the ones produced by IOP..."

Smack!

"Keep talking and you'll go back to the helicopter!" A smack landed directly on Del's head, and Angie looked at him with some annoyance, her mechanical prosthetic arm already starting to twitch.

If her arm weren't still a bit stiff and if she had someone else who could fly the helicopter, she wouldn't have let Del come over!

Putting the protective suit on the shelf by the door, Angie stood with her arms crossed, waiting for Reno to come back from outside.

But before she could speak, she caught sight of several dolls running out from around the corner.

And the dolls who had been surrounding the entrance had already dispersed, leaving only two women and a short man, all human. They weren't a threat to their commander, so naturally, they did whatever they wanted.

Who had the time to stay here with these strangers? Wasn't it better to go to sleep or lie down and browse on the phone?

Of course, it couldn't be said that they were completely unfamiliar; after all, they had seen Angie during previous missions. Although they were wearing helmets, the dolls' vision was good enough to see Angie's face.

They were just uninterested in Angie's purpose.

"It seems you've managed this place well. It's only been a little over half a month since you left that city," Angie remarked, looking at the brightly lit corridor with admiration.

"Can't compare to you. After all, someone is now a member of the Security Bureau, with the authority to use helicopters directly, but the number of subordinates is a bit pathetic. Did you bring these two kids over here? Are they siblings?"

Del, who had taken off his protective suit, and another woman looked completely like teenagers who hadn't grown up yet. Angie couldn't understand what Anjou was thinking, bringing these two over to the contaminated area. Wasn't she afraid they'd end up staying here?

"That short one is Del, and this is his sister, Seele. By the way, what's the situation with UMP45 and them now? You didn't just kill them off, did you?" As Reno walked calmly, Angie's ominous feeling grew stronger.

"Of course not. Unlike ordinary humans, I've always been lenient with dolls. I've just temporarily disabled them," Reno said, pushing open the door to the workshop, revealing the two doll bodies lying side by side.

Seeing the two doll bodies lying on the workbench, Angie's anger surged as she looked at the disassembled armor plates and doll components, as well as the empty slots where the neural cores should have been.

"Where are their neural cores!!!"

Chapter Five: I'm Staying

"Of course, they've been dismantled. Isn't it obvious?" Reno grabbed a chair and sat down. "And as you just saw, those Dinergates running around on the ground are them."

"What!? Dinergates!? You put their neural cores into Dinergates!?"

Can this even work!? How could UMP45 agree to such an absurd act!?

"That's highly unlikely, right? UMP45 wouldn't let me replace her body easily," Del also exclaimed in surprise, recalling when Angie had first brought UMP45 to him.

UMP45's body that time was already damaged in many places, with one arm almost in a scrapped state and traces of high-temperature heating in her neural core.

Under the circumstances, it would have been more convenient to directly replace her body with a new one, but UMP45 still refused his proposal.

"You can ask her yourself about this matter, but I won't let her go. Until you settle the debt for abruptly shutting down my electricty, don't even think about taking away a single bullet casing from these two T-Dolls," Reno said, lifting the already cooled coffee on the workbench and moistening his throat, tapping the tabletop and squinting at Angie.

She knew it wouldn't be that simple!

This guy! Just because shutting down his the power plant he is connected, he's holding a grudge like this!?

Hearing this, Angie could clearly see that Reno had no intention of letting them go!

But UMP45 and UMP9 were the only forces she had at hand. If they left, wouldn't she truly become a commander with no real power?

Frowning and biting her lip, Angie thought for a moment. "Alright, what compensation do you want? Within my authority, of course."

"The location of the remaining unowned resources, or just give me money, both are acceptable." Reno spread his hands, saying so, then turned to look at the door.

G36 knocked on the door, then entered, holding the data Reno had left in the dining room and a tray with a pot of coffee and several cups.

"Reno! Is my body ready? I saw it only needed an hour to finish," Maria jumped onto Reno's knee and asked directly.

Seeing several Dinergates come in with G36, Angie's eyes lit up. Didn't Reno just say that UMP45 and UMP9 were stuffed into Dinergates?

But now there were three Dinergates here.

Which two were UMP45 and UMP9? The one talking to Reno just now definitely wasn't them. It didn't sound like them, and UMP45 wouldn't have such a good relationship with Reno!

"It's ready. You want to switch now?" Looking back at the two completed bodies, Reno grabbed Maria and placed her on the workbench.

"Yes! Let's do it now! I can't wait anymore! 40! Come here! Our bodies are ready!"

"Oh, coming." Hearing Maria's call, UMP40 subconsciously walked over to Reno.

With UMP40 moving, there were only two Dinergates left in front of Angie. So the situation became clear all of a sudden.

"45? 9?" Looking at the two Dinergates in front of her, Seele, standing next to Angie, was the first to speak.

"I didn't expect you to follow us here. Aren't you afraid that Reno will suddenly turn violent and kill you both?" UMP45 sat down on the ground with her chopstick legs spread out, facing the 'high and mighty' Angie with her camera, speaking casually.

"He won't, at least... not now." Seeing the state of the ant under her feet, UMP45, Angie rubbed her temples with a headache. "How's the condition of your bodies?"

Without rashly asking Del to inspect the bodies of UMP45 and UMP9, who had almost caused an uproar just now, Angie chose to directly ask the T-Dolls themselves, which was a more convenient and intuitive method. After all, T-Dolls often knew the condition of their own bodies very well.

"The humanoid functions normally, but all the limbs and neck bones are broken, and the circuits are disconnected. UMP9's condition is worse, with large-scale fractures in the torso's bones, requiring a body replacement," UMP45 said helplessly. But since Reno had promised to help them make new bodies while eating, she didn't think there was any hopelessness.

Maria and UMP40 next to her were living examples; they had already restored their humanoid forms with only one neural core left. Moreover, their neural cores had been damaged before, and UMP40 even took out her damaged neural core stored by Nagant Revolver to show her.

Compared to Del, who was like a curious tech freak, UMP45 thought that Reno, the commander of more than twenty T-Dolls, was more reliable. And being away from G&K and the Security Bureau was also beneficial... Of course, the most important thing was that UMP40 was still here.

"Alright, then after I go back, I'll go find someone to order new bodies from IOP for you two. You can come with me..." However, Angie obviously didn't expect what UMP45 was thinking. After hearing how severely damaged their bodies were, she immediately wanted to take them back and order new bodies for them.

"No, I'll stay here."

"I'll go wherever Sister 45 goes!" UMP9 also immediately responded, and even jumped up and moved her chopstick legs, as if ready to act immediately if Angie dared to take away UMP45.

"Why?" Hearing UMP45 say this, Angie's heart sank. If she lost UMP45, it would be extremely difficult for her to assemble another humanoid team.

"I have reasons to stay here, and I don't think the performance of the bodies made by IOP can match those made by this guy, Reno," whether it was resistance to electronic warfare or the powerful body performance.

Even the most elite tactical T-Dolls made by IOP were incomparable to the humanoid bodies made by Reno.

Of course, IOP was the one on the ground. Although IOP's humanoid bodies were pre-set with more communication protocols, she herself was an electronic warfare specialized humanoid, and communication protocols were useless to her.

As for the ability to coordinate and mobilize Dummy Dolls, she didn't need it at all. Simply increasing the number of Dolls would only increase the possibility of her own exposure, and the slight computing power provided by puppet support couldn't make up for their lack of flexibility.

IOP wouldn't place too large neural units in puppet T-Dolls. Ensuring the normal operation of puppets was already the limit.

"Del... what are you looking at?" Hearing what UMP45 said, Angie couldn't think of any rebuttal, so she looked at Del, who was proficient in humanoid modification technology.

But this guy, at the moment, his eyes were staring in another direction, and he kept muttering some professional terms she couldn't understand.

Chapter Six: I Just Want to Be Quiet

Dell exclaimed, "What kind of structure is this? And these materials! Such a heavy body! How is it possible to ensure that a T-Doll can move freely!?" Looking at the T-Doll bodies carried by Reno and placed beside the workbench, Dell's eyes widened.

He could instantly tell the materials used in those bodies were definitely different from what IOP used! All the frames, all the structural components, not a single part for weight reduction, they were all solid metal!

Under normal circumstances, T-Doll bodies require many secondary components to be made of lightweight materials; otherwise, the T-Doll body would weigh hundreds of kilograms, causing severe energy consumption in daily activities and putting a huge burden on the neural core of the T-Doll.

Therefore, ordinary civilian dolls usually use inferior quality aluminum mixed with cheap plastic products, as long as they can ensure no malfunctions occur in daily life.

Correspondingly, the Tacctical Dolls manufactured by IOP, especially military-grade ones, would use some high-performance high-strength alloy materials. However, inevitably, there would still be many parts inside using lightweight components.

A T-Doll body constructed entirely of high-strength alloy materials like the one in front of him simply did not exist...

Yet what was he seeing now? A living example! Right in front of him! And it's moving!

Wait a minute! What exactly did he just take out from the Dinergates!? Neural core?! Since when were neural cores that large!?

Just now, he was so focused on examining the two bodies that he didn't realize what Reno took out from the two Dinergates was not something normal!

As he thought about it, Dell leaned towards Reno as if in a daze.

But before he could get close enough to reach out, Reno lifted him up and threw him towards Angelia's direction. "Stay put, didn't your mother teach you to behave in someone else's house?"

Rolling her eyes at him, Reno turned back and grabbed Maria, who was about to jump up. This one, she just changed into a new body and already couldn't stay still. He didn't want her to end up like the G36 from before, smashing through the roof directly.

Back then, it was just a factory, and it was okay if the roof leaked. But now this was a dormitory building. If she smashed into it from here, wouldn't she directly punch holes into M200 and RFB's dorms?

"Stay still, limit the body's power to the minimum, and adapt slowly." Looking at Maria, who was equally excited beside UMP40, Reno said helplessly.

They spent a long time in the mental space, so now that they had suddenly returned to T-Doll form, these two were obviously too excited.

"Oh! This body looks much better than those bought from the black market!" UMP9 ran over from UMP45's side at this moment, standing beside UMP40 and looking up at them.

As she looked, she even used her chopstick legs to poke UMP40's ankles and feet.

Clang! Clang!

The crisp sound of metal collision rang out, and UMP9 suddenly became excited. "Sounds good! A good body is indeed a good body! Commander, Commander! Get me one too!"

And hearing UMP9 directly change her address and call Reno commander, Angelia couldn't help but cover her face in silence.

This guy... changed her address too quickly!

"If you feel your body is heavy, just release some power, but remember to take it slowly. I don't want you to punch holes in the roof later." Reno commanded the two to adapt to their new bodies, and G36, who heard Reno's words, suddenly blushed.

Back then, when she jumped more than ten meters high, not only did she punch through her own factory roof, but she also smashed through the roof of the neighboring textile factory.

It was simply a black history she could never forget.

"Punching through the roof is a bit exaggerated, they're just T-Dolls, not missiles." Watching the two T-Dolls familiarize themselves with their bodies, along with UMP9 and UMP45 who had already run up to observe, Angelia's heart felt increasingly uncomfortable.

Why did Reno, who until now could only be considered a relatively obscure small-scale security contractor, have so many T-Dolls under his command? And each one of them doesn't look like easy pickings.

Yet on her side, she doesn't even have a single subordinate. UMP45, who was recruited not long ago, even seemed to have jumped into someone else's lap.

If her T-Dolls from G&K were still around, maybe she could pull a few over. Unfortunately, M16 borrowed from Lab 16 has been called back by Pascal, and HK416 has been dismantled due to disobedience and misconduct. The other T-Dolls have also been completely damaged in previous operations.

Even if Zelensky hadn't pulled her into Statesec, she felt she had no face to continue staying in Griffin.

Thunk, thunk.

Just as Angelia felt sour in her heart, the door of the workshop was knocked again, and HK416 walked in with the little T-Doll. The little one was holding a box of ice cream, eating it bit by bit as if reluctant to finish it.

"G36, are you here? Is there any available accommodation?"

All the other T-Dolls had returned to their dormitories, and UMP9 and UMP45 were still in Dinergate mode, so they didn't need to consider where to stay.

But these two couldn't just make do on the dining table, right?

What if they annoyed G36 and got kicked out the next day?

"Huh!? HK416! What are you doing here!?" Angelia, who immediately turned around upon hearing the door open, was surprised to see a figure that astonished her! HK416, who should have been dismantled! Wasn't her fire control core removed, followed by the complete dismantling of her neural core by IOP!?

"Angie? Why are you here? Are you here to arrest someone?" Seeing Angelia, HK416 didn't show any joy. Although she knew the order to kick her out of the team wasn't issued by Angelia, she couldn't muster any good feelings towards this guy at the moment.

"Arrest someone? Of course not, it's more like... just here to find someone. 416, have you ever thought about coming back to our side..."

"Enough, I just want to be involved in G&K and Statesec now." Before Angelia could finish her words, HK416 had already decisively refused. Although when she escaped, all she could think about was how to get back to G&K and restore her identity as a tactical T-Doll.

But now... after witnessing the combat effectiveness of Reno's T-Dolls, her previous confidence in her own strength seemed insignificant.

Without the fire control core, without bullets in the chamber, she couldn't even beat a street thug.

Seeing HK416 decisively reject her proposal, Angelia was completely stunned, unable to understand why the once strong-willed HK416 was now like this.

G36 didn't hesitate and just left, waving to HK416 and the little one. She had been too busy giving Reno the documents and had forgotten about HK416 and the little one. It was a good opportunity to go and arrange a few rooms.

HK416, the little one, and UMP40, they all needed accommodation next.

Chapter Seven: Still Accepting Missions?

"Alright, that's basically it. This body doesn't have any extra functions. If you want any additional features in the future, we can discuss it once you've adjusted to this body. For now, let's go repair in the warehouse and patch up all the biosynthetic skins on you."

After Maria and UMP40 had roughly adapted to the bodies, covering their skins became a standard procedure. After all, behaviors like G36's, if the synthetic skin had already been applied at the time, would have required a complete re-implantation of the biosynthetic skin all over.

Seeing the two T-Dolls lying in the repair bay, Angelia sighed with her arms crossed. What else could she do now?

UMP45 had already expressed her intention to stay, and that HK416 person didn't seem to plan on going back either. Every Doll she could find had explicitly refused her. It seemed like she had no choice but to wait for the Doll program from the Statesec.

Damn it! Why couldn't the Statesec just order tactical Dolls directly from IOP!?

She cursed inwardly, but she knew exactly why. It was simply because they were worried that the Dolls produced by IOP might have issues with their Neural Clouds, not to mention their operational style didn't align with the Statesec's.

Plus, IOP didn't have a very high level of secrecy. Who knows, maybe right after they ordered Tactical Dolls, someone would tamper with the ones ordered for them.

Like in the previous mission... Wait, what did Reno just call that Doll who had just changed bodies?

UMP40? Wasn't that one of the participants in Operation Butterfly before!? Why was she here with Reno?

"Reno, did you go to the Sangvis Ferri's main factory before?" The 14th Support Group where UMP40 belonged also entered the Sangvis Ferri's main factory at that time, but in the end, only M16, who was brought back by the 6th Division outside the city, and UMP45, who escaped through the ventilation duct, came out...

And now UMP40's Neural Core was actually in Reno's hands... Does that mean... everyone who attacked the Sangvis Ferri's main factory back then was wiped out, and Reno might have been involved!?

"I did, didn't M16 tell you?" Setting the appearance parameters for Maria and UMP40, Reno sat down, picked up the still warm tea, and drank a sip, looking somewhat surprised as he said to Angelia.

That guy M16, although she looked a bit off at the time, her actions were all fine. She should have known everything that happened during the mission. Why did it seem like Angelia didn't know that M16 had encountered him before?

"M16 was recalled by Pascal right after returning from the Sangvis Ferri's main factory. The operational data left by the Statesec didn't mention anything about you. What exactly happened in the factory at that time?"

Hearing Angelia's words, Reno furrowed his brows, "So those guys who took M16 back erased part of M16's memories?"

"This...!?" Hearing Reno's words, Angelia also suddenly realized. She had never thought about it before, but now it seemed... even within the Statesec, there seemed to be people who weren't on the same page as her.

"It seems you didn't know either. Be more vigilant. Don't be caught off guard by a mole in the future. The situation in the Sangvis Ferri factory was simple. Your people rushed in with Dolls, and then the mole controlled two of the Dolls to release a virus, causing the Dolls to go out of control and kill the Statesec personnel. Then he let the two Dolls he controlled self-destruct."

Unnoticed, no one knew who the mastermind behind the scenes was. Even if M16 hadn't had part of her memory erased, neither the Statesec nor Griffin would have been able to investigate.

When transferring the Neural Core data to UMP40 earlier, Reno had already seen the guy who gave orders to UMP40, but unfortunately, he only used ordinary backdoor commands, and there was no facial recognition information, voiceprint information, or identity verification.

To find that guy, they could only carefully trace back from the origins of UMP40 and the other one step by step.

Unfortunately, thanks to the chaos in Griffin's management at the time, whether the employment information of UMP40 and the other one could still be found was a problem. Moreover, those unknown armed men who attacked Griffin might have been preparing for the actions of UMP40 and the other one.

"You didn't make a move then?" Hearing this, Angelia still couldn't believe it. It was hard to believe that so many elites from the Statesec would perish so easily in one mission.

And this time it was just a capture mission, but in the end, even the target for capture died in the chaos.

"Of course not. When I went there, those guys were long gone. Well, maybe the blood hadn't even dried yet. I just opened the gates of the Sangvis Ferri factory and asked the new AI of Sangvis Ferri for a train to come back." Putting down the teacup, Reno said absentmindedly.

He didn't care about these things. It was just some unspeakable transactions or some hidden desires of people's hearts. It was just back and forth like this, nothing to pay attention to.

Wasting time on these petty matters of those people's greed and ambitions, it was better to focus on his own affairs and improve the design drawings he had at hand.

"A train... How could the Sangvis Ferri's Mastermind easily lend you their train?" Angelia twitched her mouth, somewhat incredulous. If the Sangvis Ferri's Mastermind was so easy to deal with, those guys wouldn't have beaten Griffin back so badly by now.

Clap.

Reno didn't speak, but directly lifted his coat off, hung it on the workbench, and placed the GM94 grenade launcher on the table.

Looking at the coat underneath Reno, which was covered with various grenades, Angelia finally understood.

It wasn't that the Sangvis Ferri's Mastermind was easy to deal with, but Reno's way of speaking was different from that of other normal people.

Which normal person would wear a coat covered in grenades at home!?

And besides the grenade launcher, there was also a hand axe that should have been shiny silver but was now covered in rust...

But Angelia soon realized that the dark red on the axe wasn't rust at all... it was blood that hadn't been wiped clean yet!

That's right, the Doll traffickers in the urban area who had their skulls split in half before should have died under this hand axe...

"Forget it, are you still taking commissions here? Didn't you used to take missions before you moved?" Angelia sighed.

"Missions? Depending on the situation, if there's time, then yes. The prerequisite for having time now is that the reward must be generous enough." Otherwise, why would he interrupt his work process to do some small commissions that barely made any profit?

"Huh, that's good." Hearing Reno say this, Angelia breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn't completely out of this line of work, it was easy to talk to him.

Chapter Eight: Watch Out for Getting Stuck

"Are you trying to send me on a mission right now? I'm busy." Reno glanced at Angelia, who remained stationary.

Still here? Are you waiting for me to invite you to stay overnight?

"Hmm..." Angelia's eye twitched at Reno's words.

Couldn't this guy be a bit more polite? After all, she should at least be considered a client, right? How did this guy do business before?

Of course, Reno wasn't just stalling Angelia.

He genuinely didn't have time right now. Several more T-Doll's cores needed replacement, and their bodies required reconstruction.

"And?" Reno asked, noticing the communicator Angelia took out, the Statesec's logo glaringly obvious to him.

When Angelia heard Reno's question, she thought of what he had just said...

The failed Operation Butterfly, M16's deleted mission records and memories, all indicated the presence of moles within the Statesec...

In this situation, continuing to use communication devices provided by the Statesec, who could guarantee that no one was monitoring her every move?

"So how do I contact you? You don't expect me to come find you every time, do you?" If the Statesec's communicator couldn't be used, then there probably weren't any other communication devices available. After all, even the devices used by G&K were under the control of the Statesec's signal relay stations.

Reno opened the door to a cabinet next to him, pulled open a drawer, and casually tossed a cellphone from it to Angelia.

"Huh!? A cellphone!? Are you sure you want me to use this thing to contact you?" Looking at the ordinary cellphone in her hand, which was almost identical to a normal one except for the extra protective layer around the screen, Angelia couldn't help but laugh.

"It encrypted communication protocols, all you have to do is not hand this thing over to the Statesec for research, and there won't be any problems with using it to make calls."

Of course, even if you were to research it, you might not figure it out.

"What about the signal? It's not like you can make calls everywhere these days." Angelia handed the cellphone to the person beside her, Dell.

But Dell was still staring at the two Doll printing devices, seemingly wanting to study them.

Unfortunately, without the devices, he couldn't see anything.

Slap!

Angelia slapped Dell on the head, bringing him back to his senses, somewhat sheepishly taking the phone Reno had handed him.

"Where was this phone made? How does the system inside it..."

"Alright, you can research it later. I won't keep you guys here. Do you want to stay for a midnight snack?"

"That sounds great! How about letting me visit your place? It wouldn't hurt for future partners to get to know each other, right?"

Huh? Did you really believe him? Can't you hear him trying to chase us away?

"Tsk! Suit yourself. Just remember not to wander into the Doll dormitories. If you get punched through a wall and can't get out, don't blame me for not warning you." Looking at Angelia with narrowed eyes, and then turning to look at Dell, who was still immersed in studying the phone's system, Reno said impatiently.

But as soon as those words came out of his mouth, Reno regretted it. Besides UMP45 and UMP9, who had already gone back to their dorms, all the other Dolls had returned to their rooms.

These two Dinergates, who had just arrived the day before, hadn't had time to explore everywhere yet. The only one who could wander around with these few T-Dolls seemed to be himself, who hadn't slept yet.

"Being punched through a wall? Is that a special greeting around here?" Angelia still didn't quite understand what he meant by that.

Although she admitted that T-Dolls were far superior to humans in terms of strength and agility, directly punching someone through a wall seemed a bit exaggerated, right? If any Doll could do that, the military units should have been disbanded long ago.

In the end, one of the reasons why the military was reluctant to purchase tactical T-Dolls produced by IOP, and instead cooperated with Sangvis Ferri to develop their own autonomous T-Dolls, was precisely because the models produced by IOP were too diverse, and the individual personality traits made management a problem.

In addition, the so-called secure communication protocols used by IOP's T-Dolls were virtually non-existent. Unless IOP abandoned their usual practices and made all their tactical T-Dolls have consistent personalities, the military would never purchase IOP products.

"It's probably not just a figure of speech. You saw how 40 and Maria adapted to their new bodies earlier. Why do you think Reno is so nervous about ordinary T-Dolls adapting to their new bodies?" UMP45 walked beside Angelia and reminded her.

Although she didn't know how good the new bodies of Reno's T-Dolls were, just by looking at UMP9's original body, she could tell that it was likely damaged when P90 grabbed her ankle and dragged her down the stairs.

Although the sharp edges of the stairs were the main cause of UMP9's injuries, it was probably also because P90's strength was a bit too much.

And when they arrived at this factory area, just as they were being carried down from the helicopter, she had seen with her own eyes that those T-Dolls, carrying boxes of ingredients, were like playing with the boxes like it had no weight.

So Reno's reminder just now was definitely not a joke. If Angelia, especially Dell, just wandered around casually, they might really get punched through a wall and couldn't get out. All of Reno's T-Dolls were probably like her and 9, lacking even the most basic respect for humans. Unlike the T-Dolls produced by IOP, Reno's T-Dolls, and what he did with them, were definitely more than just changing their bodies.

Chapter Nine: Say Whatever

Reno led a few people around his factory area.

Apart from the dormitories where some T-Dolls were already residing, they also inspected the vacant ones.

They even checked out the vertical farms and the breeding grounds. These were all pretty ordinary things with no need for secrecy.

Even the warehouses storing steel materials were visited.

However, when they finished the tour, Angelia's initially normal expression turned incredibly strange.

"Reno, are you really planning to continue being a security contractor? Instead of switching to farming or something?" Whether it was the vertical farms or the newly occupied breeding grounds, Reno's factory area didn't look like a place for a security contractor to stay.

It seemed more like a regular businessman who found a place where he didn't need to pay rent or utility bills to run a farm.

"Farming is an option too, but that'll have to wait until we have more manpower, or all the facilities are fully automated. It's not feasible now. The output from these two farms probably isn't even enough for my own T-Dolls, let alone for selling," Reno replied, glancing at Maria and UMP40's repair time, placing the clothes G36 prepared for them on chairs in front of the repair chamber, and pulling a curtain to cover the repair chamber.

"Huh, have you really thought about that...? But this place is pretty nice. How did you find it?"

"Helian helped me find it. The original owner of this factory area wanted me to work for him, but I just came here and occupied the place. That guy was clueless and talked to himself."

Of course, Reno had no guilt about it. Moreover, that guy had recently recruited a large number of mercenaries to come and loot things. Although most of those mercenaries were probably not hired by the original owner, if he could easily hire so many mercenaries, he wouldn't have offered such a laughable price to Reno in the first place.

"Hmm... Aren't you afraid this area will suddenly turn into a green zone in the future?"

"Huh? Can it really happen? Can places that have become polluted areas be restored?" Angelia's question surprised Reno. He had never thought about the possibility of this area recovering.

"Of course, as long as there aren't too many ELID infected in the area, and there isn't too much contamination residue in the buildings, after the collapse of the particle clouds, places with less severe contamination can probably recover to some extent."

"Oh, that's good. There are so many ELID infected here, so there's no need to worry." Underneath the ruins in this city, there were indeed plenty of ELID infected.

They weren't visible now simply because most of them hadn't gathered together yet. Otherwise, there would be those mutated ELID infected they had encountered before.

Reno planned to have his T-Dolls clean up those ELID infected under the ruins once the situation in the factory area stabilized. He consider it training.

"S-So many...? Are you sure?" Angelia was startled to hear this.

Before coming to this city, although she had done some investigation, apart from knowing that this city was in the red zone and was an abandoned city, she didn't have much useful information. Therefore, she had never heard about the number of ELID infected in this area.

"Of course. Did you see the ruins of the building across from the factory area? There are 479 ELID infected buried underneath. If you're brave enough, you can go there and play around. Maybe the ELID infected inside will sense the movement of living people and desperately dig a hole to climb out from underground."

During the battles between the T-Dolls and the mercenaries, these ELID infected underground had shown some activity. However, the battles ended too quickly, and they didn't have a chance to fully dig up. But if the time lasted a little longer, half an hour or an hour, those ELID infected might really crawl out of the ground on their own.

"Huh... How do you know that?" With the help of the workshop's light, Angelia could vaguely see the ruins opposite the factory area, but she couldn't see any signs of ELID infected.

"I just feel it."

Nonsense!

Angelia rolled her eyes. Although she didn't want to believe it from the bottom of her heart, Reno wasn't someone who would easily deceive others... Sometimes, he could be a bit mischievous. Angelia suddenly remembered how Reno had watched her enter the powerless exoskeleton armor helplessly.

"Wait... What about that person at the gate...!? Could it really be an ELID infected?"

"Oh? Has one really climbed out?" Hearing Seele's surprised cry, Reno was also a little surprised.

But then he thought about it.

Today, two helicopters landed here in succession, making quite a commotion. Coupled with the continuous sound of those armed helicopters flying over before, it wasn't surprising that these ELID infected crawled out of the ground.

"It looks like we need to install a gate for the factory area in the future. Otherwise, won't these neighbors just come over whenever they want?" There was no gate in the original factory area, only a broken electric telescopic gate. However, that thing had already been broken. Reno had just thrown it aside when he came here.

"I'm going out to take a look." With that, Reno put on his coat, picked up the slightly curled ax, and pushed the door open to walk out.

Seeing Reno's actions, Angelia's face also turned serious.

When they came, they hadn't thought there would be ELID infected here at all. It seemed staying here was definitely not a good idea. She regretted thinking about mooching a meal here just now.

"Let's go. Let's go out and take a look." Angelia waved her hand, leading Dell and Seele to follow Reno's footsteps.

However, when they reached the door, Reno went straight through the isolation room and walked out, Dell was about to follow him, but was directly grabbed by Angelia's collar. "Do you want to die? Wear protective clothing!"

Seele, who was about to follow, also suddenly realized, "Right, wear protective clothing. This is a red zone... Ah! He! Commander Reno! He went out without protective clothing!?"

"Slow to react, aren't you? When we came, that guy wasn't wearing protective clothing either! Hurry up! Don't just stand there!" Hearing Seele's exclamation, Angelia sighed helplessly.

Seele hadn't noticed Reno's anomaly earlier!

She herself wasn't surprised, considering she had seen Reno operating freely without protective clothing in heavily polluted areas before.

But when the three of them put on their protective clothing and walked out of the isolation room, Reno had already gathered the bodies of four or five ELID infected and was squatting next to them, tinkering with the incendiary bomb in his hand.

Seeing the dismembered bodies of those ELID infected, Dell and Seele finally understood why Angelia was so anxious to come over herself.

Chapter Ten: Shall We Eat Together?

"Why burn these ELID Infected? Find a place to bury them..." Before Seele could finish his sentence, Angelia reached out and tapped the guy's helmet.

"What nonsense are you talking? Who has time to bury these strangers? Besides, these guys have turned into ELID Infected. If they're buried, they'll probably remain intact for hundreds of thousands of years, just like glass."

Moreover, being in a contaminated area like this, whether it's microorganisms or bacteria and fungi, they've long since been completely eradicated. If these ELID Infected were able to decompose underground, there probably wouldn't be any ELID Infected left in this city.

"The routine disposal method for ELID Infected is burning them. Whether it's burning them on-site or transporting them to a dedicated incinerator, burning them is the only option."

Interrupting Seele's question, Angelia shook her head.

"The downside is that it will cause the contamination index to rise in the immediate vicinity. But considering how contaminated this place already is, a few more won't make much difference." Dell didn't feel much about it. He had seen others handle ELID Infected before, so he was used to it.

As for why one sibling who had hardly seen ELID Infected didn't feel anything, while the other was already numb to it, that wasn't within Reno's scope of exploration.

"So, are you guys planning to leave? Or are you deliberately coming out here to use up my disinfectant materials?" Turning around to look at the three people in protective suits, Reno said somewhat speechlessly.

Leaving was probably not feasible. They hadn't noticed before in the dormitory building, but now that they came out, they could see the densely clouded sky overhead. Visibility was extremely poor, and Reno didn't trust Dell's flying skills in such conditions.

Even if Dell was a genius pilot who could perform instrument flying under such conditions, the interference in the contaminated area was severe, and there was a possibility of instrument failure during flight.

Moreover, the helicopter they came in wasn't advanced at all, an old model from decades ago. Didn't the security agency think about updating their equipment?

Just like the old armored vehicle the Security Bureau used before, now Angelia had managed to get her hands on an ancient helicopter. Wasn't she afraid of it falling from the sky halfway through?

With all these factors combined, nighttime flying became a highly risky endeavor. Of course, if Angelia had a military-grade aircraft, it might not be so troublesome.

But the key was she didn't.

Moreover, with the pitch-black sky now, there wasn't even a single light visible for dozens of kilometers around the city. With no reference points, whether Dell could safely fly the helicopter back intact could only be left to the mercy of the heavens.

As for how they came here? When they flew over, it wasn't completely dark yet. If they had acted a little faster and taken UMP45 and the others and left immediately, the timing would have been enough.

Unfortunately, these guys delayed Reno for a couple of hours, so now they had to wait until daylight to depart.

Upon hearing Reno's words, Dell immediately looked up at the sky and saw the pitch-blackness overhead. He immediately recoiled like an ostrich and quietly moved towards the door of the disinfection isolation room.

No joking, flying in this kind of weather was no laughing matter. He had just seen those freshly made humanoid frames; he didn't want to meet an untimely end!

The pilot fled first, so Angelia naturally didn't have the nerve to say she wanted to leave. She could only force a smile and awkwardly go back inside.

Of course, Reno wouldn't actually demand disinfection fees from these guys. What was a bit of money? When this guy asked him to take on a mission in the future, one commission would earn back all that money!

As soon as they returned to the dormitory building, before they had taken a few steps, Reno smelled a pungent smell coming from the kitchen. It was probably CF05; coming out to eat hot pot so late at night was almost spoiling NZ75.

"If you want to rest, go to the guest room next to the workshop. G36 specially cleaned it up for you." Originally, G36 had cleaned up that place for Reno to rest.

But Reno didn't need it at all. At most, he would just lie on the sofa, cover himself with a coat, and doze off for two or three hours. Sometimes he would even just sit on a chair in the workshop and sleep.

G36 had tried to persuade him, but Reno was too lazy to lie on the overly soft bed. If it weren't for occasionally seeing Reno change clothes, G36 would have thought Reno never changed his clothes.

Anyway, back to the present. Sneaking into the kitchen, CF05 was frying hot pot ingredients stealthily, with NZ75 assisting on the side. Suddenly, they saw Reno push the door open and enter, startling them. But CF05 immediately waved at Reno.

"Commander! It's almost ready! Come join us for a bite!" With that, CF05 poured the fried base directly into the nearby pot and added the remaining broth G36 had left.

Alright, all set, time to eat!

CF05 carried the pot, while NZ75 held the electric stove and the tray with the ingredients, and walked out of the kitchen directly, coincidentally meeting Angelia and the others.

"Oh? Guests? Um... Want to eat together?"

Facing CF05's invitation, Angelia clenched her teeth, looking at the steaming, but hellishly red pot in CF05's hands...

Dell and Seele were also frightened by this terrifying pot, their lips trembling as their brains raced, thinking about how to escape from this life-threatening pot in front of them!

Thud.

Before the three could come up with any excuses, they heard a light sound. It turned out that Reno had already placed a stack of bowls and chopsticks on the nearby dining table, along with a box of beer he had taken out.

Seeing the tall stack of bowls, obviously more than three... needless to say, Reno had definitely counted them in!

Looking at the three sets of bowls and chopsticks placed in their direction, Angelia felt her calves trembling. Could they really eat this? What if they ate it? Would they immediately come down with acute gastroenteritis!?

As for the situation of eating hot pot, it was probably Reno and the two humanoids enjoying themselves on one side, while Angelia and the others were suffering but also oddly enjoying it. Despite the extreme spiciness, the taste was absolutely worth it!

But they had to drink yogurt after every bite, or else their tongues would go numb.

Not long after they started, Maria and UMP40 came out of the repair chamber, escorted by UMP45 and UMP9 who had been waiting in the workshop.

For this, Reno even ran back to the kitchen to cut up another batch of ingredients. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been enough for Maria and UMP40, who hadn't eaten anything for a long time. Even though the hot pot was super spicy, it couldn't stop their appetite.

Chapter Eleven: Is that all?

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Angelia and her two companions hurriedly departed.

Reno speculated that it was probably because Angelia hadn't gone through proper channels when she left.

Then she just took off in a helicopter overnight. If she didn't return soon, she'd likely be registered as a missing person by Statesec.

This time, however, besides obtaining the exact information from Reno that they could proceed with her mission, they didn't bring back even half of a doll.

But it didn't matter. UMP45 had never operated with her before anyway. Most of the time, they just shuttled between various safe houses of Statesec, taking on tasks and setting off without stopping.

As for helping complete covert tasks, from UMP45, a T-Doll, to Reno, a security contractor, Statesec would definitely bleed heavily later... fortunately, it wasn't her own money... Huh?

Wait a minute? Why does something feel off?

Gurgle!

Just as she was thinking, Angelia furrowed her brow, immediately clutching her stomach and a rumbling sound followed.

Of course, because of the noise from the helicopter, only she heard it. But Seele, sitting across from her, did the same motion...

"Dell! Hurry up!"

It's urgent! I can't hold it any longer!

Little did they know that upon hearing Angel's shout, Dell's voice, almost on the verge of tears, also sounded through the communicator.

"I'm already going as fast as I can!?"

...

"Phew, still feeling a bit off. The taste is good, but it's a bit too spicy." Swirling wind into her mouth, UMP40 hugged her milk tea and took a sip, instantly diluting last night's spiciness.

"Well, milk tea tastes better... But isn't Reno's place a bit too loose? Isn't there anything to do in the morning?" UMP45 commented while sitting beside UMP40.

She thought her days would be filled with missions, making money, and tracking down the mastermind behind the Operation Butterfly, but unexpectedly...

No worries about any life or death missions, no worries about lack of money, and UMP40 came back to life. How could it feel like she was dreaming?

Luckily, the Dinergatet's body she was in constantly reminded her that this wasn't a dream. Otherwise, why would she need to connect all her sensory signals with UMP40 even for a sip of milk tea?

But this seemed fine too.

Except for the lackluster scenery outside.

Maria, who came out of the repair warehouse with UMP40 last night, had already taken Jaeger to the seaside Sangvis Factory to subdue all Sangvis forces there. But Reno figured she was just bluffing.

The Sangvis Factory was still operating as usual. After Scarecrow took away that batch of materials, the factory's warehouse was left empty. Unless they filled the warehouse completely, those T-Dolls wouldn't stop.

As for whether Maria could mobilize the Sangvis units in the factory, Reno figured she could, but it would be limited. She wouldn't be able to control those currently in production; she probably didn't have command authority. To relocate those units on the production lines, it would likely require direct orders from the Sangvis mainframe or its agents.

After all, factory production could be classified as logistics, and the agents were the ones in charge of many logistical matters within Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing.

If she could bring back a few Sangvis T-Dolls, Reno would gladly accept it. If not, it wouldn't matter; consider it letting Maria blow off steam.

After all, she and UMP9 together were quite a handful, and letting them wander around might be a good thing... as long as they didn't attract any ELID Infected.

"It looks fine. You seem to handle this quite well. Did you have experience in this field before?" Reno was a bit surprised, watching MG3 proficiently clean the animal enclosures at the farm while wearing work clothes and rubber boots.

He had thought he might have to personally pitch in for a few days and then train someone else to take over.

But unexpectedly, MG3 took the initiative to work here without him saying a word.

"Ah, I did have a year of experience before, but then the farm where I worked got contaminated, and the owner ran away. Later, I went to work as a security guard at the port over there, but luck wasn't on my side."

"Well, luck indeed wasn't on your side." Hearing MG3's explanation, Reno shrugged, patting the neck of the calf in front of him. "In that case, I'll leave it to you here. If there are any problems, come find me immediately, or call me."

"Don't worry, boss, there won't be any problems!" Hearing Reno's assurance, MG3 patted her chest confidently. What could go wrong with this perfectly matching job?

After leaving the farm, Reno checked on the vertical farm. CF05 and NZ75 were carefully inspecting the seedlings, while Simonov and A-91 were getting drunk together on the other side.

Tsk... oh well, now that the wheat seedlings had sprouted, as long as the vertical farm's automated system didn't malfunction, they wouldn't have any problems here, which suited these two drunkards just fine.

Hmph, when the wheat grew up and they needed these two to make wine and flour, let's see if they'd still laze off!

Overall, things were pretty quiet at home. Reno had been busy drawing up design plans, the factory hadn't started operating, M1 Garand and the others had nothing to do, so they were just hanging around at home all day.

It seemed to have sparked their desire to go out on patrol, as they were practically fighting over the patrol duty every day.

After a quick tour around the house, Reno returned to his workshop. The new bodies for UMP45, UMP40, and HK416 were all in the planning stages, and there was no rush to transfer the mental cores. It could wait until the bodies were ready.

UMP40 and UMP45 were sitting on the balcony outside the workshop, watching Reno draw designs that they couldn't understand.

"Commander Reno, do you have any goals?" Looking at the gradually forming design, UMP40 suddenly asked.

"Goals? Yes and no."

Hmm!? Upon hearing Reno's words, UMP40 and UMP45's eyes lit up, and they leaned in curiously.

"To make money, eat well, and live. That's all."

Seeing Reno continuously drawing designs without even looking up, UMP40 exchanged a strange glance with UMP45.

"Uh? Is that all?"

Chapter Twelve: The Bed and Floor Can't Hold Up Anymore

"The goal Reno has set seems too trivial, doesn't it?" Reno, who had entered work mode, clearly had no intention of chatting, so UMP45 and the others could only huddle together and start whispering.

"Well, I think this kind of goal... might be a bit difficult... These seemingly simple goals often turn out to be the hardest to achieve, don't they?" As she spoke, UMP40 lifted UMP45 and placed her on her lap.

Caught off guard, UMP45 struggled in her grasp, but unfortunately, her slender legs couldn't break free from UMP40's control.

...

"Why don't they listen to you, Maria?" Watching the Sangvis Ferri Dolls busy on the production line, Jaeger asked somewhat puzzledly, poking the cheek of one of the Rippers with her finger.

Soft, just like her own cheek.

"I... I don't know? It seems like my authority isn't enough. I can only mobilize a few peripheral Scouts..." Maria scratched her head, puzzled herself. Even when she was at the port south of the main factory, she could easily mobilize all the Sangvis Ferri units there.

Yet in this seemingly smaller factory, she couldn't even mobilize the Rippers inside the factory building.

"Well, never mind. Let them stay here and continue working. Jaeger! Where's the fresh place you mentioned earlier!?"

"Yes, yes! And those luxurious furniture you talked about! The furniture in Reno's house is just too ugly!"

Joking aside, they were all just welded iron frames made of steel bars! It looks cheap at first glance! There's no style at all! It's not even good-looking!

"Follow me! It's in the hotel over there!" Perhaps to cater to Maria's mood, Jaeger didn't wear her powered exoskeleton this time, leading Maria and UMP9 toward the hotel by the seaside.

Probably because the conflict hadn't reached this area, the buildings south of the Sangvis Ferri Factory were almost intact, and the hotel Jaeger mentioned was right here.

And it didn't seem like there were any ELID infected. The people here seemed to have evacuated in advance.

Several hours later, Jaeger and Maria each carried a bed that looked quite luxurious, bringing them back triumphantly.

"What are you two doing? Why bring back two beds?" Just as they returned, M1 Garand, who was idling around, ran into them. Although the days without missions were quite leisurely, it seemed they had become too idle now.

"Of course, we're replacing the beds in the dormitory! The old ones are just too ugly!" Maria said, and together with Jaeger, she cheerfully moved the beds into their respective dormitories.

Then they quickly and skillfully cleaned the entire bed, placing their used mattresses and blankets on top.

Seeing their excited faces, M1 Garand and BM59 exchanged a glance, somewhat hesitant.

Should they tell them? About the fact that these ordinary beds couldn't support their current body weight at all?

The two beds they brought back did indeed look more than twice as good as the hastily made ones Reno had crafted, but unfortunately, they were all hotel supplies, and the quality was not as good as one imagined.

The headboard and frame were indeed made of hardwood... but the bed board...

Crack!

"Ouch!?"

However, before they could warn them, Maria had already rushed forward and pounced onto the bed she had just finished arranging... but the result was obvious.

A body weighing five to six hundred pounds fell from a height of two meters directly onto a regular bed board. Although there was a layer of cushioning, the bed Maria had personally brought back still couldn't hold up and split in half from the middle!

Seeing Maria being hit on the back of her head by the fallen bed headboard, M1 Garand and the others were about to step forward to help, but they heard another loud noise from the next room!

Crack! Crash!

Could it be that Jaeger next door also collapsed the bed, and the subsequent noise... could it be that even the floorboards were broken?

...

Seeing Maria with two nails stuck on her forehead, Reno sighed speechlessly, removed the nails, and then hurried her into the repair chamber. Jaeger wasn't injured, but she had indeed cracked a gap in the floorboards.

Although it was still habitable, they would definitely have to prohibit jumping around in the rooms in the future. It was definitely his oversight to let the Dolls live on the second floor.

The issue of reducing the weight of the dolls also needed to be put on the agenda.

Even though his main goal has enough materials and basic equipment now available, which is originally planned to build a transport vehicle first.

But now, it seemed that the weight of the Dolls had become a new problem... and there was also the energy problem. The incident where Angelia shut down the power line was still fresh in his memory. Although Reno was confident that StateSec wouldn't notice anything unusual in the nuclear power plant monitoring system, accidents were always possible.

He had thought that the household problems had been more or less resolved yesterday, and he could relax a little.

But on the second day...

Not only did he have to synthesize new materials for Doll bodies and draw new designs, but he also had to deal with Maria's demands for a decent bed...

...

Sizzle!

Watching the sparks flying in front of Reno as he welded metal decorative panels onto the bed frame, Angelia's serious expression disappeared in an instant.

With a deadpan expression, Angelia, somewhat headache-inducing, asked, "So? You said you were busy earlier, just to make beds for these Doll girls in your house? Are you planning to open a furniture factory!?"

This is serious business!? You rejected my conmission so decisively before! And now, it's just for this!?

"Get to the point, or I'll hang up."

Looking at Angelia on the phone screen, Reno gave her a helpless glance.

Did she really think he had a choice about it? It was Maria who started it, and then all these little rascals in the house immediately swarmed over.

Although he couldn't guarantee that he could handle everything perfectly, he still had to fulfill their small requests, right?

"I have a task for you, are you interested?" Arching an eyebrow, Angelia spoke up.

"Location, target, requirements, and how much will you pay me?" With his phone placed aside, Reno continued to weld the decorative panels, inquiring in a concise manner.

"It's simple, just a small task. It's in a city twenty-seven kilometers west of you. There's a an unruly group over there that seems to have obtained an unidentified mech from somewhere. Get the core storage of that mech. If possible, find out where it came from."

After Angelia finished speaking, she waited for Reno's reply, while Reno waited for Angelia to continue speaking.

Both sides remained silent.

After a long time, Angelia finally couldn't hold back anymore, "Could you at least ask about the money!? Does it hurt to say one more sentence!?"

Chapter Thirteen: Minor Tasks

"Open fire at will. Take out any threats you encounter. It's up to you to decide. Just ensure that the mech we need for the mission isn't destroyed before we retrieve what we came for,"

Renault instructed as he watched the city drawing closer, turning to the Tactical Dolls in the cockpit.

The task commissioned by Angelia suited Renault's preferences. As long as they obtained the item, whether by force or stealth, it didn't matter.

However, it was unbelievable that these ordinary gang members could get their hands on a mech. There was no trace of such a thing in the black market, let alone a complete one. Not even a single finger could be bought.

The location of this mission happened to be the city where Scarecrow had originally told them they could purchase supplies. Renault never imagined that Scarecrow would deceive them, and it was likely that the gang mentioned by Angelia just happened to be in this location.

However, there were no barricades surrounding this city, and there were no anti-aircraft weapons within the city.

Angelia's intelligence this time was accurate.

Even if the gang members had individual anti-air missiles, who would be free to stare at the sky in the middle of the night? And what would hearing a helicopter sound signify?

Helicopters were often used by wealthy individuals for transportation, so hearing one in this city didn't mean much for the citizens in it.

Therefore, when Simonov flew the helicopter directly towards the warehouse of the gang's headquarters, none of the idle gang members realized what was happening.

"Commander, I'll be back in ten minutes," Simonov said, opening the rear cabin door of the helicopter and giving Renault a thumbs-up.

"Alright, I'll contact you in case of any unexpected situations. Take care," Renault replied, waving to the Tactical Dolls in the cockpit, indicating for them to jump down directly.

The Tactical Dolls who received Renault's instructions immediately jumped out of the rear cabin door without hesitation!

Renault also gestured to UMP40 beside him.

"Um, Commander, don't we have parachutes or something?" UMP40, not far below on the warehouse roof, asked with concern.

"No, why would we need parachutes for just over twenty meters high? Hurry up and jump. Don't cause trouble for Simonov."

The helicopter wasn't completely in a hover at the moment.

Seeing that he and a few Tactical Dolls were about to be separated from the warehouse beneath their feet, Renault grabbed UMP40 and smashed through the roof of the warehouse!

It was too dangerous for the helicopter to stay above the gang's headquarters, a still target is a still target after all, so Renault naturally wouldn't let Simonov wait in the air.

As soon as they jumped down, Simonov would immediately leave this airspace. At the very least, he needed to ensure that they wouldn't be hit by something like an RPG, even though the chance rate was extremely low, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Without the helicopter, was he supposed to repair a car on the spot and then spend several hours driving back home?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The six Tactical Dolls who had jumped down earlier landed in pairs, crashing onto the ground in three waves.

The loud impact sounds and the sudden appearance of these black powered armor units under their noses startled the nearby gang members, immediately alerting them!

Each of them grabbed their weapons, rushing towards the six powered exoskeletons as if they were fearless of death.

Although the appearance of the powered exoskeletons was somewhat strange, it was not uncommon for oddly shaped powered armor units to appear among various underground gangs. It was normal for one or two models to be different from the standard types.

But these things weren't anything to be afraid of! They could be pierced through with armor-piercing rounds! Or just blow them up with RPGs! They had dealt with these tin cans before!

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The sound of gunfire rang out from the weapons in the hands of the gang members. At first, the Tactical Dolls in powered exoskeletons hesitated, but after the gang members attacked first, they showed no mercy and immediately pulled the triggers on the weapons mounted on their powered exoskeletons.

Renault and UMP40, at this moment, successfully smashed through the roof of the warehouse! They crashed into a black and white mech inside the warehouse!

Boom!

Because UMP40 was carrying electronic warfare equipment, Renault didn't let her free fall. Instead, he lifted her up, and after landing, Renault shook his arms and jumped down holding her... with a little burden.

Seeing Renault tossing UMP40, she rolled her eyes, but the tension from just now immediately dissipated. Turning around and looking at the huge figure in the warehouse, standing at over four meters tall, she said, "Commander, this should be the mission target."

"Yes, these guys really managed to get their hands on something extraordinary. Fortunately, this thing didn't start up just now."

The black and white mech was clearly in the process of being repainted. These gang members seemed to want to completely cover up the mech's original white body, but what could just repainting achieve?

Even the most deceitful deception wouldn't be this self-deceiving. Just the 12-tube missile launcher on its shoulder was not something ordinary, let alone the weapon mounted on the mech's right arm, which was clearly not an old-fashioned cannon but a full-fledged particle weapon.

However, Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing did not produce such large mechs, and particle weapons were only installed on autonomous units for technical verification.

As for large-scale particle weapons, they certainly existed, but those things were mostly directly supplied to the military, and under normal circumstances, it was impossible to buy them, not even in the so-called black market where everything could supposedly be bought.

It could be seen how tightly those military folks were guarding those things. However, these gang members in front of them, who seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of misfits, actually managed to get their hands on a mech from somewhere.

Moreover, it was intact, with no signs of disassembly on any external weapons and equipment.

As Renault spoke, he pointed to a figure that had run out of a nearby room and had immediately started climbing towards the cockpit of the mech.

Whether he was confident or simply oblivious to Renault and UMP40, the guy completely ignored their presence and focused on climbing into the cockpit.

Unfortunately, his weight was a bit too much, and after struggling for a few dozen seconds, he only managed to climb from the mech's feet to its waist. It would take some arm strength to get into the cockpit completely.

However, those few seconds were enough for people like Renault, who stepped forward and grabbed the guy's waist belt from his protective suit, pulling him down from the climbing ladder and causing him to fall heavily to the ground!

"Ah!? Who are you people!?"

"Are the communications on other channels blocked here?" Renault ignored the guy and instead looked at UMP40.

He had brought her along this time and had even removed the electronic warfare equipment from UMP45 for her to wear. Wasn't it for situations like this now?

Chapter Fourteen: Blundered!

"Communication devices here have all been blocked, but it's not ruled out that they're using wired devices to communicate. Maximum blockade time is five minutes," reported UMP40.

"That's enough. You heard it, mission objective is secured. Get it done within two minutes," said Reno, pinching the microphone hanging on his ear while assessing the situation in the warehouse.

Two minutes?

The M1 Garand team in the communication device hadn't responded yet. UMP40, upon hearing this, was taken aback.

This place occupied by an unknown faction used to be a small storage area. Several warehouses were located around an open area in the center.

Besides this largest warehouse, the other warehouses had more or less personnel going in and out. Just now, when she glanced roughly at the sky, she saw that there were at least a hundred people armed, not to mention those who hadn't come out of the warehouses yet.

With so many people, could the M1 Garand team of six really manage to... within two minutes?

"Understood."

UMP40's mind hadn't quite wrapped around the situation yet, but M1 Garand, who was outside the warehouse, immediately responded, followed by a sudden burst of machine gun and cannon fire from outside the warehouse gate.

Although gunfire had been ringing out for a while, hearing the gunfire so close to the warehouse entrance startled the guy in front of Reno.

"Commander, this guy doesn't seem like he's from this gang." Not only was he fat, his movements were incredibly slow. What gang would recruit such a useless person? He might collapse from exhaustion before he even got into battle.

"I can see that, but it's none of our concern. Tie him up. I'll go up and check." Pointing to the scattered iron chains in the warehouse, Reno said, stepping over the man in front of him and jumping into the cockpit of the mech.

Bang!

Just as Reno jumped onto the mech, the small door at the back of the warehouse was pushed open, and a group of armed gang members rushed in!

"Hurry! There are enemies here too! Protect the mech! Take out that guy on the mech!" Several enemies who rushed in from the back immediately spotted Reno standing at the cockpit door of the mech. Before the words even finished, they started shooting!

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Forget about aiming, just open fire and suppress the enemy first!

Facing this, Reno could only jump down from the mech and drag the guy on the ground behind it for cover.

These guys didn't hesitate to shoot. Clearly, they hadn't recognized who the guy lying on the ground was, or perhaps they recognized him but intended to eliminate him along with the rest. In gangs, betrayals like this weren't uncommon.

UMP40, seeing this, was also stunned but quickly took cover behind some debris.

Unfortunately, this pile of stuff didn't offer much ballistic protection. Before she could catch her breath, she felt sharp pains in several parts of her body!

She got hit!

Thinking about this, UMP40 panicked inexplicably. Since regaining her body, she found herself more concerned about the condition of her original body than ever before, worrying that she might die in this mission...

She didn't want to die here!

"Commander, it seems like the communication blockade by these enemies has been lifted. What's happening inside the warehouse!?" M1 Garand's inquiry immediately sounded, accompanied by the chaotic shouts on the public communication channel.

"It's okay, just a few guys rushed in. Focus on the enemies outside. I'll handle things here."

Tapping the neck of the fat guy beside him, rendering him unconscious, Reno jumped out from behind the mech and ran over to UMP40, gesturing for her to shoot down the enemies closest to her.

Seeing Reno rushing out, UMP40 felt somewhat relieved, nodded, raised her gun, and leaned out from behind cover, intending to catch the enemies off guard!

Click! Click-click!

However, just as UMP40 pulled the trigger, instead of gunfire, there was only the crisp sound of the trigger being pulled.

Even amidst the gunfire in the warehouse, Reno still distinctly heard the sound of the weapon in UMP40's hand.

And UMP40, who had some confidence in taking down the few guys in front of her, felt her heart sink... She... She forgot that the gun in her hand wasn't her own imprinted weapon!

It was borrowed from UMP45... It was UMP45's imprinted weapon!? The safety lock on imprinted weapons hadn't been removed! The electronic intrusion device! Where's the electronic intrusion device!?

But it didn't matter, as long as she had UMP45's electronic intrusion device, she could immediately unlock the safety lock mode of the imprinted weapon...

The electronic device was damaged by the shots just now!

Because Reno hadn't integrated UMP45's electronic warfare equipment into UMP40's body, but instead made it an external attachment hanging on her waist. Unfortunately, the shots just now hit UMP40's electronic warfare equipment directly!

Seeing UMP40 holding the gun in confusion, Reno sighed helplessly, took the imprinted weapon that couldn't be fired from her hand, and handed her his axe.

Most of the ammunition in his coat was grenades and incendiary bombs. The last smoke bomb had been used up, and concussion grenades weren't very effective against infected or people wearing full protective gear. He hadn't thought about making them.

And using grenades and incendiary bombs in the warehouse could cause it to collapse or start a large fire.

Their main objective this time was to retrieve the data from the mech. Any attack that could potentially destroy the mech had to be avoided as much as possible.

Seeing Reno reluctantly take out the axe that was already curled and had many notches, UMP40 couldn't help but tense up.

She messed up the mission! Is the commander in danger now!?

Chapter Fifteen: Can We Ask for More Money?

Without waiting for UMP40 to say anything, Reno had already rushed out with an axe in hand!

"Commander!?"

Splat!

Before UMP40 could even stop him in astonishment, the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh echoed from the smoke!

UMP40 didn't even hear any screams, and the smoke made it impossible to see anything clearly.

"Damn it! Cough Cough! Where did that guy go!?" Several gang members, coughing uncomfortably, rushed out from the smoke, guns in hand, clearly not having encountered Reno.

Seeing these guys rushing out, UMP40 immediately widened her eyes. It was too late to relocate now, and rushing out recklessly would undoubtedly result in dozens more bullet holes in her body!

Most of the guns these people were carrying were assault rifles, which was also the main reason they were able to penetrate the cover in front of UMP40 and damage the electronic warfare equipment on her waist.

Otherwise, if it were ordinary submachine gun bullets, it would be another story whether they could penetrate the cover.

"Over there! It's a T-Doll! Take her out!" Half exposing herself to observe UMP40 in the smoke, these guys immediately spotted her and raised their guns.

With so many of them, each armed, how could they fear a single T-Doll? Moreover, since they rushed in, they hadn't heard any gunfire from the T-Doll.

Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Just as UMP40 hesitated whether to protect the vital parts of her body, four gunshots rang out from the other side of the smoke!

Four pistol bullets accurately hit the temples of several enemies holding guns, and Reno's figure vanished from the edge of the smoke.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The crisp gunfire of assault rifles immediately followed from the smoke, and the chaotic footsteps in the smoke disappeared instantly.

Then UMP40 saw Reno walk out of the smoke, raise his hand, and throw a rifle towards her.

"No submachine guns available, so use this for now." Also an HK product, the G3 assault rifle was indeed a predecessor to UMP40.

UMP40 somewhat dazedly took the assault rifle thrown by Reno, along with several magazines.

She then looked at the weapon in Reno's hand...

The axe with a curled blade had disappeared somewhere, replaced by a dark curved blade.

In addition to that, Reno had two pistols hanging from his waist, one assault rifle in his hand, and another one on his back.

This...

Seeing Reno's current appearance, UMP40 suddenly remembered that CF05 had once described how formidable Reno's combat power was.

During the attack by the mercenary convoy earlier, Reno didn't do much combat.

Although he killed one of the mercenaries bare-handed, this achievement was soon overshadowed by the exaggerated achievements of A-91 and others.

Simonev never mentioned their subsequent action of seizing the helicopter again, and UMP40 didn't inquire much about it.

After all, she wasn't very familiar with them at the time, and it wasn't appropriate to pry into operational details.

Now it seemed that CF05's description of Reno's combat power was not exaggerated at all...

"Don't just stand there. Things outside are almost done. Hurry up and tie up that fatty over there. Bringing him back can earn us a lot more money." Reno picked up an iron chain nearby and tossed it to UMP40. Then, he jumped onto the mech and continued what he hadn't finished earlier.

Watching Reno act like as if nothing had happened, UMP40 couldn't help but blush.

She raised her hand to touch the area on her lower back where she had been shot just now, but found no signs of fluid leakage.

However, when she touched it, she felt a stinging sensation from the prosthetic skin's pain module system, confirming that her being shot just now was not an illusion.

"Commander, the enemies outside have been eliminated," M1 Garand's voice sounded at just the right moment.

Then, the warehouse door was opened by Nagant Revolver and Vector, both wearing powered exoskeletons.

"Oh wow! So this is really a big guy! No wonder Angelia wanted to commission us." Looking at the huge mech nearly five meters tall in the warehouse, Nagant Revolver exclaimed in surprise.

"Injured?" Vector looked over at UMP40. At this moment, UMP40 was facing away from the door, tying up the fat man with an iron chain, so Vector saw the bullet holes behind UMP40.

"Huh? No! No, it's just... probably a scratch." Hearing Vector's words, UMP40 blushed.

Her commander was fine, but as a tactical doll, she had been hit by a dozen bullets...

It was a bit embarrassing to say the least...

Although UMP40 immediately turned around to cover up the bullet holes behind her, Nagant Revolver had already walked up to her and, with the powered exoskeleton's large hand, grabbed UMP40 and looked down at the bullet holes.

"It's fine. It's just a bit of broken skin. This minor injury will heal in a few minutes after we return, but the electronic warfare equipment is beyond repair." With some regret, Nagant Revolver looked at the broken electronic warfare equipment on UMP40's back and shook her head.

While several dolls were checking on UMP40's injuries, Reno had successfully started the mech, controlled it to walk out of the warehouse door, and then removed the main control module from the mech.

"Alright, UMP40, toss that fatty into the cockpit. Let's bring this big guy back. Since Simonov hasn't returned yet, let's see if there's anything valuable in the base." Reno waved his hand towards the warehouse full of bullet holes.

"Got it!" Hearing Reno's words, Nagant Revolver was the first to run out. She just loved the feeling of picking up things!

M1 Garand and P38 also nodded and ran out, as did Vector and BM59. Only MG3 scratched her head somewhat helplessly, walking out slowly. She actually wanted to stay at home and relax.

But since M200 and NZ75 had not yet tried using powered exoskeletons, they had to accompany Reno on the mission along with the other "old folks."

In just a few minutes, Nagant Revolver and the others had ransacked the entire gang base, bringing out everything that could be used, whether it was materials or ammunition.

But Nagant Revolver seeemed abit too happy-trigger on taking things.

"What? Nagant Revolver, why do you need this kettle? We have one at home. And this, why did you even bring out the kitchen gas cylinder?" Compared to the weapons and ammunition brought over by M1 Garand and BM59, Nagant Revolver seemed to want to take everything, whether it was a computer that looked damaged or a rusty kitchen knife from the kitchen.

This guy was simply indiscriminate, taking anything and everything. If P38 hadn't stopped her from picking up junk, the open space would have been filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items in no time.

"Well, there are still quite a few things that are useful, like these ropes."

Chapter 16 Let Me Down!

"Sorry, it's just too heavy. With all this stuff, the weight is just too much to handle!" Simonov shouted to Nagant Revolver, who was sitting next to her.

The guy wanted to bring too many things along. The space inside the cabin was limited, and so was the payload. Just the mech alone weighed close to ten tons, not to mention the various ammunition and supplies M1 Garand and others scavenged from this camp.

The total weight was nearly twenty tons, plus powered exoskeletons, and their already heavy bodies...

Although the helicopter's payload should be more than that, for safety's sake, Reno didn't let Nagant bring all those items, especially since they were all used!

Wasn't there enough machinery and materials at home to make anything they needed?

"I got it." Hearing Simonov's words, Nagant felt a bit resentful, but she could only acknowledge it.

"Alright, stop pouting. Don't always think about picking up garbage from others. Why not buy new ones?" Reno rubbed Nagant's head speechlessly, and then pressed down the Cossack hat on her head.

As he spoke, he shook the phone in his hand, showing Angelia's incoming call.

This guy was really too impatient, but it happened to be a good timing since they were just finishing up.

Seeing Angelia's call, Nagant's eyes also lit up.

When the employer called, what else could it be besides confirming the completion of the commission?

Although it had only been about an hour since they received Angelia's call and completed the task, obviously, Angelia as a StateSec agent wouldn't casually make a call.

The reward for the commission was obviously satisfactory to Reno, at the very least, it covered the fuel and ammunition expenses.

And with a generous reward, it naturally meant Reno could spend more extra money on buying things.

"Reno, be careful. I just received a message. A team has already set off towards the gang's stronghold. It's still unclear who those people are, but they may be armed with heavy firepower. Be cautious when you act..."

Angelia's voice sounded anxious as soon as the call connected.

Apparently, she didn't realize that Reno and his team had already cleared out the gang's stronghold and were now returning with their spoils.

"Huh? What do you mean? We're already back. You don't think we haven't done anything yet, do you?" Hearing this, Reno raised his eyebrows.

This guy thought they were lone wolves like UMP45 and UMP9?

If it were like UMP45, even though she had her electronic warfare equipment that could temporarily block the opponent's communication, sneaking into such a large gang's stronghold would still be a bit difficult for the two dolls.

Of course, it wasn't impossible, but it required meticulous planning, and they had to be careful to avoid the gang members during the operation. In short, it will take a while and has risks.

"Back? Back already?! It's been less than an hour! How did you manage that!?" Angelia exclaimed in surprise. She had called to warn them that reinforcements might be coming to the stronghold, but instead of hearing something like "Roger, understood," she was told they had already finished the job?

This was too fast, right!?

Similar operations had been experienced within StateSec, but from the issuance of the mission, gathering manpower, informing the details of the mission, arranging the operational plan, and preparing their equipment.

This series of events until the start of the operation would take at least half an hour. Plus the time spent on the journey, it would be close to an hour before the operation started.

And this time, the target for Reno and his team was a large gang stronghold, with at least a hundred armed personnel. Even if those guys were all brainless fools waiting to be shot by Reno and his team, it wouldn't be possible to finish so quickly, right!?

"Don't worry about the process. Anyway, the mission is completed now. I've got the data you wanted, and as for the origin of the mech, I've also caught a live specimen who knows something about it. You decide whether to accept it or not based on the situation. That's it, oh yeah, remember to pay me more money."

Pay...more money!?

What...I just sent the mission less than an hour ago? And now it's going to increase in price again?

Luckily, the gang's stronghold was only about twenty kilometers away from Reno's factory area, and the helicopter returned with the mech suspended in just a few minutes. G36 and SPAS-12 from home also came out to help remove the cargo.

"Wow! Commander! It looks like we're going to make a fortune this time! Even this military-grade mech is brought back. Shall we sell it?" This time MDR learned well, instead of taking photos of the mech right away, she took pictures of all those boxes of supplies.

"What are you thinking? No one would dare to buy this thing." It was a tough job to buy weapons from an aircraft graveyard on the black market, let alone this nearly ten-ton giant toy.

After buying it, where would they send it? Those who didn't have connections, not long after buying it, would not welcome high-quality partners but rather the military personnel's inquiries and StateSec's reprimands.

Reno definitely wouldn't sell this mech. It looked like an experimental model, and he didn't know if its performance was superior, but Reno really didn't fancy it.

The reason was the same as why Reno didn't continue to manufacture powered exoskeletons; the power couldn't keep up, and the continuous combat time was too short. To use this mech, he would need a power supply unit that could supply the mech with energy anytime and anywhere, day and night.

Otherwise, this thing would just be a piece of scrap iron that would crash halfway through the battle.

Of course, there was no problem using it at home. It just happened that he lacked a large construction device now. A slight modification of this thing should be fine to make a simplified version of an SCV.

At home, there was no need to worry about a lack of power supply.

"Let me out! Let go of me! Let me go! Who are you people!?" While Reno was speaking, a vigorous voice came from the cockpit of the mech.

The fat man who had just been tied up and thrown into the cockpit by UMP40 had just woken up at this moment. It seemed that wearing protective clothing still had some effect; at least this guy didn't faint for five or six hours as Reno expected.

"Commander? What should we do with this guy?" SPAS-12 pulled the fat man out of the cockpit and asked Reno.

"Find a chain and hang him from the ceiling beam. When Angelia comes, see if they want him. If they don't, just throw him away."

Thrown away!?

As soon as the fat man heard Reno say this, he was scared into silence. But then he reacted. Who knew what kind of people would come to collect him! If they didn't want him, he would be doomed!?

"Wait! Wait! Hey! Let me down! Help!" Without waiting for him to react, SPAS-12 had already deftly used the chain to hoist him up.

Chapter 17: Let's See How You Dance!

"Go on, patch up those holes on your body." Reno nudged UMP40 in the direction of the workshop.

This guy was worried because her electronic warfare equipment got damaged.

"Commander... you..."

"Enough, don't worry about it. It's just electronic warfare equipment. Instead of worrying that I'll blame you, think about how to calm this guy down."

Reno rolled his eyes and glanced at UMP45, who was continuously banging her head against his shins.

This guy, UMP40, only got a few scratches because she wasn't paying attention, so why was she so annoyed?

"It's definitely because of you that 40 ran off to do something dangerous! Her entire back is full of bullet holes!?" UMP45 yelled loudly, and UMP9 joined the fun with her.

Eventually, the two Dinergates attacking Reno's legs were picked up by UMP40, who apologized to Reno before running out of the workshop.

"Such a narrow-minded guy." Reno sighed helplessly as she watched UMP45, who was still waving her chopstick-like legs on UMP40's shoulder, "So, what did you wDinergate to say standing behind me?"

Turning around, Reno looked at HK416, who had just come out from around the corner, "Why didn't you bring your little girl with you?"

"What! What girl! I'm not Elf's mother! Besides, dolls don't even..." HK416 was shocked by this statement, and her second half of the sentence was choked back by Reno's playful smile.

This guy was clearly just teasing her!

Absolutely outrageous!

Just like when this guy insisted on putting her in the bicycle basket!

"Elf? Is that the name of the little girl?" Reno didn't expect the petite Doll to have a name. After all, his own Dolls had been around for so long, and he never thought about giving them names.

"MP5 and C96 came up with it. We can't just leave her without a name." HK416 seemed calmer now, but what she wDinergateed was not to help G36 in the kitchen with MP5 and C96 every day!

She wDinergateed to regain her identity as a tactical Doll!

She wDinergates to return to the battlefield!

"So, what's up? Did you come here to talk to me alone?"

"I... I wDinergate a fire control core and weapons! I wDinergate to become a tactical Doll again!"

Staring at Reno in front of her with apprehension, HK416 said firmly.

"Well, weapons are no problem, but I don't have a fire control core. Ordering one from the black market is too expensive, and those guys won't deliver to this place. As for the imprinting system, I won't install that for you. It's not very useful."

In essence, it was just a transitional product created to compensate for the fact that autonomous Dolls were not familiar with the performance of weapons when they first acquired them, resulting in low accuracy.

The only difference between a tactical Doll and a real living soldier was probably that the former could go into battle right out of the factory, without training or cultivation, and even if destroyed, could be remade in minutes.

Even without a weapon imprinting system, as long as they held a non-imprint weapon for a long time, wouldn't they still be able to aim accurately?

Dolls wouldn't tremble due to arm muscle memory during combat, nor would they have the gun barrel swaying issue caused by breathing frequency when shooting.

Like Simonov, even if she didn't have her original imprint weapon in her hand, just an ordinary SKS, wouldn't she still be able to aim accurately?

That guy can even handle an AK15 now.

Although Dolls didn't have muscle memory, they only needed to record the data of their accurate shooting in their neural core, and they would never miss the next time.

Hearing Reno's words, HK416 couldn't help feeling disappointed. Without a fire control core, could she still be considered one of IOP's elite tactical Dolls?

"Alright, stop standing there foolishly. I've fixed your gun, although the imprinting system is gone, it's still usable. Practice with it every day once you get the gun. I don't have anything else here, but there are plenty of bullets."

They just robbed tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition from that gang's base, which was more than enough for HK416 to practice with.

Saying that, Reno led HK416 straight to the workshop.

However, as soon as he opened the door, a dark figure pounced on him!

"What are you doing! What do you want to do while 40 is being repaired!? Do you not want your nose anymore!?"

UMP45's voice approached, and before Reno could react, the camera lens of the Dinergate had already collided with his nose!

Crack!

"Huh!?" Hearing this crisp sound, HK416, who was following behind Reno, was also startled.

Was this guy's nose broken!?

"Ouch! That really hurts... What are you... huh!"

Reno rolled his eyes and rubbed his nose as he realized what UMP45 was trying to do.

Trying to break his nose? That was too naive. His bones were not so easily broken!

A 300-kilogram Doll might have been close, but you, a 2-3-kilogram Dinergate, want to break his bones?

"Ah!? My camera! My lens is cracked!? 9! Where are you! Come and help me!"

Perhaps seeing that UMP40 was injured causing her to lose her intelligence, or perhaps being influenced by the relaxed atmosphere on Reno's side, UMP45's behavior...

She seemed to be getting closer to MDR and C96's fusion, becoming more and more erratic!

Hmm, she needed to be straightened out.

Bending down, Reno pinched UMP45 up and walked straight to the workbench, taking the gun that HK416 had brought over from the side and handing it to HK416.

"Here you go, go ask M1 Garand for bullets. If you want a place to practice, ask M200 or BM59. They often practice together."

With that said, Reno took out tools from the drawer, intending to repair UMP45. Of course, to let this guy understand the consequences of offending a repairman, he decided to make a small modification to UMP45.

"What are you doing!? What are you doing to my legs!? Are you going to break my legs!? First, fix my lens!"

Feeling Reno expertly removing a few of the Dinergate's chopstick legs, UMP45 was now starting to panic a bit.

Just now, she was too focused on being angry and completely forgot that she was a powerless Dinergate!

"Don't worry, I'll fix it for you, but I don't have replacement parts for Dinergates at the moment, so I'll have to inconvenience you temporarily. I'll put something good on you instead. This is the treasure brought back by Nagant Revolver. Don't tell her I dismantled some of her collection."

As he spoke, Reno's hands were busy, skillfully installing what he called "good stuff" on UMP45!

The external camera salvaged, plus the oversized toy car tires, fitted perfectly on the Dinergate!

She was like a Toy car right now!

Chapter 18: Water Leaked into the Protective Suit

"Repairs are complete. Try out your new equipment." With the final wire connected, Reno patted the external camera mounted on UMP45's shell.

"Whoa! What's this?! The whole world is shaking! An earthquake... no, what is this thing!?"

Just as UMP45 opened her eyes and noticed that the clarity of her vision seemed to have improved, she was startled by what the camera captured!

She actually saw the back of her head... no, wait! It was the back of an Dinergate! And there were mini tires that should have been connected to the positions of the two chopstick-like front legs!?

The more she looked, the more it resembled something torn off a toy!

"Alright, take your time to enjoy it. I have another client to attend to."

With a wave of his hand and a smile, Reno walked out of the workshop.

Angelia arrived pretty quickly this time, within just over an hour. Was she waiting by the helicopter the whole time?

"Wait! Come back! How am I supposed to get down from the table like this!?"

UMP45, feeling nervous, tried to turn the few wheels she had just put on, hesitating to directly descend from the one-meter-high 'cliff' to the ground.

The Dinergate's shell wasn't that sturdy, and she was still using a regular external camera.

Who knows if dropping from the table would break it!

"Sorry, 45, I also... wait! Let me see if I can find a cardboard box!"

UMP9 was about to say she couldn't help either, but then she remembered the cardboard boxes piled up in the storeroom.

Most of them were left by Nagant Revolver, originally used to store snacks, but G36 had moved the snacks to the warehouse next to the kitchen, rendering the boxes useless.

However, Nagant Revolver still collected all these boxes and stacked them in the storeroom next to the workshop.

"Huh?" Before UMP45 could react, UMP9 had already rushed out with her short legs.

...

"Seriously, every time I come here, I have to wear this thick protective suit. When are you going to move to a place that's not in the contaminated zone?"

Just jumped off the helicopter, Angelia began to complain to Reno.

"I can, if you find me a place with all the facilities and rent and utilities waived, I'll move."

Reno said and glanced at the cockpit of the helicopter.

Apparently, Angelia didn't bring Del and Hill this time. The two pilots in the cockpit seemed to be Statesec agents.

"Forget it, I can't find such a place. Rent might be possible, but utilities... tsk tsk." Although she didn't know what Reno did to the main control equipment of the nuclear power plant, she sent someone to check it later. The status displayed on the line indicated that the power had been cut off from Reno's side long ago.

But obviously, that wasn't the case. How did Reno manage to supply electricity to his home with over twenty T-Dolls? Although the power consumption of T-Dolls was not high individually, it was still a considerable amount when multiplied.

Plus, this guy modified his own T-Dolls, the power consumption must be far beyond the ordinary doll produced by IOP.

"Let's go, let's go see that fatty, it would be best to take him away. I don't have spare food to feed prisoners here."

Waving his hand, Reno led Angelia straight to the warehouse where the Mech were stored.

Of course, the two pilots didn't come down. Otherwise, Reno would have brought the person out directly.

It was still daytime now, although the sun couldn't be seen at all these days, the brightness at the moment obviously didn't require turning on the lights.

The dormitory area was quiet, as were the several factories. The vertical farms were lit up, but Reno had covered the factory building with light-blocking materials, so no light could be seen from the outside.

There was light in the breeding area, but the factory building was conveniently blocked by the dormitory building. The two pilots in the cockpit could only see it after getting off and running four or five hundred meters around the dormitory building. Otherwise, it was the same as here, and nothing could be seen.

As Reno pushed open the small door of the warehouse and let Angelia in, the first thing that caught her eye startled her,

"You!? You actually brought this thing back!?"

Angelia was surprised.

She didn't expect Reno to bring this thing back! Even if this mech might be a test product made by a military industrial enterprise, it was still a mech.

Heavy armed equipment, even if there was only one, was unlikely to cause any harm to a city with large isolation walls, but the risk definitely existed.

They only built a circle of isolation walls around the city, not completely enclosing the entire green zone!

There would always be one or two weak defense points where those with malicious intentions could enter.

If someone piloted a mech and rushed into the green zone, sabotaging communication or transportation lines between cities, or even attacking passing vehicles and convoys... regardless of the outcome, no one would be willing to take responsibility for it.

"Leaving it there won't work either. If those guys took it away, it would be a pity if it was bombed. It's better to bring it back and modify it to be used as an engineering robot. Overall, its usefulness is only at this level."

Listening to Reno's words, and considering his somewhat contemptuous tone, Angelia couldn't help but roll her eyes.

Who are you trying to provoke? If you don't like this thing, why bring it back? Why don't you just dismantle the mech into parts?

"Alright, stop showing off your eyes. Look at this guy, captured from the enemy's base. When we attacked, this guy was frantically trying to climb into the cockpit, but unfortunately, this guy couldn't get up there."

Unfastening the iron chain tied to the pillar, Reno let the fatty, who had fallen onto the ground from the ceiling, down. However, this guy seemed to be silent now. Could he be dead?

This was strange. It had only been about an hour, and SPAS-12 hadn't hung him upside down. Shouldn't this situation be impossible?

Crack!

The fatty dropped to the ground like a boneless worm, making a loud noise. Except for the sound of landing, both Reno and Angelia clearly heard a gurgling noise, sounding like water...

"Ah!? No! Don't kill me! Let me go! Let me go!"

A few seconds later, the fatty lying on the ground struggled to get up, twisting his body while wailing miserably, as if Reno had subjected him to inhumane torture.

"How about it, do you want this guy? If not, I'll deal with him nearby. There's a graveyard just a few steps south."

Frowning, Angelia looked down at the fatty, "Yes... this guy looks familiar, I think I've seen him in the data. It's better to take him back for verification."

Chapter 19: Why Change?

"How much?"

Just after bidding farewell to Angelia, MDR leaned over to Reno, peering at the screen of his phone, eager to see how much money they had earned from this commission.

Upon seeing the number on the screen, MDR couldn't help but sigh disappointedly, "What a pity, such little money. This commission feels like a loss!"

"Be content; it's not bad. You can't pick up gold every time you go out."

Angelia's reward was obviously not comparable to the gold they found on the train before, or even the previous time they transported collapsed fluid.

But those two times were indeed accidents. How could the normal commission reward compare to those two times?

"What? Are you thinking of buying something you can't afford again?"

MDR certainly had money, and Reno did give pocket money to his family.

Of course, the opportunities for the family's dolls to spend money were very limited, especially after moving to this uninhabited area. Even if they had money, they couldn't spend it.

RFB was an exception. She enjoyed spending money on online games. Fortunately, there was only one like her in the family. Otherwise, if there were several like her, all the family's dolls would become creditors.

But it seemed like a lot of Simonov's salary was borrowed by RFB...

"No, no, no, I'm not like that guy RFB, just curious."

And now there was nothing to buy. MDR, the one Griffin's MDR, didn't know where she had gone recently. She was probably on a mission in a place with no signal, and there were hardly any opponents left on the anonymous forum.

As they were talking, the two of them heard a crisp laughter coming from the direction of the workshop, sounding like UMP40, with the voices of other dolls.

"Ahahaha! 45! You look so funny! Hahaha!" UMP40's laughter echoed from the workshop, and Reno also saw the situation inside the workshop.

MP5 and MP40, who came with Elf to find HK416, were next to them, trying hard not to burst into laughter.

"Whose fault do you think this is! Quickly bring Reno back! I don't want to stay in this ridiculous state any longer!"

UMP45 yelled hysterically, her remaining three wheels spinning helplessly.

UMP9's plan to get UMP45 off the table using a cardboard box had ultimately failed.

As a result, UMP45 had paid the price of a wheel, and now she was struggling just to maintain balance.

Not to mention the trembling camera on her back, shaking up and down with her movements, her field of view was all over the place! At this rate, she would either die from others laughing at her, or from the intense shaking of her field of view!

"Heh, you realize your mistake now?"

Reno walked in with a smile, looking down at UMP45 spinning on the ground.

"You! You're just retaliating!"

"Mhm, yes, you're right. So what?"

Reno grinned, not bothering to hide anything.

Of course, this wasn't all about retaliation. It's just that UMP45 had gone too far in trying to break his nose.

The iron-blooded Dinergate, was originally just a highly praised robotic pet in the civilian market, It modified by Sangvis to serve as a reconnaissance unit by adding a high-definition camera and some other devices.

After all, this thing was extremely cheap, and if it was only used for reconnaissance, there was no need to be too demanding on the materials used in the body, so the original civilian materials were sufficient.

However, UMP45 had overloaded some of the motors inside the Dinergate in order to jump to a height of 1.8 meters.

Removing the chopstick legs was to reduce the load on several drive motors inside her body, otherwise, if she accidentally burned up, it would be disastrous if her neural core was scorched.

"It's my fault! Anyway, please fix me quickly!" Watching UMP9 still unconsciously running around her, UMP45 felt like crying.

"There's nothing I can do. This Dinergate's body has been almost ruined by you. If you don't mind burning your neural core, I can put the chopstick legs back on for you, but I suggest you wait obediently. The new bodies are almost finished, and then you won't be confined to that anymore."

Pointing to the printing equipment next to the repair pod, where several bodies were nearing completion, the production speed of these bodies had also increased significantly after becoming familiar with the new equipment.

Anyway, it was definitely faster than before, when he had to manually polish them with a lathe.

Huh?

"Is my body in there?"

Hearing Reno's words, UMP45 couldn't help but be stunned.

She thought she would have to wait a long time, but it turned out her body was about to be completed?

The speed was too fast. If IOP was this efficient, Griffin's commanders wouldn't have been so troubled by the delays in every tactical doll order.

"It's your bodies, including UMP9's, HK416's, and Elf's." Saying so, Reno turned to look at the HK416 group who hadn't left yet.

"And mine!?"

Hearing Reno's words, HK416 was also delighted. She had just thought that Reno was unwilling to change her body, but it turned out everything was ready!

"Of course, it's almost time. Are you going to have dinner first or stay here for the neural transfer?"

Looking at the time, there were only a few hours left until the bodies were finished. It was now the time to transfer the neural cloud of HK416's group. When they were finished, they could directly put their neural cores into the new bodies.

Neural transfer?

Just hearing Reno's words, both UMP45 and HK416 frowned.

"Is it necessary? Our neural cores aren't damaged, are they?"

HK416 asked strangely. She had almost been melted away not long ago, and now when she heard something about the neural cores, she couldn't help but be alert again.

"They're not damaged indeed, but they're too small. With a bigger neural core, you'll learn faster."

As he spoke, Reno directly took out a homemade neural core from the box and placed it on the table. "Here, this is the new neural core."

Seeing the neural core on the table, which was about the size of two fists put together, UMP45 couldn't help but feel strange.

Wasn't this the normal type of neural core? Aren't all the ones used by dolls this type?

About to ask, she was stopped by Reno raising his hand.

And then, Reno directly took out tools and opened the outer shell of the neural core, letting them see the main body of the neural core, which was not much smaller inside.

At the same time, Reno took out several neural cores removed from others from another box and placed them in front of the group.

Chapter 20: A Shiver Down the Spine

"This is your brains... no, your neural cores, the type you used before." Reno lined up five neural cores, devoid of any data, in front of UMP45's group.

Looking at the five neural cores on the table, ranging from large to small, HK416 tilted her head, "So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? Isn't it obvious? The largest one here was previously used by Maria."

Hearing Reno's words, all the dolls turned their attention to the neural core embedded with several bullet fragments, with the largest one deeply embedded inside.

So... that Sangvis Ferri Destroyer, was it really saved by Reno after being damaged like this?

"The second one in size was used by UMP40."

It wasn't as large as Maria's, but still about the size of a tennis ball.

However, the next three neural cores visibly shrunk, from the size of tennis balls to that of ping-pong balls.

Seeing everyone's gaze on the third neural core, Reno shrugged, "That one belongs to MDR, corresponding to the higher-tier dolls within Griffin. But it seems Griffin has subdivided the high-tier dolls; some are slightly smaller than her, but larger than the fourth one."

The size of the fourth neural core was also smaller, barely larger than a large marble. It was taken from M1 Garand, and C96 used the same type.

As for the last one... well, its diameter was only as long as a thumbnail. It was as small as a glass bead.

Seeing the smallest neural core, MP40 couldn't help but feel embarrassed, covering her face.

Without Reno saying anything, she knew that the smallest one was taken from her.

But it was also her misfortune. Clearly, Nagant Revolver and P38 also had neural cores of this size, but it happened that only MP40's neural core was used as an example.

"As long as the neural core is large enough, the fire control core can be completely ignored. You won't have to worry about what you want to learn or install into your neural core."

The appearance of the fire control core was just because installing or removing it was quicker and simpler than directly installing fire control data into the neural core. It also made removal much easier which was its initial purpose, to remove combat capabilities against humans.

There was no need to worry about dolls not retaining combat data after retiring from tactical duty, which would pose a danger when they returned to their daily roles.

IOP had rigidly standardized the size of the neural cores, and dolls often could only utilize the skills they were originally programmed with. Trying to learn more often led to situations like M1 Garand's.

Of course, incidents like exploding kitchens wouldn't happen after a neural core replacement. But M1 Garand's cooking skills weren't that great; what she made was hard to swallow.

Hearing Reno's words, HK416 and UMP45 glanced at each other, then simultaneously voiced their thoughts, "I want to switch!"

Elf, standing beside MP5 and MP40, was now flustered.

What's going on? What are they talking about transfer? Switching what? Does it have something to do with her?

Feeling anxious, she looked around. Now she felt like even the ice cream in her hand, which should have been cold, was starting to burn her hand!

Could it be that this commander was planning something strange with her!?

"Alright, let's start with you. Your Dinergate's shell is almost worn out, and you're the first one I've seen to wreck an Dinergate's shell so quickly."

Previously, whether it was Nagant Revolver's group, G36's group, or Vector, they had all used Dinergate shells for quite some time.

But UMP45, as soon as she got the Dinergate's shell, broke it shortly afterward.

If she broke it during a mission, it would be fine, but she broke it at home because she wanted to break his nose.

Reno wasn't sure if giving UMP45 a new body was the right decision, but as long as she didn't come after him all the time, it would be fine.

Before UMP45 could say anything to UMP9 and UMP40, Reno removed her neural core from the Dinergate and placed it on the neural transfer device.

"Alright, the rest of you can go have dinner. Of course, those who need to switch bodies should stay. Don't think about eating before changing bodies; otherwise, you'll have to clean up your bodies by yourself later."

Hearing Reno's words, Elf didn't know where to put the ice cream she was holding. When she saw Reno's gaze, she handed it over with a pitiful look.

"Um... what are you thinking? You've already eaten half of it. Can I take it away? Eat up, but remember not to eat anything else after changing bodies. You can eat whatever you want after the body switch."

Ruffling Elf's head, Reno looked at her maid outfit, which looked a bit like G36's.

"Did G36 make your clothes?"

Hearing Reno's words, Elf, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly scooped up a big spoonful and stuffed it into her mouth. At this moment, hearing Reno's question, she could only nod with a wrinkled little face. She had eaten too much at once, and the ice cream was making her head ache.

It seemed that G36 had altered her own clothes to fit Elf. Other people did offer her clothes, but Elf clearly preferred G36's maid outfit, and the clothes lent by others...

Either they were too loose or the colors didn't match. C96's clothes were especially scanty, and the only one with somewhat normal clothes, M200, probably couldn't spare any extra...

G36 had previously proposed going out with the dolls to buy some clothes, but he didn't expect it to be for this reason.

Reno had already agreed to it before, but now that he thought about it, besides buying clothes... well, let's skip that. Making clothes from cotton grown by themselves? That was too much trouble. If they kept going like this, his place might become a full-fledged agricultural enterprise.

But didn't P90 like collecting clothes?

Instead of letting her touch other people's clothes, why not let her make her own? Starting with growing cotton?

Meanwhile, in the dining hall on the first floor of the dormitory, P90, sitting at the table with chopsticks in hand, suddenly felt a chill for no reason, even shivering involuntarily!

"Hiss!"

"Huh? What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your body or neural core? Do you need to see the commander for repairs?"

This shiver startled the NZ75 next to her, but she still suggested that P90 should go find the commander and get checked.

Chapter 21: Oh, Oops, It's Gone

"Slow down! Slow down! Slow down!"

As soon as the newly equipped HK416 took a step forward with its new body, Reno was startled!

HK416 was facing the window, and at this rate, wasn't she about to crash through the wall and come out on the dormitory floor with just one step!?

Hastily, Reno rushed forward to pull back the HK416, whose body was still uncontrollable.

He couldn't help but sweat, realizing that there were indeed some issues with simultaneously updating the bodies of four individuals.

Next time they update the bodies, it seems they'll need to set up a special adaptation mode in advance.

Or maybe he should just move the workshop to a safer location.

At the very least, they shouldn't be in a situation where one wrong step compromises the entire building's security measures and leads to a waste of materials for complete sanitation.

They'd be spending way too much money!

"Hey!"

Seeing Reno's nervous expression, UMP45, who had just received her new body as well but hadn't moved yet, raised her non-existent eyebrows and smiled.

It seems Reno wasn't entirely fearless either. At least, when HK416 nearly crashed into the wall, he was very attentive.

"Wow! Sister 45! You look so scary right now!"

Watching UMP45 with her face devoid of skin, only metal bones and synthetic muscle fibers, UMP9 couldn't help but exclaim, while patting her chest.

Thump thump!

Crack!

A sound like a burst water bag echoed, causing Reno, who had just stabilized the HK416, to jump in surprise!

That sound... Could it be...?

"Ahh! Sister 45! Sister 45! What do I do!? I've flattened my chest!"

UMP9 looked down at her body, which was leaking circulating fluid, in shock.

But her hands were raised straight up, not daring to move it.

"Are you stupid!? Who told you to use so much force!? But then again, none of us have skin covering right now, how did you recognize me?"

UMP45 could confirm that UMP9 hadn't used communication protocols to contact her.

All four tactical dolls were in their bare body forms.

How did UMP9 recognize her?

After all, HK416 over there is just like her... Wait a minute!?

"Hey hey hey! Something's not right! Reno! Why is her simulated tissue in her chest so much larger!? And mine..."

UMP45 lowered her head to look at herself, only to find that, as usual, she was still in her pitiful size.

As for UMP9 next to her, well, hers had already burst, so there was no comparison.

But with Elf...

"This isn't fair! Why is Elf's even bigger than mine! She should be about the same size as me originally, right!?"

"HK416's is naturally her original body data, as for Elf's, it's because several tactical dolls at home strongly requested it, so I made their sizes all the same level as M1911 and P38," Reno explained. Looking at UMP45, he added, "As for yours, sorry, the materials ran out when I got to yours. If you don't mind, I can print one out for you using alloy steel."

"Huh!? Then what do I do!? Mine..."

Hearing Reno's words, UMP9 immediately cried out with a mournful face. With no skin to begin with, her face looked even more fierce at this moment.

This made Elf, who was beside her, brighten up. She turned her head and planned to check her own condition in front of the floor-length mirror in the room.

"Hey hey! UMP40! Stop laughing on the side! Keep an eye on the little one! Don't let her accidentally run out!"

Compared to the three former tactical dolls, HK416, Reno was more worried about Elf, who wasn't originally a tactical doll. Her adaptability to the new body was still unknown, so it was necessary to have someone watch over her. Fortunately, there were not only himself but also UMP40, who was waiting for UMP45 nearby.

"Yeah yeah! Don't worry, Commander, I'll keep an eye on her. Nothing will go wrong." Hearing Reno's instructions, UMP40 hurried forward and supported the little one's body, helping her move little by little.

Seeing that someone was watching Elf, Reno turned back to UMP9.

"There's no other way, you'll have to stay like this for now. I'll get you a new one when I buy the materials next time. Just be careful! Don't exert too much force on the simulated bio-tissues on your body!"

If they didn't control it, wouldn't he have to change the skin of the tactical dolls every day? It wouldn't be okay if they accidentally tore their own faces while sleeping, would it?

"Oh..."

Hearing this, UMP9 looked pitifully at UMP45. If it weren't for the lack of skin and the non-functioning biomimetic system, she might really have cried by now.

"Uh, don't look at me, it's useless to look at me."

Seeing UMP9 looking at her, UMP45 subconsciously wanted to raise her hands to protect her chest, but unfortunately, the karma of UMP9 was right in front of her eyes, so she forcibly stopped her subconscious action.

The adaptation process of several tactical dolls ended with the little one brought by UMP40 being the first to lie down in the repair bay.

As for HK416 and the others, they were still slowly moving their bodies.

The reason, of course, was because of Elf. She directly reduced the power output of the body to the minimum, only ensuring her own normal activity without any problems.

But for HK416 and the others, they were still trying to figure out how to mobilize the maximum power output without losing control.

After all, they were tactical dolls, and the first thing that came to mind was how to use this power on the battlefield.

By the time all the tactical dolls were covered with biomimetic skin in the repair bay, it was already evening. They missed lunch, but dinner was just in time.

Under the cooking skills of G36, even UMP9, who was somewhat depressed due to the lack of headlights, couldn't be bothered to worry about her body shape anymore. Anyway, Reno had promised her that she would get a new one with the materials, so what else was there to worry about?

As for Reno, he had only just sent away Angelia around noon, and now, after only a few hours, why was his phone ringing again?

"Hello? Isn't this another commission? It's only been a few hours? Even the donkeys of the production team need to rest and have a meal!"

As soon as the phone connected, Reno complained. He had just taken a bite of his meal.

Did they not realize how annoying it was to call someone during their meal?

"Tsk! You have such a bad temper. Of course, it's not a mission. Statesec found a batch of doll materials in the city you visited before, the place where you picked up 416. Do you want it? If not, I'll give it to those IOP merchants."

"Of course, I want it! Why wouldn't I? Just deduct the payment from the next commission!"

Upon hearing this, Reno immediately agreed.

On the other end of the phone, Angelia rolled her eyes.

Such a stingy guy!

He's not even willing to spend a little money! If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't get any money without returning it to IOP, who would even think of you, you stingy guy!

Chapter 22: At Least Six Tons...

"Fortunately, you all came out together; otherwise, it would've been a waste of fuel," Simonov remarked, glancing back at the people in the cabin, unable to suppress a wry smile.

Each trip of the transport helicopter consumed a significant amount of aviation kerosene. If this trip was just to retrieve some doll materials, Reno would definitely incur losses.

After all, the materials and parts of the dolls might not be worth as much as a box of fuel in this helicopter.

"Hmm? That doesn't sound right, does it? We came out to buy things, so how can you say we're at a loss if we didn't bring you along?" CF05, seated behind the cockpit, queried, puzzled by Simonov's statement.

"Hey, I brought everyone along, totaling at least six tons. It's not considered an empty flight. At least this fuel isn't being burned for nothing..."

"Simonov! If you don't know what to say, just shut up!"

Simonov's words instantly ignited the anger of the tactical dolls. If Simonov wasn't sitting in the co-pilot's seat, they would have dragged her over to teach him a lesson!

Focused on piloting, Reno paid no heed to the commotion in the cabin.

This time, he had brought all the tactical dolls from home.

The reason? G36's suggestion.

Since relocating here, their tactical dolls had been holed up at home for a long time. Even when they went out, they only patrolled the deserted city.

Staying in an empty environment for a long time didn't seem like a good idea, especially for these tactical dolls that hadn't been in use for long...

Although some tactical dolls had a preset lifespan of only three to five years, Reno had replaced their original poor-quality bodies, so there was no longer any time limit on their use.

To be honest, Reno was still somewhat puzzled by his tactical dolls. He had seen M1 Garand cry, witnessed Simonov's wooden expression when she was hung on the wall...

MDR's expression when she found out she inexplicably had another 'self' didn't seem like simple emotional simulation either.

UMP40's autistic behavior in the mental space didn't seem like a simple AI at all.

Apart from these possibly simulated emotional expressions, the tactical dolls' craving for food was also somewhat unexpected.

Whether it was G36's meticulous cooking, CF05's pursuit of spicy hotpot, or the enormous appetite of the tactical dolls at home...

If these were just programmed simulations, there was no reason for their behavior to be so unpredictable.

Anyway, Reno didn't fully believe that the minds of these tactical dolls were all created by IOP's programmers.

Rather than believing IOP's one-sided claims, he trusted his own feelings more. Since he first met Nagant and the others until now, he hadn't felt the slightest trace of artificiality in their minds.

Compared to 'manufacturing', he felt that the minds of these tactical dolls were more like replicas of some once-living human minds.

Most of their memories were deleted, leaving only a portion of their self-awareness, combined with some unknown technology, enough to make these autonomous doll mind models remarkably similar to humans...

The root protocols injected into autonomous doll minds at the factory, besides limiting the behavior of tactical dolls, made Reno feel like they were just making their behavior patterns seem more like artificial products.

Because after he removed various root programming restrictions on his own tactical dolls, they all seemed much more agile than they were originally. Except for staring at the few interface ports reserved for them, almost no one could tell the difference between them and humans.

The helicopter landed directly at the airport where Reno had visited before. It was still the same airport owner. Seeing Reno come back again, he was so nervous that he could barely speak.

But he still forced himself to come and receive them. When he heard Reno say that only fuel needed to be added, he breathed a sigh of relief.

However, just as he breathed a sigh of relief and was about to instruct his subordinates to refuel, a conversation between Reno and his tactical dolls made him shiver!

"Alright, feel free to roam around the city; just remember not to go too far and don't get separated from each other. If something happens, call me. Otherwise, if you get lost, I'll have to search the whole city, which would be very troublesome."

Search the whole city!? Didn't you cause enough trouble here last time?! Hundreds of people died! An entire warehouse burned down! The fire only just extinguished not long ago!

"Hey! Boss! How come that killer is back again in just a few days?!"

Seeing Reno and his group of tactical dolls leave in groups, several ground crew members were also nervously approaching to ask.

"How the hell should I know what that guy is up to!? Get to work quickly! Be careful, if that guy comes back and sees the fuel isn't fully topped up, he'll vent his anger on you!"

Hearing this, the ground crew members quickly scattered and ran off. Getting the work done quickly was the most important thing, so they wouldn't be scolded by their boss in one breath.

Wouldn't that be unlucky?

As for Reno, since his tactical dolls went shopping, he... couldn't go with them. This time, he came mainly to get something from Angelia.

Since it was doll materials, there might be something he needed, like some parts that UMP9 broke in a moment of carelessness.

What he needed now were mainly nanomaterials for making doll skin and some biomimetic materials under the skin. These things weren't particularly valuable, just hard to find.

The price in the black market was high, and since leaving the previous city, he hadn't bought anything from the black market. Who knows what the situation is like in the black market of this city? In case there are some shady dealings, should he take action against them or not?

The location Angelia agreed upon was not far from the warehouse he burned down last time. It wasn't a security house of the Statesec, probably just a temporary resting place. Angelia probably didn't intend to reveal the location of the security house to Reno, an outsider.

"Where are the goods?"

"Here they are, over there. Why didn't you bring your tactical dolls with you this time?"

Seeing Reno coming alone, Angelia was also somewhat surprised. This was the first time she had seen Reno alone.

Based on what this guy did in this city last time, isn't he afraid that someone in the city will want to retaliate against him?

"They're here, but they didn't come with me. They went out to play on the streets."

Chapter 23: This Isn't a Coincidence

"Hmm, where did you get all this stuff? Did you guys rob the IOP branch in the city?"

Initially, Reno thought that some of the doll materials Angelia mentioned were just referring to some small gadgets used to manufacture dolls, some parts, and whatnot.

Having some nanomaterials would already be good, but he didn't expect to see such an array of equipment in front of him, this set of equipment looked almost like it was robbed from an IOP branch.

Moreover, there were even more devices than the small branch he saw in Nikolayev, the most conspicuous being the five devices lined up side by side, resembling repair pods. They looked similar, but these things were connected together, along with a server-like device beside them.

Apart from this unclear purpose device, there were also three repair pods, several large boxes of repair materials, five boxes containing dummy dolls, and several password-protected boxes with firearm patterns painted on them.

"HK416's imprint weapons? And a fire control core? Are you sure you didn't specially order these from IOP?"

Reno raised an eyebrow as he looked at the inscription on one of the boxes.

How could things be so coincidental?

He had just picked up HK416 without a fire control core, and now Angelia had sent over a fire control core compatible with HK416.

Saying it's a coincidence is a bit too far-fetched.

"Of course not. It's just an acquaintance who heard about your situation and voluntarily sent over these things. Except for the imprint weapons and fire control core, everything else is confiscated goods."

Angelia shrugged helplessly as she gestured towards the repair pod-like devices.

"This is equipment used for simulated training for tactical dolls. However, after it fell into the hands of a group of people, they used it as equipment for doll battles. Their stakes were quite high, but unfortunately, they're all gone now."

Using autonomous dolls or illegal dolls to access this equipment, then letting the doll's mind duel in the mental space.

Because there were no safety restrictions, the doll's mental data might even experience permanent data loss during combat.

"Alright, it's somewhat useful. I'll have someone come to move this stuff later. Anything else?"

Reno nodded in satisfaction after confirming the presence of biomimetic tissue materials among the repair materials.

Getting the materials was already a profit, and the other equipment was just a bonus.

Seeing that Reno didn't seem to care about the training equipment, Angelia rolled her eyes speechlessly.

He was more concerned about those worthless materials than the most valuable things.

Of course, relatively speaking.

The price of just this one training equipment would be enough to buy several truckloads of repair materials. This guy, why is his focus different from normal people every time?

"I don't have any other commissions at the moment, but Griffin is currently extremely busy. Aren't you planning to go help out?"

"Help? How? They're doing this business themselves. They can't just make money lying down during peacetime. If a real fight breaks out, they shouldn't ditch their comrades and run, right?"

Since he claimed to be a security contractor and made his business so big, he should at least have some awareness.

If Griffin directly abandoned their previous areas because of the Sangvis Ferri attack, Reno might not only refuse to help but even go there to take advantage of the situation and grab some dolls from them.

Although there had been a few collaborations before, they were not enough to make Reno risk getting into conflict with Sangvis Ferri to help Griffin.

Moreover, the mess Griffin caused at the SF's main factory last time was really hard to explain. Griffin was just unlucky, directly targeted by the Sangvis for standing out.

But... if it's for business... that's another matter.

"I knew it. Anyway, I don't have any commissions lately. If I do, I'll call you immediately."

Sighing, Angelia turned around and left, waving her still somewhat clumsy prosthetic limb as she walked.

Seeing Angelia leave, Reno lit a cigarette, opened one of the doll dummy boxes, and took a look. They weren't HK416's dummy dolls, just some ordinary ones. Their combat capabilities were questionable.

But Reno had never thought about letting his own dolls use these dummy dolls. Long-term use of dummy dolls for splitting up with dolls didn't seem to have any benefits for doll neural cloud. After a long time, there might be personality splitting or something.

Moreover, they were doll data, which was very easy to replicate. Transforming these dummy dolls into pure robots and putting them to work in factories or vertical farms would be fine. It would also be a way to free up labor at home.

Finding a truck on the street, the kind you pay for, Reno loaded all these equipment and materials onto the truck. Then he directly transported them back to the airport and had the airport workers put these things into the helicopter's cabin.

After that, Reno didn't wander around, and his dolls didn't encounter any troubles in the city, nor did any unscrupulous doll traffickers target them.

Perhaps it was because Reno had caused such a big commotion here before, directly wiping out the largest doll trafficking gangs in the F district and the two neighboring districts, making these doll traffickers who relied on deception and dolls for wealth all become honest.

They were afraid that they would be struck by Reno's deadly blow as soon as they appeared after just escaping.

But it was also fortunate that Reno had gained quite a fearsome reputation in this city, and even the prices when his dolls went shopping were much cheaper.

"Hey! Be careful! Don't squeeze! I have fragile items here!" RFB exclaimed helplessly.

"Find a solution! Otherwise, the cabin door won't close!"

The consequence of letting a group of dolls go wild buying things in the city was that the cabin of the entire helicopter was almost filled with various items.

Food and drinks, clothes, kitchenware, appliances, and so on, whatever they wanted to buy, as long as they had money. During this long period, Reno never stopped giving them money.

Listening to the noise in the cabin, sounding like millions of ducks quacking, Reno stared blankly, expressionless, and started the helicopter.

"Click! Commander, we're all out. Will there be any problems at home?" On the way back, the doll sitting in the co-pilot seat changed to SPAS-12. She was just constantly eating potato chips from a bag she held in her hands.

"No, if there's a problem, I'll receive an alert." Before leaving, Reno had set up a simple monitoring facility with some scattered equipment at hand. As long as someone approached the factory area, his phone would receive an alert.

It seems that this thing didn't come in handy this time, after all, it's a contaminated area. Where would so many reckless people come looking for trouble?

Chapter 24: Can I Use It Too?

"Finally home!"

As soon as the helicopter landed, Simonov couldn't wait to pull open the cabin's manual switch, directly opening the door and jumping out of the cabin.

Although the journey was only a short few dozen minutes, there were too many goods piled up in the cabin, and she hadn't been in such a cramped environment since joining Reno.

As a group of tactical dolls gradually moved their purchased goods away, Reno and SPAS-12, sitting in the pilot and copilot seats, finally jumped out of the side cabin door.

While SPAS-12 and others went straight to move things, Reno walked around the entire factory.

He checked whether the devices he had left before leaving had been triggered by anyone, and removed all those little gadgets to prevent any accidents when his dolls roamed around.

Although Remote Mines and Trip-wired grenades were not harmful to their doll bodies, it was still necessary to be cautious to avoid any damage or injuries. Otherwise, they would waste another batch of materials repairing their biomimetic skin.

After a short while, Reno returned to the workshop carrying a bag of disarmed explosives. As soon as he returned, before he could even sit down, UMP9 rushed in holding two cans!

"Commander! I brought the materials! Hurry up and help me install them!"

It turned out that the cans UMP9 brought were not food, let alone a gift for Reno. They were just biomimetic tissue materials she had dug out from those material boxes.

"Can't you let me catch my breath and have a drink? I just got back."

Just as he was speaking, Reno suddenly felt another gaze outside the door.

Turning his head, he saw UMP45 leaning against the door, staring over with a pair of eyes, wanting to speak but not knowing how to express it...

After all, it was a bit embarrassing to talk about such these things.

She wasn't as carefree as UMP9.

"Hehe! G36 said she's going to cook a big meal later, so..."

So, in order to catch up with mealtime, she had to come bother him now, right?

"Alright, put the materials on the table, turn off your pain perception system and go into standby mode, same goes for the one outside."

Kicking the explosives aside, Reno took out his toolbox and gestured towards the door as he spoke.

"45 sis! Come on! Let's do this together!"

Together? How could there be such a thing for this kind of task!?

Although she thought so in her heart, UMP45 still somewhat reluctantly followed along, but she obviously wasn't as enthusiastic as UMP9.

She autonomously went into standby mode on the workbench.

Watching UMP9 lying on the workbench with a smile, UMP45 sat on the edge of the workbench, looking at Reno, who had put on gloves and a mask, ready to operate on the two.

"Hmm? Hurry up and lie down, unless you have any special requests? Shape? Size? I have the standard templates from IOP here, do you want to choose one yourself or should I choose for you?"

Seeing UMP45 hesitating, Reno raised an eyebrow, took out his phone, opened the IOP doll ordering page, and displayed the detailed requirements, placing the pictures of the options in front of UMP45.

At the sight of the pictures on Reno's phone, UMP45 was suddenly startled, and before she could recover, Reno scrolled the screen of his phone, and a series of different models of 'headlights' flashed before her eyes like a carousel...

"What!? What is this!?"

...

"Hmm? UMP45's scream? Could something have happened?"

HK416, who was helping organize materials in the warehouse, immediately heard the scream from the workshop, reluctantly put down the imprinted weapon in her hand, and looked in the direction of the workshop.

All the materials and parts used by these dolls were stored in the warehouse downstairs, so the sound from the workshop was transmitted very clearly here.

"It shouldn't be, didn't UMP9 just run out holding biomimetic tissue materials? The commander should be helping them repair their bodies now."

M1 Garand held a record board and counted the materials brought back this time.

Beside her, Elf was looking at one of the imprinted weapon boxes, with some hope in her eyes, but she didn't know whether to speak up or not.

"Um..."

Upon hearing M1 Garand's words, HK416 also felt a little embarrassed. That UMP9, she was really too impatient, but...

Just as she was thinking, HK416 looked at the two imprinted weapon boxes placed here. "M1 Garand, should these two boxes of imprinted weapons be moved to the commander's workshop?"

"Oh, right, I almost forgot, but these imprinted weapons all have locking devices. If you want to use them, it's best to let the commander modify them for you." Looking at the box labeled HK416, M1 Garand nodded.

"Um..." Just as M1 Garand finished speaking, Elf's timid voice sounded from beside them, "Can I... Can I use this too?"

Although she didn't know what kind of imprinted weapons were in the box, Elf still wanted to do something. If she just stayed in the kitchen helping every day... it seemed a bit insufficient...

"Uh? Of course, but you should ask the commander first."

Surprised by Elf's question, M1 Garand was a little stunned at first, but then she reacted, touched Elf's head, and smiled, handing the box to Elf.

Looking at the box in her hand, Elf's eyes lit up immediately. "Okay!" Nodding vigorously in response, she eagerly ran towards the stairs with the box in her hand.

"Is this really okay? She used to be just an ordinary autonomous doll, right?"

Seeing Elf running off, HK416 couldn't help but worry that the little one might not be able to handle the job of a tactical doll.

"It should be fine, but having some power in hand is always better for us dolls than being defenseless, isn't it?"

Since having those root programming restrictions removed by Renault, M1 Garand had never thought of putting down her weapon.

After all, they had been following Reno for so long, and elsewhere, even Griffin probably wouldn't accept doll units like them without any root protocol restrictions.

Moreover, operating for a long time in polluted areas like they did, without weapons in hand, would they rely on the spare melee weapons provided by Reno every time they fought those infected?

But the weapons in their hands really needed to be upgraded, whether it was the infected or the mechs Reno brought back before, it seemed that the weapons in their hands were completely inadequate to deal with them.

"Perfect, I also need to bring up these ammunitions. Let's go check it out together." M1 Garand picked up the two portable ammunition boxes produced by IOP on the side and tilted her head towards the door.

"Okay."

Hearing this, HK416 hugged the imprinted weapon box in her hand and followed M1 Garand.

Chapter 25: G11

"Don't lower your head! Don't move! Couldn't you just be dormant like her? Why do you have to watch it yourself? Stop shaking! This thing can move!"

Renault's forehead veins bulged as he shouted in annoyance, watching the tremors caused by UMP45's downward gaze.

UMP45, this guy, refused to follow UMP9's example of quickly entering standby mode and insisted on letting Renault operate on her while she was awake.

Now, whether she turned her head or lowered it, it could trigger trembling in the two biomimetic materials on her chest, much to Renault's annoyance as he was trying to shape them.

"Can't you just use the printing equipment directly?"

"Can't you just keep quiet for a moment? Using the printing equipment would require replacing all of your biomimetic skin. Are you willing to pay for that from your salary?"

Yes, Renault was just reluctant to waste those materials, that's why he insisted on doing it himself, definitely not for any strange reasons!

"Hmph! Hey... Elf, could you help move that mirror over here?"

UMP45, who had already noticed Elf running over with an imprinted weapon box, spoke directly.

She had intended to turn her head, but Renault immediately grabbed her forehead and held her in place.

Elf nodded and brought over the full-length mirror placed near the repair pods, carefully adjusting the angle so that UMP45 could see Renault's actions with just a glance.

It was fine not to look, but when she did, she was startled.

Renault's hands were just like the mechanical arms in the printing equipment, moving each biomimetic nerve into place and adding biomimetic materials layer by layer with the tools in his hand...

She had initially thought it was just a simple procedure, just needing to insert the materials and then wait...

But she didn't expect the use of these biomimetic materials to be completely different from the dummy mode. Renault was literally a doll printer!?

It took Renault a full five minutes to finish, leaving HK416 and Elf dumbfounded on the side, completely unaware of how complex the human-like biomaterials were.

Of course, it looked complex just to watch. If it were done by a machine, it wouldn't seem as exaggerated as Renault doing it himself. After all, they had gotten used to it, so it wouldn't seem unreasonable for a machine to do such things.

"Alright, lie still and don't move. Wait here for ten minutes until the materials completely solidify, then you can go to the repair bay to repair the surface skin."

The machines used thermal shaping, but Renault couldn't directly apply heat with tools now, as it would damage UMP45's biomimetic skin, making repair even more troublesome.

UMP9 lying beside her was treated the same way by Renault, but he didn't rush to wake her up. If UMP45 was still so restless, who knew what silly things UMP9 might do if she woke up.

"Commander, these are the portable ammunition from this batch of materials, and there's also a whole box of portable manufacturing devices. I'll leave them here for now."

M1 Garand saw Renault put down his tools and pointed to the ammunition box at her feet.

"Oh, just leave them here."

He wanted to ask M1 Garand if anyone else needed these, but obviously, everyone else in the house already had one, leaving only UMP45 and her companions without these items.

Their previous equipment didn't include this stuff, after all. Since there were only two of them, logistics weren't much of a problem, so they didn't need such expensive toys.

"What's going on with you two? Where's the problem?"

Seeing M1 Garand leave, Renault turned to HK416 and asked.

But seeing the two of them holding imprinted weapon boxes, he probably understood what they wanted.

"Do you want to install a fire control core? And imprint the weapon?"

This batch of equipment indeed included a device for imprinting on dolls, but Renault saw it as completely unnecessary.

The things that device could do could be accomplished with his homemade neural transfer device, just by transferring the data from the fire control core to the doll's neural cloud.

The rest could be left for the doll to adapt to.

"Well, I want to imprint this new weapon." HK416 nodded and opened her box.

Inside was a brand-new HK416, along with a grenade launcher and a series of accessories.

"I... I want one too!"

Hearing HK416's words, Elf seemed to want to assert her presence, speaking loudly, but her eyes still held some worry. After speaking, she carefully observed Renault's expression.

She had wanted to open the weapon box in her hand as well, but the lock on HK416's box had been opened by Renault before, so it could be easily opened.

However, the lock on Elf's box, cough, was intact, and without applying some force, she couldn't open it.

"Sure, no problem. But, 416, let me be clear upfront: don't rely too much on imprinted weapons. Otherwise, when you get new weapons in the future, you might not be able to handle them."

He would definitely modify the weapons in the hands of his doll units in the future. Relying too much on the weapon's imprinting system would make it awkward to handle different weapons later.

Uh... Hearing Renault's words, HK416's firm resolve was shaken, hesitating as she looked at the imprinted weapon in the box.

"If I don't have an imprinted weapon, what exactly am I in the future?"

The difference between tactical and autonomous dolls was just the addition of a fire control core and the imprinted weapon bound to the doll, right? If she didn't have an imprinted weapon, could she still be considered a tactical doll?

"What are you? What does it matter? Does not having chopsticks mean you're not a person who can eat?"

Giving her a disdainful look, always asking him these philosophical questions, why not consult a philosopher about this? Why ask a rough person like him?

"Commander, um, could you help me open this?"

Seeing HK416 fall into a daze due to Renault's completely out-of-sync words, Elf held up her box to Renault.

"Sure, I'll open it."

Renault said, taking steel pliers from his toolbox, directly snapping the lock, opening the box, and taking out the weapon inside.

After inspecting it, he handed it to Elf, letting her familiarize herself with the weapon.

With its composite material shell and the scope on top of the barrel, it looked like a big guy at first glance, resembling some kind of futuristic weapon.

Unfortunately, this weapon was over seventy years old. He couldn't understand why IOP liked to use these decades-old obsolete products as templates for imprinted weapons?

Wasn't there any new products these days? And this G11, the issue of caseless rifle ammunition was another headache.

How many different types of ammunition did they have for doll units at home again?