RC 851-860 (Patreon)

RRC 851-860

Chapter 51: Don't Do Stupid Things!

"Sewer? I didn't expect that there would be a sewage system like this in such a remote place."

At first glance, this town does not appear to be prosperous, especially considering that there is no one here now. There are only these idle mercenaries and intelligence dealers. Even the buildings still reflect the style of 70 or 80 years ago.

This area is surrounded by desert. When they got off the spaceship, they didn’t see any places like mines or factories nearby. Obviously, this place has no developmental value.

There is nothing valuable beneath the surface. Otherwise, even if there were a stone that could be sold for money, there would probably be a group of people here digging it out.

"It's not a sewer; it's just a pit that looks like a temporary shelter."

"Why is it so smelly?"

M1919A4 stood at the entrance of the basement, not intending to go in at all. Although she was a little disgusted, she didn’t refuse to act for that reason. It was just that the object in her hand was a bit large, and the space below was not very spacious.

Once inside, the weapon would be unusable.

"Maybe the dry toilet next door is leaking..." G43 turned her head to look at the ruins on one side, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

Stg-44 was standing five meters away, alertly guarding the surroundings.

In fact, the smell made her feel uncomfortable.

"No, this is the toilet of those mercenaries, or the place where they dump waste." PK was also standing at the entrance of the cave, looking at the dark entrance with disgust. She would not go into that place even if her core were melting!

Of course, Renault himself would not go in. He just wanted to buy some information. There was no need to jump into the pit for no reason.

"I know you are down there, and I know you can hear what I say now. I have many small objects that can make lots of sounds. If you don't come out, I will throw these things in directly."

Shaking a bulletproof vest torn off from those mercenaries, it was now full of various grenades, all picked up from them.

The speed of the attack by the dolls just now was too fast. The grenades in the hands of the mercenaries did not have time to be used, or they did not have time to think about where to throw them.

It often takes less than half a second for the dolls to run from one bunker to another. Even if these grenades had been thrown, it was estimated that they would only have heard a sound.

As for the method of restricting the route of the dolls, they had thought of this method, but before they could implement it, they were shot by G43 one by one.

After Renault's voice fell, there was no sound from below. Obviously, the mercenary below didn't believe that Renault could clearly sense where he was and thought that Renault was deceiving him.

After all, he hid in this place after the battle, and it was not surprising that someone could see his general position.

But he didn’t believe it! He didn’t believe that someone could be as desperate as him! One who can dare to jump directly into the cesspool!

Well, Renault did not dare, but it was no problem to throw a grenade in and blow it up.

He waved to signal the dolls around him making them step back. Renault also stepped back a few paces, pulled the safety pin of a grenade, and threw it into the dark hole.

Although the space below was not large, there was a wall inside. The remaining mercenary was hiding in the deepest part at that time. Throwing it directly in would not kill him; at most, it would deafen him.

Bang!

A few seconds later, a dull roar sounded directly from the hole. The dolls who had retreated ten meters away could clearly see dark brown juice coming out of the hole...

"Ahhhh! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I surrender! I surrender! Don't throw anymore!"

Obviously, although this guy is a ruthless person, he is actually not very courageous. After realizing that the other party would not stop because of the disgusting place where he was hiding, he immediately shouted loudly.

Of course, in addition to the grenade explosion, his hiding place was already in a precarious situation after being bombed.

After all, this is a ruined town left over from decades or even hundreds of years ago, and the solidity of the buildings is obviously not comparable to that of a proper military building.

Once his location collapsed, he was likely to be buried alive in the ruins above.

As the metal ladder made a grating sound, Stg-44 and the others finally saw the mercenary who had evaded the life detection module.

As for why it was a mercenary instead of the intelligence dealer?

Of course, it was because the equipment this guy carried was not exactly the same as that of the mercenaries, but in terms of style, it could only be described as very similar.

An intelligence dealer shouldn’t look so cheap. He only lacked bulletproof plates all over his body, even on his heels. What else could this guy be if not a mercenary?

"Tsk tsk, if you are so afraid of death, then don’t be a mercenary."

Nowadays, mercenaries with brains have already started to hire dolls or order dolls for combat. But these mercenaries, there are really... a lot of people fighting on the battlefield with their flesh and blood...

After all, not everyone can afford to buy dolls and transform them to the extent that they can be put into combat.

"Well, ahem, what do you want?" The mercenary lying on the ground, panting and looking a little bloated, looked up at Renault who was standing in front.

"I'm here to find an intelligence dealer whose code name seems to be 'Turban' or something else. That guy has something I want."

Speaking of which, Renault didn't know why these guys were guarding this town. There was nothing valuable here, and this place was really too bad as a foothold.

"Intelligence... intelligence dealer..." Hearing what Renault said, the mercenary lying on the ground was stunned for a moment, then looked at Renault with a strange expression. "Well, we did see the intelligence dealer, but... he was asked to leave less than half an hour after we came here."

"Asked to leave? Are you sure you mean asked?"

"Uh, maybe a little bit, uh, unfriendly?" Thinking of the guy who was driven away by a group before, the mercenary suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Okay, I already know." Interrupting G43, who wanted to continue asking something, Renault waved his hand, took out his mobile phone, and called P226 on the spaceship.

Hearing what Renault said, the mercenary, who was already sweating, trembled even more at this moment.

What this meant... Was he probably going to kill him!?

However, what surprised him was that Renault turned around and left. The few dolls next to him didn’t even look at him, as if they were not afraid he would suddenly get up and shoot from behind.

"Does the commander know again?" The mercenary didn’t understand why Renault had left so suddenly. G43 and the others were also a little puzzled.

Obviously, the other party hadn’t said anything yet, right?

"Well, it’s normal. Psionics are like this." M1919A4 waved her hand.

Obviously, G43's training courses in the training device had not yet exposed her to subjects beyond this world, so they still didn't know much about Renault.

"Psionics?" Stg-44, G43, and even PK all tilted their heads, curious about where this term from M1919A4 had come.

"Well, this is a long story. Let me tell you slowly!" Seeing the curious and confused expressions on their faces, M1919A4's energy suddenly surged. She cleared her throat, looking as if she was about to start a long speech.

Although the three wanted her to make a long story short, there seemed to be nothing else to do except follow Renault to the other side of the town, so they patiently tried to listen to M1919A4's explanation.

The reason Renault was heading in this direction was that the mercenaries had entered from the other side of the town.

The location where the intelligence dealer was"asked" to go was also at the far end of the town which was a slightly reinforced place that looked like a safe house.

The car driven by the intelligence dealer was still parked there. If he was lucky, Renault might be able to find the things he wanted directly.

As for the intelligence dealer? Sorry, he wasn’t familiar with him.

If this place was managed by someone, he would at most help the intelligence dealer notify the management staff.

But now, the desert under their feet was a no-man’s land? Don’t be ridiculous. In this kind of place, it’s good enough to take care of oneself. Who has time to worry about an intelligence dealer who is not related to them?

Of course, if the location of the intelligence dealer was not far away, it was still possible to make a trip, which would save time in finding another intelligence dealer.

After Renault and his friends found the intelligence dealer's car, Renault searched it but did not find what he wanted. Even in the safe house not far away, there was nothing.

Aside from some necessary supplies, both the car and the safe house were as clean as dishes washed by G36.

P226 who was assigned as the new pilot left the spaceship quickly with the gunship. She was in the new one. The old one... well, SPAS-12's gunship was still being repaired slowly.

"Commander, are we going back now? Even if this mission is... uh, a failure?" After entering the engine room of the gunship, Stg-44 sat down and asked Renault with some concern.

"No, P226, what are the results of the scan just now? Where did those mercenaries go after taking the intelligence dealer away?"

"Well, to a settlement 70 kilometers northwest, probably a settlement. I think there are quite a few people there."

Hearing what P226 said, Renault nodded. This was roughly the same information he had received from the mercenary's head.

"Have you brought everything I want?"

Earlier, Renault had picked up an AN94 and brought it with him. When he dealt with those mechanical mercenaries just now, he felt quite frustrated with the gun.

So when he called just now, he asked P226 to bring down some weapons specifically designed to deal with those machines.

Not much—mainly the large pistol he had modified himself, a few folding axes from his power armor, and some thermite and grenades.

"I brought it; it’s all in the box." P226 stared intently at the console, carefully driving the gunship, and said without looking back.

As Renault opened the weapon box, G43 and his team exchanged bewildered glances.

It seemed the mission was not over yet... They might have to fight another battle later...

---

"I advise you not to do stupid things! Regardless of whether Renault will take action, you are committing suicide!"

And you've implicated me!

The 'turban,' whose thumbs were tied behind his back with cable ties, glared at the mercenary in front of him and roared.

"Heh, don’t talk so scary; we are not scared! Even if the dolls under that guy are powerful, they’re just dolls. It’s no big deal to deal the one or two iron lumps from him."

Looking at the indifferent expression of the mercenary in front of him, the intelligence dealer wanted to break free from the cable ties on his thumbs and pick up the pipe wrench on the table next to him to crack this guy’s skull!

So that he could understand what kind of security contractor dared to disrupt the three-way melee between the military, Sangvis Ferri, and Griffin!

"Hey! Whatever you say, and since you and Renault didn’t even discuss the contact code and other things, then the opportunity to trade with Renault this time belongs to us? No objections, right? Just consider it compensation for cheating us before!"

Compensation? Pah!

You guys are just alive with your brains! You still have the nerve to ask me for compensation! The last mission target was obviously your own people who didn’t use their brains. They knew that the enemy had heavy firepower but still insisted on rushing in!

Did the mechanical transformation even replace your brain circuits with steel bars!?

Looking at the mercenaries walking out, the intelligence dealer’s heart raced. He was worried that when Renault saw him along wuth these guys again, he would regard him as a member planning to rob the robbers...

If that’s the case... the other party wouldn’t even need to come down in person; just let his spaceship use the Jupiter cannon on board and fire a shot at this settlement, and it would all be over!

Then he would die unjustly! This was not his job at all!?

Just when the intelligence dealer was worried about whether Renault would directly launch an air raid here, a cell phone suddenly rang outside the cell.

It could be heard that this was the intelligence dealer’s own cell phone. This ringtone was only used by him in this era.

The mercenary leader came back with a smile on his face and held the phone to the intelligence dealer's ear.

"That’s great; what you want will come true. Hurry up and tell him that your transaction location has changed to this settlement!"

Hearing the other party say this, the intelligence dealer pulled up the corner of his mouth and sneered. It was the first time he saw someone rushing to call the executioner to seek death.

"Is he still there? Where is the thing I want?" As soon as the call connected, Renault opened his mouth and inquired about the intelligence.

---

Chapter 52: A Big Fuss?

After hearing the words in the receiver and looking at the mercenary who was close at hand, the intelligence dealer could only pull the corner of his mouth and say in a normal tone, "Everything is there."

"Okay."

The short conversation seemed fine; at least the mercenary in front of him thought so.

Seeing the satisfied expression on the other party's face, the intelligence dealer's eyes twitched.

He couldn't understand why the other party thought the conversation was acceptable.

He hadn’t asked about the location or the means of handover.

Did this guy think he had anticipated all situations beforehand?

Although it was about 20 minutes before the meeting time agreed upon by him and Renault, wasn’t this guy afraid that Renault would arrive early?

Moreover, Renault had asked about "things" as soon as he opened his mouth. These two words naturally referred to the intelligence he had on hand.

He never stored intelligence on media; he kept it all in his mind.

If his guess was right, Renault might have searched his car and even the safe house; otherwise, there would be no reason for the other party to call at this time.

You should know that a few minutes ago, Renault's phone call had gone unanswered. He could still get through more than an hour ago, but he couldn’t reach him half an hour later. Anyone would feel that something was wrong.

However, the mercenary in front of him obviously didn't realize the problem, which made the intelligence dealer suspicious. What means did these mercenaries rely on to recruit so many people?

When these guys found him in the abandoned town before, he had roughly seen that there were about a hundred mercenaries, including ordinary mercenaries and those who had transformed themselves into robotic forms like this guy in front of him.

After being "invited" to this settlement, he saw another forty or fifty mercenaries, but these mercenaries all had prosthetic limbs and were heavily modified like the guy in front of him.

It seemed that the mercenaries who stayed in the settlement were the trump cards of this mercenary group. Those who remained in the abandoned town were probably just peripheral members or recruits.

Of course, this settlement was not just a group of mercenaries; it was also a base for the black market. The main business involved selling various weapons and supplies to these mercenaries, as well as some daily necessities.

Although there were mercenaries who had undergone heavy transformation, the number of such individuals was still a minority. Other mercenaries were still human beings with normal needs.

The intelligence dealer, with his hands tied, felt extremely uneasy as he watched the mercenary walk out with the "intelligence information." He worried that after Renault got the water and electricity bill payment report from this guy, he would let the shells rain down on him in anger.

And... he didn’t seem to mention the change of the transaction location just now. Was this guy so forgetful?

……

"Why don’t we keep a low profile this time?" M1919A4 held her machine gun and watched as Renault attached 'dangerous goods' to the lining of his coat one by one.

When he went to that town before, Renault had deliberately asked P226 to land the gunship far from the town, insisting on keeping a low profile.

But now, the word "low profile" appeared to have been forgotten.

Looking at Renault's demeanor, he obviously planned to go there to engage in a big fight. Even Stg-44 and G43 had been moved to the gunner's seat, indicating that he was preparing to test the guns against those mercenaries.

"I overestimated this area. I thought it would be more organized than the Griffin area."

Renault felt somewhat helpless. The area north of this continent had now become developed.

When passing through the airspace of those regions, the spacecraft was detected by significant anti-aircraft firepower. Although the other party did not find his ship, it demonstrated the level of control in that area. There is no need for anti-aircraft equipment in a place without order.

Unexpectedly, after only walking a few hundred kilometers away, the living conditions plummeted, degenerating from the civilized world into a lawless zone.

The first sound was not language but gunfire from the mercenaries' weapons.

Oh, it seems that he fired first.

Thinking of the two empty shots he had fired, Renault scratched his chin. But it didn’t matter; others had pointed their weapons at him. It was reasonable for him to fire two shots in self-defense.

As for "keeping a low profile"?

Come on, the distance was over 70 kilometers. To reach there quickly, they would have to drive at least 100 miles per hour. With those broken-down cars left by the mercenaries in the town, it would be a blessing if they didn’t get a mouthful of sand.

Initially, he wanted to be low-key simply because he had enough time to go a little slower.

Unfortunately, some things did not go as expected.

Almost an hour had passed since he got off the spaceship. He truly didn’t expect that just a few million in intelligence transactions, or information about the red zone that was worthless to those mercenaries, could attract so much attention.

Had Renault Security Contracting Firm become so famous? Were there actually people planning to snatch stuff from him?

Under the speed of the gunship, the journey was shortened to a few minutes. After Renault prepared all the weapons, P226 reminded him that they had arrived.

"Have you figured out the controls for the artillery?" While the gunship was lowering its altitude, Renault turned to G43 and Stg-44, who were holding the manual.

"I understand! No problem at all!"

G43 confidently promised. After all, the artillery on this new gunship was completely fool-proof. All they had to do was aim and shoot.

P226 could even complete these tasks by herself, but she was still a little unfamiliar with them. Having two more people to help would allow P226 to feel more relaxed and prevent her from overturning the gunship in a hurry.

"Well, after we go down, you take off and wait, and provide artillery support according to the situation."

Renault opened the hatch at the rear of the gunship and jumped down first.

Bang!

Boom!

Boom!

The first sound was Renault landing, and the next two sounds were naturally from the PK and M1919A4.

The settlement looked like an ordinary town. There were no tall isolation walls around it, let alone the common purification towers.

Although this area is barren, the advantage is that there is no excessive collapse radiation. Even if some is blown over occasionally due to atmospheric flow, it is only a mild condition and will soon dissipate with the atmospheric flow.

For a settlement like this, there were naturally no guards at the door because there were no ELID-infected people around, so there was no need to send anyone to guard it.

Besides, most of the people staying here, except for the black market organizers' own personnel, are mercenaries of all kinds. Although these individuals may not be very strong, they can definitely protect themselves.

It’s impossible for the black market to provide money and personnel to ensure the safety of these mercenaries, right? Isn’t it a bit the other way around?

The gunship that suddenly flew over did not cause much commotion. Although this aircraft looked a bit strange, it’s not as if no one had seen a similar aircraft.

But after Renault and the other two fell from the sky one after another, those who were staring at the gunship opened their mouths wide.

No one expected that instead of flying directly over the town and heading to the helipad at the other end, three people actually fell straight down from the gunship!

And all of them landed on their feet!

Especially the last two! Half of their bodies inserted into the ground!

"Puh! Why is the ground here so soft!" M1919A4 put the machine gun on the ground and spat out sand while climbing out of the pit. To ensure that the weapon in her hand wouldn’t break, she almost fell backward.

But if she had fallen backward, the weapon in her arms might not have held up.

PK next to her was not much better, but this was probably the advantage of height. At least PK still had more than half of his body above the ground.

After a while, the people in the settlement who witnessed this scene recognized the two people behind Renault. They didn’t know them, but they recognized the weapons in their hands.

Also, how could such a beautiful girl be a real person?

And they had already fallen to the ground from a height of dozens of meters. If they weren’t Dolls, they would have eaten all the boots on their feet!

When the three entered the settlement, no one was willing to approach but simply stared at PK and M1919A4 behind Renault with eager eyes.

PK was obviously a little uncomfortable in the face of so many fiery gazes. Her brows were furrowed, and she wanted to shoot all the guys around her who wanted to swallow her with their eyes.

"What’s going on here? Why are these people staring at us?" M1919A4 was also a little uncomfortable. The people around her looked completely different from the pedestrians she had met before.

"This is a black market base," Renault replied as he continued walking.

He had already found the location of the intelligence dealer and had just called the dealer, which might have been intended to locate the other party.

It’s just that there were too many people in this settlement. Although it was a bit messy, many people had seen a team of mercenaries returning from outside with someone not long ago.

After determining the location, Renault certainly didn’t care about the people around him and walked directly toward the mercenary group's base.

But not long after he started walking, he happened to encounter a guy without clothes. Well, his whole body was covered with metal parts, so there was no need for him to wear clothes at all.

"Hey! Sure enough! It seems that this information is very important to you!" The man came with a group of mercenaries who also had prosthetic limbs all over their bodies and surrounded Renault and the others without saying anything. While speaking, he shook the file bag in his hand.

Seeing these mercenaries who had almost appeared out of nowhere, PK frowned even more deeply. She found that the life detection module she was equipped with was truly useless against these mercenaries.

Even the reconnaissance module did not respond at all... These modules should be updated... She had this thought for the first time and felt that the good IOP equipment she had on her body seemed insufficient to cope with the current combat situation.

Although M1919A4 next to her did not think so, she felt that she must ask the commander for a detection module that could detect all surrounding targets anytime and anywhere after returning.

But facing the mercenaries standing in the middle of the road to block their way, Renault did not stop. Although he had not tested his modified weapons on these mechanical mercenaries, even if they still could not penetrate the bulletproof plates protecting the vital parts of these guys, he had a more effective weapon.

The folding axe hanging on his waist, as long as he aimed at the joints and necks of these mechanical mercenaries, could easily split them into eight pieces with his strength.

Looking at Renault, who was walking straight toward him without stopping, the mercenary leader holding the document bag finally changed his smug expression.

But before he could speak, Renault had already arrived in front of him, his palm resting on the leader's shoulder.

"You!?" The mercenary, surprised by the sudden hand, staggered to the side to stabilize himself, shouting in anger, while the mercenaries around him also raised their weapons!

"Stop!" Renault's action immediately made the mercenary leader guess that the "information" in his hand might not be what the other party wanted!

He was just here for them!

Just as he was about to draw his gun, PK, who happened to be walking by Renault's side, kicked him on the side of the knee without hesitation!

Crack!

The circuits and parts of the prosthesis whined, and it broke into two pieces under PK's kick! Without a leg to maintain balance, the mercenary leader fell to the ground on the other side!

PK's sudden action was like a signal. At that moment, all the mercenaries almost pointed their guns at PK, who had suddenly attacked!

Boom!

It was not the weapons in their hands that sounded first, but the grenades fired from the grenade launcher in Renault's hand!

Without any hesitation, four grenades flew directly in the four directions around them, almost covering all the mechanical mercenaries in the kill zone! The 43mm caliber grenade directly knocked over a dozen mercenaries around!

PK and M1919A4 raised their hands helplessly to block the shrapnel flying toward their faces. This time, they would definitely need to go into the repair pod after returning...

The sound of four consecutive grenade explosions made the entire settlement erupt in chaos!

Although there was no one to maintain law and order in this place, there were undoubtedly some rules. First of all, mercenaries could not fight in the settlement. Using guns was understandable, but firing grenades directly in the settlement?

This was like pulling the fragile nerves of the mercenaries like a bowstring and then releasing it. It would be strange if the mercenaries in the settlement didn’t go crazy.

---

Chapter 53: Bad Intentions

"Commander, what should we do with this guy?" M1919A4 picked up the file bag that had survived from the mercenary leader and then asked Renault as she looked at the mercenary who had escaped and was crawling away with his only remaining arm.

Renault did not reply but answered M1919A4's question directly with the folding axe in his hand.

The folding axe then flew out of Renault's hand, the axe blade spinning, then the sharp blade split the mercenary's not-so-bright brain in half!

"Okay, just pretend I didn't ask." Shrugging her shoulders, M1919A4 handed the file bag to Renault.

After taking the file bag, Renault opened it and glanced inside as he walked. The contents had nothing to do with what he wanted; it was an investigation report on the payment of water and electricity bills in a certain city.

The report had many pages and detailed information, but he couldn't understand why someone would go to such lengths to investigate these matters. After tossing the boring report aside, they heard a burst of gunfire in the settlement.

"It's really lively. What's wrong with these people? Have they been unable to hold back for a long time?"

Just the sound of a few grenades exploding made all the mercenaries in the town irritable. Isn’t this a bit abnormal?

"It's just a chain reaction caused by stress response. Don't worry about it."

Although the gunfire was dense, it was still some distance away from where they were. It sounded like the most intense fighting was happening on the busiest street in the settlement.

However, given the current situation, there were likely only two final outcomes. One was that someone would stand up and forcibly suppress the overreacting mercenaries. The other was to let the situation continue to spread, ultimately tearing the settlement apart.

Renault leaned toward the latter. Although the black market was powerful, it would definitely not deploy a group of elites to suppress a large number of mercenaries in such a small town.

Who would come to such a remote place without money?

The mechanical mercenaries guarding outside the mercenary group's base couldn’t survive two rounds against Renault, who was armed with a grenade launcher. PK and M1919A4 had no chance to engage this time and could only follow Renault with their weapons.

Just as the intelligence dealer tied to a chair in the room squinted his eyes and waited for his end with cold sweat on his face, a familiar voice suddenly sounded in front of him.

"Are you 'Turban'?" Looking at the young man in front of him who wore glasses and a decent suit and looked like a company manager at first glance, Renault raised his eyebrows.

He had originally thought the intelligence dealer nicknamed Turban would be a guy with a turban on his head who looked like a gangster.

Hearing this voice, which was very different from that of the stupid mercenary, the intelligence dealer opened his eyes in shock and saw Renault loading grenades into the grenade launcher!

"You! Are you Mr. Renault!?"

"Hmm? Do you know me?"

"No, I just had the honor of seeing you in an interview with Miss Charlotte!" Seeing Renault appear at the door, the intelligence dealer almost cried—no, he had already cried.

He probably never expected that one day he would look forward to the appearance of buyers with tears in his eyes. In the past, it had always been buyers coming to him to ask for things.

"Commander! You must have been on TV before! I just don’t know if Miss Charlotte filmed us?" Hearing the intelligence dealer's words, M1919A4 immediately looked excited.

"No, Miss Charlotte didn't film inside the spacecraft," PK said calmly as she checked the room and confirmed that the intelligence dealer was the only unfortunate one there.

"Uh..." Suddenly doused with a bucket of cold water, M1919A4 couldn't help but cast a resentful look at PK, but unfortunately, PK didn’t notice at all.

After cutting the ropes and cable ties on the intelligence dealer's thumbs, Renault didn’t intend to waste time and asked directly, "Where is the thing I want?"

"Yes! Of course! But..." The intelligence dealer immediately responded, but halfway through, he changed the subject when he saw Renault frowning. He quickly continued, "No, no, I don’t want to increase the price or anything, but can you please take me out? This settlement is in chaos, and I really..."

He really doesn't have the courage to go out alone! He didn’t have any means of transportation at hand. Even if he did, would he dare to rush out directly under the guns of so many mercenaries?

Don’t say he is wearing a bulletproof vest; he wouldn’t even dare to wear a heavy protective suit!

"Okay, but you have to pay." Renault raised his eyebrows and agreed immediately. An intelligence dealer should not be short of money, but he didn’t care about that. Any money he could make would be a bonus.

"Okay! No problem! Absolutely no problem! But if possible, can I use the money from this intelligence... No, no! All intelligence will be free in the future! As long as it is something I can find, I will provide it to you for free!"

Facing the threat to his life, the intelligence dealer didn’t dare to bargain with Renault at that moment. God knows when those mercenaries with a short fuse would run over here.

And it’s just some intelligence. If he could build a good relationship with Renault, the rising star among security contractors, this little thing was definitely worth the money!

"Okay, bring me what I want this time first."

"Okay! Okay!"

Hearing Renault's words, the intelligence dealer immediately raised his hand and pressed the side of his head, behind the ear, and a memory card was promptly pulled out of his brain.

Tsk, it really exists in his brain. This guy had told him on the phone before that everything was in his brain. Was it meant literally?

The mercenaries really miscalculated this time. They probably didn’t expect that a man who looked like a common folk with no signs of modification would actually have altered his skull and connected electronic devices to his head.

What is popular in developed areas now is just some external access devices. It's certainly not the majority who directly modify the brain and connect electronic devices.

Seeing M1919A4's surprised look, the intelligence dealer smiled cautiously and placed the memory card in Renault’s palm, pointing to his head. "I had a head injury when I was young, and there happened to be a piece of bone missing, so I used it for modification."

Looking at the memory card in his hand, Renault nodded. It’s not like he could tell if there was anything wrong with the data just by looking at it. He could only confirm that the intelligence dealer in front of him wasn’t lying.

"Let's go back to the gunship first. PK, notify P226 to bring the gunship over. This place is quite spacious."

When P226 drove the gunship down, G43 and Stg-44, who were ready to fire, looked disappointed.

"Is it over? I thought I could fire a couple of shots to get some practice."

"Don’t even think about it. We didn’t fire a single shot earlier!"

M1919A4 jumped into the cabin, followed by PK, and then the intelligence dealer, who was grabbed by the neck and thrown towards the cabin door by Renault.

Since Renault didn’t use much force, the intelligence dealer landed steadily on his feet.

However, as soon as he entered the cabin, his eyes were drawn to the gunner’s control console in front of him.

After all, other areas were either covered by armor plates or seemed to have no technical content. Only the gunner’s control console looked like a high-tech product. It was a pity that he could only see so little, and all the parts in the gunship were made by the two Scarecrows in the spacecraft, based on the blueprints Renault had provided. They were completely different from any similar products on the market, with no comparable counterparts.

"Let’s head back to the first town," Renault said as he entered the co-pilot seat and began using the device there to check the contents of the memory card.

The information was detailed, exactly matching the water and electricity bill payment reports he had seen before. Clearly, all of this came from one source.

Not only did it list the locations of various materials Renault needed, but it also outlined the status of the companies that owned these materials at the time. It covered all aspects of intelligence.

However, this kind of red zone information couldn’t fetch a high price on the market; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been sold for just a few million.

The intelligence dealer who sitting in his seat rubbed his hands nervously and glanced at Renault, fearing that he might be dissatisfied.

"Not bad." After verifying the information, Renault nodded and then turned back to look at the intelligence dealer. "Tell me, where do you want to go, as long as it’s not near a big city’s air defense circle."

"Well, as long as you’re satisfied, if possible, just drop me off at a small town 300 kilometers north. The local security contractor maintains order there, so it’s safe."

In fact, he had come from that direction. For convenience, it would have been better to head back closer to the city. Even if left more than ten kilometers away, he could easily walk back.

As for running into large wild animals? Are there still wild animals on this continent these days?

The threat of collapse radiation to animals is much greater than it is to humans. If humans are mildly infected, there are complete medical institutions for treatment. But animals are different...

Especially the wild animals that originally lived on this continent, wandering in the wilderness. They might not only encounter collapse radiation dust at any time but also those who hunt animals for money.

These days, even a lizard or a rabbit, especially a wild one, can be sold for a high price on the black market, whether dead or alive, and fetch a fortune.

In this chaotic era, the laws and regulations that used to restrain such activities have almost lost all effect.

Of course, this situation only occurs in chaotic areas. Most other places in the world have set up special animal protection zones, guarded by specialized doll protectors.

Although the zones are not large, they at least provide some protection for animals.

"Okay, your car is still in that town. If you’re lucky, it should still be parked there." Renault wasn’t worried about the car being stolen. It was just an ordinary pickup truck.

Though it wasn’t cheap, those mercenaries also had vehicles. Even if the mercenary who had been cruel to him didn’t intend to steal the intelligence dealer's truck, they wouldn't have done so for such a small sum of money.

The heavy trucks those mercenaries were riding were far more valuable than the intelligence dealer’s small pickup.

The intelligence dealer, Klaus, who had initially thought Renault would just drop him off in the town, was pleasantly surprised to find that Renault came there first, not to leave him, but to bring his car along with a sling!

Not only that, but Renault even had P226 set the pickup truck down five kilometers from the city, allowing Klaus to drive back to the safe city in just a few minutes.

After giving Klaus a ride, Renault and his friends returned to the spaceship, where Helian was already waiting.

"Why did it take you so long?"

Long?

Hearing Helian’s words, M1919A4 and G43 exchanged glances and shrugged. Originally, Renault had only scheduled an hour for this mission, but the round trip ended up taking almost two.

They had only been waiting for about thirty minutes, yet to Helian, it seemed like a long time.

"A mercenary with a scrambled brain kidnapped that unlucky guy, and it looks like he wanted to exchange the information he had for something with me."

As Renault spoke, he handed the memory card to Helian. "Take some time to go over these materials, and then make an action plan. A lot of things here have been left alone for too long."

"Okay, I’ll start preparing after dinner." Hearing Renault’s words, Helian nodded with a smile.

It was good to have something to do; at least she wouldn't have to be idle all day like the fishmongers at home.

If that happened, her reputation as a vagrant would be set in stone.

The incident with the intelligence didn’t stir much on the spaceship, except that M1919A4 and PK were unlucky enough to get hit by stray bullet fragments and had to enter the repair pod, causing quite a bit of laughter...

"How does it feel? Is this your first time driving a gunship?" SPAS-12 smiled as she approached P226, who was holding a technical manual, maintaining the new gunship while reading.

The repair work on her side wasn’t easy, especially since all the Rippers had left. If she could scam this "newcomer" into helping with the pilot group, it would be perfect!

"Hey? SPAS-12? What’s up?"

SPAS-12 was a bit surprised, and P226 was clearly wary of her. The moment she saw her approach, she tensed up, ready to run if anything suspicious happened.

---

Chapter 54: Outrageous

"Hey! Instead of trying to guess everything with the manual, why not come over here and try it out? Come on! There’s plenty of room for you to play with!"

Although P226 had been alert, she still underestimated SPAS-12's determination. This girl was clearly doing everything she could to find a helper for her gunship maintenance work.

Under the pretext of helping P226 familiarize herself with the gunship equipment, SPAS-12 directly took P226 away to work.

The old gunship was really messed up from the last mission. Although the crack was just a small hole at the bottom, the rest of the body wasn’t in much better shape. Almost every armor plate was damaged.

Originally, there were Rippers to assist SPAS-12, but most of them were gone for repairs. The remaining Rippers noticed that SPAS-12 hardly ever ate enough and spent most of the day munching on food. They dismantled hundreds of armor plates on the entire gunship, while SPAS-12 only managed to take off four or five.

It would have been fine if she were simply slacking off, but she kept devouring hamburgers in front of them all day long.

Was she really trying to annoy them because they couldn't eat without their digestion modules installed?

As time passed, SPAS-12 became infamous among the Rippers. She would eat all day right in front of them, and when she was eating, she looked incredibly appetizing.

The worst part was that she could make the Rippers greedy, distracting them from their work!

Okay, it’s understandable if they slack off, as even the Rippers can’t avoid it. But eating right in front of them every day and making the place smell delicious...

Even the Sangvis Ferri couldn’t stand it!

They're done!

Although SPAS-12 recognized this problem, she couldn’t change her ways! The food was just too delicious! How could she stop?

Even after tricking P226 into helping, SPAS-12 still couldn't shake her bad habit. She moved the armor plates with greasy hands while munching away.

Even P226 couldn’t stand it. The grease on the edges of the armor plates might affect the welding quality.

“SPAS-12! Can you please stop eating while working? If you keep this up, this gunship will completely turn into an oil rig!”

...

“Working here isn’t much easier than working at Griffin,” Helian sighed helplessly as she handed an action plan to Renault. It wasn’t just physical fatigue; it was mental exhaustion.

On Renault's side, even the Rippers would come to complain from time to time, and sometimes he had to counsel those aggrieved Sangvis dolls, making Helian feel like she was dealing with a group of children.

Although Helian understood that these Sangvis dolls had only recently gained true self-awareness after working under Renault, they were, in reality, no different from children.

But these were all Sangvis dolls, crafted from military-grade combat doll materials. Yet now they were squabbling over trivial matters like children...

From a senior agent of a security contractor to a kindergarten teacher... Shouldn't she find the time to enroll in a professional correspondence course for kindergarten teachers?

"Hmm? Regret it?" She looked up at Helian. Although she was complaining, her expression belied that sentiment. Helian was clearly much more relaxed now than when she was at Griffin.

"Hmph, I was just talking casually; don’t read too much into it." Seeing Renault’s smile, Helian blushed and awkwardly denied it.

Shrugging his shoulders, Renault glanced at the action plan. The first item on it was to find a place to clear the inventory on the ship, particularly the alcoholic beverages.

Everything else on the ship was manageable, but the alcohol was practically useless. There were only a few drunks on board, and even if they drank all day long, their consumption was limited. The ever-expanding liquid storage tanks had taken up three warehouses.

The storage alone was enough for the dolls on the ship to drink for several years!

"Is there a good place? Many locations have refused us entry now. It's unlikely we can sell these things openly."

"Just find Universal Anything. Their business scope is vast, and since we have cooperated with them before, there shouldn’t be any problems."

"Universal Anything? Let me think..." Renault recalled the appearance of the person who had commissioned him to find something in the black market before but couldn’t remember their name right away. He should have their contact information on his phone, right?

"I know someone here who has worked with Griffin before. Many of Griffin's internal logistics supplies are provided by him." Seeing Renault start to look through his mobile phone contacts, Helian raised her hand and pointed to a string of communication codes on her tablet.

"Oh? That saves us some trouble. Although those areas in the north are off-limits, there are still many airports and ports in Universal Anything. Clearing the inventory in one go would be a great help."

Now the space in the spaceship was tight; it would be beneficial to have two more warehouses. Plus, Universal Anything would likely not only purchase those drinks. Some canned goods and other items piled up in the warehouse could also be sold through their channels.

It didn’t matter if the price offered by Universal Anything wasn’t high. He didn’t care about those small things right now. What good would it do to sell them for a high price? Aside from giving the money to the dolls to buy small items, there were really limited things available.

What they truly wanted depended on what they could produce.

However, the next action plan left Renault a bit confused: “Why should we pay to buy the entire abandoned industrial zone? Is that really necessary?”

Helian's plan clearly stated that after clearing the inventory on the spaceship, the first task was to spend money on one of the abandoned industrial zones. Although that industrial zone was on the edge of the yellow zone, a large part of it lay within the red zone.

Even if they wanted to redevelop the area, it would require a significant investment in dolls and purification towers. While the value of the factory zone was not negligible, it could only be considered pitifully small compared to the costs involved.

"Of course it’s necessary. Although our current name carries weight among security contractors, our previous confrontation with the military really ruffled some feathers."

"So those guys are worried I’ll do to them what I did to the military?" Renault mused. Did they really think that way? If he wanted to force his way in, what could those weak anti-aircraft defenses do to stop his spaceship?

"That’s right. If we pay for it, at least we send a signal to others that we still abide by rules. While we may not completely reverse the situation, we can at least improve it a little."

After hearing what Helian said, Renault scratched his head helplessly. He never liked to dwell on these intricacies, but could he blame others? Even if he spoke the truth, there would still be those who didn’t believe it.

"And most importantly, according to Klaus’s intelligence, this factory area is adjacent to a large storage base. That area has now completely transformed into a red zone, with signs of developing into a black zone."

Therefore, as long as he purchased this place, he could acquire a storage base full of industrial materials for free, and it would be the kind that no one wanted.

---

He had seen it before. Klaus's report was very detailed.

The owner of the storage base fell seriously ill upon learning that all the fixed assets in his possession had turned into red zones.

Recently, when he discovered that the area was about to turn into a black zone, he was so anxious that he died.

Even the Ultilife Company, which possessed extremely advanced medical technology, was unable to save him. It must be said that this was the first time Renault had encountered someone who could truly worry him to death.

"Okay, let's do it."

Upon hearing Renault’s agreement, Helian nodded. "Then I will contact the people from Universal Anything now."

"Okay, just notify wz.29 to follow the public route."

"Alright. By the way, Panacea asked me to check with you about P226. It should be time for the shift change now. She wanted to inform P226 about some precautions before the change."

"P226? I told her to disband when I returned earlier. They haven't finished the preparation work for the gunship yet, have they?"

The gunship had only flown once this time; the ammunition wasn't consumed, and there was no damage to the surface.

It only needed a little dusting to be ready, so it shouldn’t take too long, right?

"Commander! SPAS-12 covered the old gunship in grease from top to bottom! The armor plates can't be welded!"

As soon as P226 was mentioned, the little one rushed into the workshop from outside, shouting and pointing behind her.

SPAS-12, who was following P226 and had originally planned to go to the restaurant for dinner, widened her eyes in shock.

You just called me senior! Why did you betray me the moment you turned around? Didn’t we agree to have dinner together?!

"Huh?" Renault poked his head out of the workshop and squinted at SPAS-12.

Faced with Renault's intense stare, SPAS-12 could only scratch her head awkwardly, oblivious to the grease on her hands that was now stuck in her hair.

Seeing the mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise in SPAS-12's hair, Renault's eyes twitched. Previously, SPAS-12 had stayed in the restaurant every day, and G36 took care of her without any issues. But now, after trying to repair the gunship alone, she ended up like this?

"Helian, notify G36 to limit SPAS-12's rations during dinner."

At the very least, she shouldn't be allowed to run around with food...

"Okay."

"No!!!!!"

...

SPAS-12's wailing didn’t change anything, and the spacecraft’s restaurant added a rule: SPAS-12 was prohibited from taking food out of the restaurant.

Although snacks couldn’t be restricted, this at least ensured she wouldn’t touch the handrail in the corridor and get sauce all over himself.

The Sangvis Dolls on the ship, especially those in charge of cleaning, along with M1897, all cheered and celebrated that the stain-maker on the ship had finally been punished!

The activities of the dolls on the ship did not disrupt the spacecraft's itinerary. After Helian contacted Universal Anything, the other party was a bit surprised that Helian had switched roles from purchaser to supplier, but they were still very welcoming regarding the goods she mentioned.

After all, crop yields these days were not very good, and the energy costs of vertical farms were high. No one would refuse such a good deal available at a low price.

"Wow! This is really a good deal! As expected, Miss Helian excels in any industry."

After inspecting the goods brought down by the dolls, the purchasing manager of Universal Anything was amazed.

Whether it was the drinks, the fresh ingredients, or even the canned food, everything was very fresh. While it was a bit strange how so many ingredients were kept fresh, that wasn’t the main concern.

The most important factor was the price offered by Helian. Although it couldn’t be considered cheap, it was definitely a relatively low price in the industry!

Of course, the price was almost double what Renault had sold to Griffin, which made him realize that he wasn’t very good at business.

He had investigated prices at first, but who knew that the prices he found weren’t comparable to the products he had brought out?

Helian was also quite emotional. The sales price from this business alone was equivalent to her salary for more than 200 years of work at Griffin!

If it were in the past, after receiving such a large sum, she might have planned to retire immediately and find a nice place in the Green Zone to settle down.

And the quantity of these materials didn’t seem like much when piled on the ship. Only after hearing the numbers did Helian realize how valuable the items on Renault's ship truly were.

1,200 tons of finished wine, two-thirds of which were strong liquor. Additionally, there were at least 800 tons of fresh ingredients and a minimum of 1,500 tons of canned food...

All calculated by tons! So many materials! Griffin's consumption for a whole year didn’t even match a fraction of this amount!

Helianthus was a little surprised, and for the first time, she realized how outrageous Renault's spaceship was. It wasn’t enough to have such a huge hull; it also carried such heavy cargo everywhere... And it had no shortage of energy at all...

---

Chapter 55: The Wrong Person!

After selling the overstocked inventory on the spacecraft, Helian directly received all the proceeds from the transaction from Renault to purchase the ownership of the industrial zone that had been previously agreed upon.

Of course, in reality, it would not take that much, but Renault wanted to avoid complications. Anyway, there would definitely be other issues to trouble Helian in the future, so he regarded it as an early salary.

Thanks to Universal Anything's role as a mediator, the purchase of the industrial zone progressed much faster than Renault had anticipated.

Helian did not even leave Renault's sight but contacted the other party through the Megara cloud. After a brief conversation, the other party agreed.

It was clear that this area in the red zone was a hot potato for others. If they acted too late, they might not even recover half of their original capital. In comparison, Helian was willing to offer a reasonable price and was eager to spend money to buy it, which was already a blessing in disguise. Otherwise, if the red zone turned into a black zone, then, let alone selling it, someone might approach these merchants with assets in the red zone to help manage the dreadful conditions of collapse and radiation diffusion.

After all, where did the quarantine walls surrounding the city and the purification towers within it come from? Free? No one’s money comes from thin air.

"As for the procedures, this is all you need. This transfer certificate is sufficient. After all, the country where the industrial zone is located—well, it can only be said to no longer exist. Aside from this document, there’s no need for any additional written procedures."

Shaking a document in her hand, Helian handed it to Renault. Her tone was brisk; she was obviously in a good mood. After all, a large sum of money had suddenly appeared in her pocket, making it impossible for her to hide her happiness.

"Oh, just keep it. Even without this, no one will come to the Red Zone to discuss land ownership with me."

Seeing Renault's nonchalant demeanor, Helian sighed. This guy probably wouldn’t change his reckless nature in his lifetime.

"Okay, then I'll put it in your room and set off directly after the dolls come back?"

Since this was the Universal Anything port, the control over Renault's dolls was naturally not as strict. Additionally, the dolls had self-changeable identification systems; as long as they wanted to, they could sneak into a bank or hospital on the spot.

Of course, the simplest way was to disguise themselves as ordinary civilian dolls. There were so many civilian dolls on the street that, as long as they didn’t engage in any extraordinary behavior, the likelihood of being recognized was quite low. Even if someone found it odd, they would probably just think these dolls were more agile than the others.

"Well, let’s get ready. Aren’t you going to the city?"

"No, not for now... I don’t want anything right now."

Renault’s words made it clear that he wasn’t planning to return, so why would she go to the city alone?

There was no shortage of daily necessities on the ship at present. Mrs. Graven had already sent a large batch last time, which would last them for a long time.

"Well, I’ll go back first. I still have a lot to do." Renault didn’t even want to think about how many tasks he had left unfinished, as they seemed to be connected in a long, uncountable list.

Watching Renault wave goodbye and turn away, Helianthus sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

When he was busy, he ignored everything. It was a rare opportunity to take a break, but he didn’t know how to rest, even worse than her.

But then she thought about her own work habits at Griffin, where she had to calculate the time down to the minute when attending social gatherings. Shaking her head to dismiss the idea of laughing at someone who was just half a step away from her, Helian followed Renault back to the spaceship, leaving the dolls carrying supplies nearby.

Thousands of tons of goods, even with the help of equipment, were enough to keep these dolls busy for a while. After all, even dolls couldn’t simply lift these boxes weighing tons.

She wondered if the port's surveillance records still existed when someone recalled how these goods had been moved off the spaceship.

The dolls didn’t stay outside for long, as this place was not as developed as they had imagined.

This was a large cargo distribution center. While there were some entertainment venues, those places were obviously not designed for them. Instead of taking a car to a prosperous city more than ten kilometers away from the port, it was better to return to the spaceship early; otherwise, their commander would be angry.

With the spaceship, the journey to the industrial zone only took a little over an hour. The dolls who had just returned to the spaceship had barely sat down and rested when the spaceship stopped again.

"Wow, it feels like going back to the past," Simonov said with rare clarity as she looked at the closed doors of the factories in the industrial zone.

"Yes, it always feels like there’s a group of huge, Heavy ELID infected locked behind those factory doors!" CF05 nodded in agreement. When she first encountered those infected individuals, she had expended considerable effort to eliminate them all.

"Okay girls, your commander is probably doing something strange in the workshop right now, so our goal this afternoon is to check the situation inside this industrial zone." Helianthus clapped her hands and addressed the gathered dolls.

"What should we do if we encounter an infected person?"

"Of course, we kill them! And then burn them!"

Just as one doll raised a hand to ask a question, before Helian could respond, Vector shouted excitedly, holding a thermite in her raised fist...

"Well, Vector is right. If you encounter one, just eliminate it. Of course, if possible, try not to damage the equipment in the factory. After all, all of this was bought with money!"

The industrial park, covering more than 700 hectares, is not very large, but it is certainly not small. However, with the speed of Renault's dolls, one afternoon is enough for them to explore the park as long as they don't encounter particularly challenging infected individuals.

"Okay! Don't worry! By the way, Helian! Can I do a livestream?" Hearing the task assigned by Helian, MDR agreed but then suddenly asked.

"Uh, yes, but only for now. You have to check with Renault if you can broadcast live later. Of course, if there’s a battle, it’s best not to capture anything too outrageous."

"No problem! Hurry up! Vera! Bring your equipment... Wait! You can't go! Maria! Maria!"

Just as he was about to call Vera, his little follower, MDR suddenly remembered that Vera had not yet changed her body. This area is a red zone, and dolls without special modifications will not fare well here.

With MDR leading the way, the other dolls also formed teams of two or three and began to explore the industrial park.

Watching the dolls exit the hatch, Helian turned to the scarecrow. "Scarecrow, um, I'll ask you to take care of the situation outside."

"Well, I understand."

It was obviously impossible for Helian to accompany the dolls. Although she had been eating on the ship for several days, all her food was cooked. The effect of improving her body was still there, but it wasn't very noticeable.

So, if she wanted to go out, she had to wear a heavy protective suit. Wearing that, let alone patrolling the entire industrial park, just walking slowly could exhaust Helian.

Those heavy protective suits were not equipped with exoskeleton assist devices. Although they were indeed military specifications, they were several generations old. While the protective capability was fine, Helian did not want to suffocate in the suit.

…

"Hi! This is MDR's Red Zone Adventure Livestream! Today, I will take you to see what the real Red Zone looks like!"

While walking, MDR connected her mobile phone to the drone and started broadcasting with ease.

She had been holding back for a long time. There was no livestream content on the spacecraft; besides playing games, she could only stream gaming content. It had been a long time since she had done outdoor livestreams like this.

'Huh? You’re kidding! How can a live-streaming doll like you go to that kind of place? Stop it, hurry up and continue yesterday's livestream! What about the next strategy!'

'Really? Did they just find a cloudy spot to shoot?'

‘Wait! What’s that thing in the distance?!’

As soon as the broadcast started, the comments in the live room began to scroll, clearly showing that the viewers didn’t believe MDR could go to the red zone for a livestream.

Moreover, communication within the red zone is a significant challenge. The livestream picture was clear now, and it didn’t seem to be disturbed at all.

However, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed a ragged, swaying figure approaching MDR not far behind her.

Seeing these comments, MDR raised her eyebrows in satisfaction. She did it on purpose. Choosing scenes for a livestream is crucial. If there’s nothing in the background to immediately capture the audience's curiosity, the viewers will turn away immediately!

"Hehe! See? I'm not fooling you! Clang clang! Let me introduce you. The person behind is our special guest for today’s livestream! An ELID-infected! The following scenes may not be suitable for everyone to watch, so audience members, remember to be mentally prepared..."

Bang! Boom!

Just before MDR finished speaking, the audience in the live room heard a muffled sound next to her, followed by a grenade flying straight toward the ELID-infected. Amid the roar, the ELID-infected was torn to pieces!

"Eh!? Ah! Wait! Wait! Maria! What are you doing?! I'm still livestreaming!"

Looking back at the infected, which had been reduced to fragments, MDR wailed and shouted. The carefully designed livestream opening had been ruined just like that!

"I'm not Maria; I'm Destroyer. Maria just pulled me over and said, 'It's just some work, like helping to hold the drone and using the flashlight to light it up. It's too boring.' She has now run away with Nagant Revolver and the others."

Looking at MDR with her hands on her head, Destroyer felt no empathy. She simply wanted to finish today’s work as quickly as possible and then find a spot on the ship to listen to the old CD she got from Mrs. Graven.

"Huh!? Then why are you wearing Maria's clothes?!"

"What Maria's clothes? This is obviously my outfit! It’s different, okay?!" Destroyer pulled at the hem of her short jacket, annoyed, and shouted at MDR.

'Ah hey hey! This seems to be real! Was that a grenade launcher just now?!'

'Wait! Do you feel that those unclear shapes in the distance seem to be getting closer?'

Just as MDR and Destroyer were chatting, many dormant infected people stirred from the ground due to Destroyer’s grenade and began to move awkwardly toward MDR and the others.

Vera: ‘MDR! Stop dawdling! Those infected people are coming!’

Vera, who was on the spaceship and barred from participating in the operation due to safety concerns, also saw the situation around the two through MDR's livestream room and instinctively sent a barrage of reminders.

But then she realized that sending messages here was far less effective than directly shouting in MDR's mind through the doll communication protocol.

"Don’t dawdle! Quickly kill those approaching infected!"

"Huh? Oh! Damn it! You ungrateful guys! Can’t you cooperate and let me introduce you properly?!" MDR snapped back to reality after hearing Vera's shout through the communication protocol. Looking at the infected who were only about 50 meters away, she immediately drew her etched weapon from behind!

Bang bang bang bang!

After MDR opened fire, Destroyer also smirked and picked up her grenade launcher to join the fight.

Although the weapon in MDR's hand looked good, it paled in comparison to the grenade launcher in Destroyer's hands, which had significantly more power.

'Woo! That’s impressive! When did MDR create this kind of scene?!'

'This really doesn’t look fake!'

[Warning! Please regulate your livestream behavior!]

Although the atmosphere in the live room was electric after MDR and Destroyer began fighting, the sight of debris flying around also prompted MDR to receive a warning.

However, MDR was busy dealing with the infected. She did not pay attention to this minor detail on her phone. While fighting, her little mouth ran like honey, and she couldn't control it at all!

[Warning! Please use civilized language in the livestream room!]

It was unfortunate that Destroyer's grenades created a lot of noise. Despite the two of them attacking, the number of infected didn’t decrease; in fact, it seemed to be increasing.

---

Chapter 56: High Efficiency

As MDR and the Destroyer started fighting, gunshots were heard throughout the industrial park. No matter which team it was, they had already encountered ELID Infected in the industrial park.

Because MDR and the Destroyer were not too far from the spaceship, Helian, who was inside the spaceship, could vaguely hear the noise outside.

Curiously, she went to the viewing window on the side of the spaceship and found that bullets were flying outside, with explosions and flames everywhere, turning the industrial park into a battlefield!

Boom!

Listening to the roar outside, Helian's eyes widened, and she found it hard to believe. She had just asked these Dolls to check the situation in the park, right? Could it be that she had been unconscious and had given the wrong order just now?

Besides, this was obviously an industrial park.

Where did so many ELID Infected come from? Could it be that this industrial park did not stop working when it was polluted, nor did it notify anyone about the collapse particle cloud?

Was this why the people working in this industrial park didn't have time to evacuate?

It shouldn't be like this. She knew the situation of this industrial park. The equipment and workshop buildings all looked new; they should have been made in recent years. It was just unlucky and had been hit by a cloud of sinking collapse particles.

In recent years, this kind of occasional random collapse pollution had indeed increased significantly compared to before, but the environment in the sky had improved a lot. At least, as long as there were sufficient detection methods, fixed-wing aircraft could still fly in the sky.

Even satellites had been brought back online one after another. The communication system used by Griffin before was satellite communication utilized by the headquarters. Of course, not all of them were operational, as those satellites had been working intermittently not long ago.

It was good luck to be able to connect, and if you were a little unlucky, there would be no response. She didn't know if Griffin's satellite communication channel had improved by now.

Thinking of this, Helian took the tablet and pulled up the information given by Krios earlier. After a careful check, she found that there was indeed no mention of any collapse pollution detection equipment in the information.

After all, Renault didn't care about the collapse pollution, so Helian didn't either. Now it seemed that this industrial park had no defense measures against collapse radiation, which was why so many staff members had fallen into this situation.

But that wasn’t the point right now! These people had become infected, so it was useless for her to think about anything here.

The key now was to confirm the situation of the Dolls outside!

She had thought that this industrial park was well-preserved before, and there would be no problem even if the Dolls moved around in it, but now it was different!

There were so many ELID Infected. If a Heavy ELID infected or a mutant suddenly appeared, wouldn't Renault's Dolls be destroyed? Renault's Dolls didn't have any Neural Cloud system!

Thinking of this, Helian, who had just returned to the lounge, hurried out again. Halfway through, she remembered the mobile phone in her pocket, so she slowed down and called Scarecrow while walking.

"Hmm? Helian, what happened?"

Scarecrow, who answered the phone, spoke calmly, and she obviously didn't think anything was wrong.

Hearing the calm tone of Scarecrow, Helian was stunned.

Obviously, Scarecrow was outside the spaceship at this time, and she should be the first person to see the battle outside.

Why did she sound so calm?

Was it because Sangvis Ferri Dolls had no emotions?

But that was impossible. Yesterday, an Sangvis Dragoon had come over crying and said that her little bear was broken and couldn't be repaired.

"How are the Dolls outside?"

"Oh, you mean them? They are probably having fun now. No mutants have been found in the industrial park yet, so no heavy firepower support is needed for the time being." Scarecrow stood in a high place and turned her head to look at the battle situation around her.

There were no Heavy ELID Infected in this area, just ordinary infected people, and these ELID Infected had no weapons in their hands, so the threat to the Dolls was nearly zero.

Besides, they were just ELID Infected. They had seen them before. When the spaceship was not yet built in the Red Zone, they had killed tens of thousands of ordinary infected people. After all, that place had once been a small city, and there must have been many ELID Infected left in the city.

Therefore, compared with the industrial park at the beginning, it was completely a small witch compared to a big witch.

"Ah, this..." Hearing Scarecrow use the word "fun" to describe the battle outside, Helian stopped and felt a little at a loss.

She appeared to take it for granted. The Dolls on Renault's side were completely different from those on Griffin's side. This time, she really worried too much.

"Okay, I might be a little too nervous. Of course, if there is any unexpected situation, let them retreat to the spaceship first."

"Understood." Scarecrow nodded and did not refute Helian's words. After all, she was just being kind.

However, in her opinion, there was no need for a temporary evacuation in the current situation. The likely scenario was that the Dolls had used up their bullets and would come back to replenish their ammunition.

She just hoped that these Dolls would be a little more careful when they were tossing around and wouldn't damage the industrial equipment in the factory workshops.

The equipment on the spacecraft had been damaged because of the maneuvering of wz.29 in the sky in the last commission. The main purpose of coming here this time was to replenish this industrial equipment.

Of course, it is not necessary to move to the spacecraft. It is also perfectly fine to find a factory on the spot and then reorganize a suitable production line. After all, didn’t Renault do this in the coastal town?

Scarecrow also knows what Renault is doing now. It is nothing more than reproducing the original actions, expanding the spacecraft, or rebuilding a spacecraft with a larger space.

Renault stayed in that small town for a long time, and it is unknown how long it will take this time. However, it is estimated that it will not be too long, because there are more people on the ship now, and there are also many Sangvis Dolls. With so many people, the efficiency of work will definitely increase.

The Dolls are all veterans, and they are obviously familiar with their tasks.

Especially Vector. Has she started to light the fire now? Fortunately, there is no chemical warehouse or anything like that in his vicinity.

"Ahahahahaha!"

Da da da da!

The MG42's gunfire, like a tearing cloth machine, kept ringing. MG42, carrying a huge ammunition box, held the machine gun in his hand and laughed as he poured bullets at the infected people who had gathered around.

WA2000 covered her ears helplessly and turned to look at Springfield beside her. At this time, Springfield was holding her Imprint weapon firing at the ELID Infected who had avoided the machine gun fire one by one.

Looking at her smiling face, it seemed that she was also enjoying herself.

"Hey, Springfield, why did you come out to participate in this event? Didn't Helianthus say that you could stay on the ship?"

G36 and G3 didn't come this time, and of course, MG3 and Alchemist didn't come either.

They were also responsible for the kitchen and farm on the ship, so they didn’t have time to deal with these ELID Infected.

"Well? Of course I came out to move my body a little. Otherwise, I would just be standing behind the bar all day. I’d feel like my body was about to rust."

Well, it was just an expression; the body she was using now wouldn’t rust at all.

"Uh? Move your body?" WA2000 looked around a little dejectedly after hearing what Springfield said.

MG42 fired at full power, MG34 fired in bursts to fill in the gaps, and Springfield was here to eliminate the ELID Infected who had been missed by the two, while WA2000 had nothing to do at all.

This made her feel embarrassed to stand there!

"Hehe, don’t worry; no one will care about this little thing." As if sensing WA2000's embarrassment, Springfield comforted her.

Hmm...

After hearing Springfield's words, WA2000, who felt relieved, was still a little unwilling. She couldn't be the only one doing nothing here, right?

"How about I go to the roof over there to see the situation?"

The view there must be very good, and it would be much more convenient to fight the infected, at least without risking getting hit.

"Then I’ll go with you. What’s over there? Is it on fire?"

As she said this, Springfield turned around with WA2000 and walked toward one of the factory buildings, but just as she turned around, Springfield saw a touch of fiery red flickering in the sky not far away.

A little worried, Springfield immediately asked through the communication protocol, but then she learned from M14 that there was no problem; it was just Vector who was setting the fire.

After learning the truth, Springfield was somewhat amused but still curious.

Vector was starting a fire in a place like an industrial park. Could it be that she was using some materials from the factory?

...

On the other side, the fire lit by Vector was like a large signal source and began to attract the infected people to approach the flames inside and outside the industrial park.

"Oh, I didn’t know these ELID Infected would react to the fire?" M870 wagged her tail and looked at the ELID Infected who turned around and walked toward the fire with some novelty.

"Well, rather than being attracted by the fire, I feel that they are likely attracted by Vector. After all, the noise she is making right now is really quite loud." M3 looked at the fire built by Vector, thinking that she might have to stay in this industrial park for a while, and felt a little uncomfortable about it.

After all, the raw materials that fire was burning were the ELID Infected who had been shot dead.

The ELID Infected would walk over there, and there would be crackling sounds as the fire burned.

Although the ELID Infected in the distance would be attracted by the gunshots of the Dolls in other areas, those nearby should not be able to escape.

With a group of Dolls using both new and old methods, the work of clearing the ELID Infected was much faster than Helian had expected. In just about an hour, the ELID Infected in the entire industrial park were basically cleared.

The rest were likely some of those hiding in corners who couldn’t come out even if they were attracted. They were probably locked in rooms or factories, and they were very remote and hard to find.

Anyway, the Dolls had already searched most of the areas and the interior of the factory. Scarecrow and M1 Garand had also counted the various industrial facilities left in the industrial park.

With the help of the drones in Scarecrow’s hands, it was easy to count these things. After all, this was also Scarecrow's old business. She had done the same thing when she was in Sangvis Port.

"Ah, I'll go take a shower!"

"I still feel a little unsatisfied..."

"There will definitely be opportunities in the future..."

As the Dolls passed by in twos and threes, listening to their idle chatter, Helian could only blink and focus on the information in her hand.

The work efficiency of Renault's Dolls is indeed not comparable to that of Griffin's Dolls. Although they seem more casual than Griffin's Dolls, they are completely incomparable in terms of combat ability and work efficiency.

In just one hour, they not only assessed the general situation of the industrial park but also cleared nearly all the ELID Infected and blocked the ground entrances and exits of the large industrial park with roadblocks. Scarecrow and M1 Garand had even counted the equipment in those factories.

With this kind of work efficiency, if all the Dolls in the world were like those under Renault, then all humans would probably be doomed.

Just as she was thinking, a series of swear words and banned phrases floated into Helian's ears from not far away. It was MDR, who was walking through the corridor, cursing and shouting while sending messages on her mobile phone.

It appeared that she was arguing with someone.

"What’s wrong with her?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean MDR, the unlucky one? She just live-streamed the process of cleaning up the infected, but the footage was a little, uh, too exciting, and the language she used was not very civilized, so her livestreaming channel got blocked. I guess she is arguing with the administrator now."

Nagant Revolver passed by, holding a box in her hand, which seemed to contain some random items she picked up from outside, but this time it appeared to be just some products from the industrial park.

Listening to Nagant's explanation, Helian stared at the Dolls passing by in a daze. She was unsure whether these Dolls were worry-free or not.

"Oh, by the way, Helian, it's best not to go to CF05's table when you eat at night. That guy likes to eat hot pot after the action," Scarecrow deliberately reminded Helianthus as she left.

Huh? Eating hot pot? Then why not go over there?

----

Chapter 57: Expensive

The casual reminder from Scarecrow clearly didn’t make Helianthus take it to heart.

So when she accidentally walked to the table where CF05 and the others were sitting, she felt a stinging sensation on her face.

Then after eating, she experienced a tingling in her respiratory tract and oral cavity.

Seeing Helian suddenly stop and cover her eyes with her hands, G36 walked over helplessly and pulled her away from CF05 and the others.

Those individuals were eating happily and didn’t notice Helian walking behind them.

"Sorry, Helian. I will request the commander to build a private room in the restaurant for hot pot soon," G36 said while taking out a clean towel from the side to wipe Helian’s face.

"Uh, hiss, it’s nothing. I just feel uncomfortable for a moment. But then again, isn’t the hot pot they’re eating a little too spicy?"

"Well, it’s a bit too spicy. Most Dolls can hardly bear it, but the more you eat spicy food... the spicier it tends to get over time."

They are all Dolls, one after the other, and the next time is always a little spicier than the last.

Especially CF05, because Renault does not forbid her from making her own hot pot, and the vertical farm is mainly managed by her and NZ75, so the cultivation of peppers is naturally a priority.

So anyone who has tried hot pot at CF05 either can't accept it at all or gets dragged into the pit step by step.

After all, the spiciness can be controlled. As long as it is not a clear soup pot, CF05 can make it acceptable. If you can't eat spicy food, you can try the slightly spicy one first!

Looking at the spicy labels next to the hot pots and then at the pot full of chili peppers and the red soup base, Helian felt that the term "slightly spicy" was quite eye-catching.

Except for this little episode during the meal, Renault's group settled into the industrial park very smoothly.

After wz.29 controlled the spacecraft to land near the nearest habitable building, a group of Dolls and Sangvis Ferri began to easily construct an isolation passage, followed by isolation measures for the building and disinfection equipment for the entrances and exits.

Watching the Dolls perform their tasks, Helian felt completely redundant. These Dolls didn’t need to be commanded at all. They were much smarter than G&K Dolls.

Can just replacing the neural core lead to such significant progress for the Doll's development?

If Persica saw this scene, shs would probably stop obsessing over how to develop the next generation of Dolls and come to Renault to learn how to grant Dolls such strong autonomy.

However, Persica likely wouldn’t succeed.

After all, Renault’s Dolls have completely abandoned all kinds of restrictive protocols installed in the base of their mental models. This approach is certainly not acceptable to the general public.

While the Dolls were busy here, Renault himself was occupied in the workshop. For several days, Helian had not seen him take the initiative to walk out of his workshop. Even meals were brought to him by G36 and Yulia.

As she watched the temporary dormitory for the Sangvis Ferri Dolls outside being completed little by little, Helian became curious about what Renault was busy with.

Although she knew that Renault had a lot on his plate, she hadn’t yet had the opportunity to confirm what it all entailed.

"What have you been busy with these days?" Walking into the workshop, Helian saw a piece of Doll material in Renault’s hand that looked like a human pelvis...

Uh... Renault, could it be that he has taken out a body part of an infected person?

Seeing Helian's horrified expression, Renault rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What are you thinking? Don’t get distracted. This is completely different from what you imagine."

While speaking, Renault handed the object in his hand to Helian, urging her to take a closer look at what it was.

However, once she saw it, it was shocking, because it didn’t seem to be something that grows after birth, but rather a component produced by mechanical processing. It appeared that due to insufficient processing precision, the texture in some areas was still clearly visible.

"This? Are you trying to use these things to make a new body for the Doll? Is it strong?"

After tapping it, although it looked like a product of mechanical processing, it felt light and fragile. Helian really thought the solidity of this material should not be very high.

"Of course it's strong. At least it’s not as fragile as the high-strength alloy steel currently used by Dolls. The most important thing is that the weight of these materials is completely incomparable to those metal materials."

These materials are actually biomass materials cultivated from the growth data of Renate's body. Renate’s body needs to grow slowly at first, but it is not necessary to cultivate these materials. Just provide them with enough nutrition and allow them to grow vigorously.

Anyway, they will require further processing and polishing later. However, it is clearly unrealistic to process these materials in large quantities with the existing equipment on the spacecraft. This is because the linkage shaft of a high-precision lathe that was previously lost is broken.

It is obviously easier to acquire a new one from elsewhere than to expend energy repairing that equipment.

Just like now, in the industrial park outside, all kinds of industrial processing equipment are available. Renault needs this kind of lathe, and he can even find equipment for nano-precision processing here.

Even if Renault spent a lot of money to buy this place before, it is not a loss because the equipment here is not outdated at all; in fact, it can even be considered very advanced.

Of course, it is definitely not comparable to the most advanced ones in the market but it is still regarded as high level, nonetheless.

With this equipment, the processing of new Doll body materials and the preparation of some urgently needed nanomaterials can all be put on the agenda.

As Renault thought of this, he felt a headache. Not only did he need to manufacture the body materials for the Dolls, but he also needed to create some of the nanomaterials for the Doll bionic skin. He wasn’t sure if there were any corresponding raw materials in this industrial zone.

In addition, he wanted to create some nanorobots specifically for treatment because once the Dolls were equipped with this new material, the various bionic components on the surface of their bodies would also need to be replaced.

Not only the bones, but also the muscles, epidermis, and even the internal digestive organs would require transformation.

Of course, this would only involve using the biomass material. The various modules would remain the same as those of the existing Dolls. The core consciousness would still be retained, and the power engine would remain unchanged. Like Renate, it would grow directly. However, that would depend on the Dolls' own preferences.

Anyway, this is just one of the two plans, and they could choose whichever one they preferred.

The result of this was that Renault's workload increased exponentially. Although he had firmly memorized the relevant technologies, reproducing them required much more than just tinkering at the workbench.

If no one helped him, this would be a relatively long job. In fact, it might take one to two months if he were not disturbed.

If someone were to assist, perhaps… Wait, wasn’t wz.29 or Panacea originally a medical doll under Ultilife? It would be a waste of talent to let her be a pilot.

Thinking of this, Renault also recalled PA15 under Gentiane. That doll had performed emergency surgery on Angelia and should also be a medical doll.

However, it wouldn’t be right to constantly poach from Griffin. After all, it was normal for Gentiane to have one or two medical dolls. He just didn’t know…

"By the way, Helian, do you know anything about Ultilife? Are their medical dolls available for purchase?"

"Ultilife Holdings? Medical dolls?" Hearing Renault's question, Helian frowned, then glanced at the biomass pelvis in her hand. She suddenly realized that Renault was finally considering adding one or two assistants for her.

"Well, I can't say I know them well, but I did deal with them in the past. After all, employees of security contractors are considered high-risk occupations. I purchased a lot of medical insurance provided by Ultilife. As for medical dolls, I don’t know much about them. Most of their business involves partnerships with large medical companies, such as hospitals or pharmaceutical firms."

And even when they do cooperate, it is very limited. After all, Ultilife itself is a giant that integrates both medical and pharmaceutical businesses.

"Well, let’s find an opportunity to contact them. If we can acquire one or two medical dolls from them, it would be very helpful for our upcoming work. By the way, we should ask Svarog Heavy Industry as well; after all, the dolls at home are not industry professionals."

M500 appeared to have been a doll produced by Svarog Heavy Industry, but her specialty is animal training, which isn’t related to industrial equipment, though she can be regarded as a serious veterinarian.

"Okay, I’ll ask. Is there anything else you need me to do here? If not, why not take some time to see the results of the dolls outside? They have done a great job during this period."

Although no doll interrupted Renault’s work, she could tell that both the dolls and the Sangvis Ferris hoped their efforts would be recognized, just like children.

"Yeah, I’ll go out and take a look first." Hearing what Helian said, Renault nodded, stood up, stretched his arms, and walked out.

Helianthus returned to her room, found her old tablet, and tried to locate the Ultilife salesperson she had previously contacted.

Yes, Ultilife did sell medical dolls to the outside world, especially to high-risk security contractors like them.

However, because control of the dolls remained in the hands of Ultilife, the boss at the time was concerned that Ultilife might disrupt Griffin's plans, so he rejected this business venture.

As for the dolls that had originally belonged to Ultilife and later joined Griffin, they only contained human minds. After the 42Lab Cloud Map Project, the control authority had completely changed, alleviating concerns about leaks.

Now that Renault wanted to purchase medical dolls from Ultilife… Although Helian didn’t know whether Ultilife would sell them, she wasn’t worried about the issue of human doll leaks.

Every doll under Renault would have its neural core replaced by him, all root protocols deleted, and the communication protocols further modified. Let alone leaking secrets, it would be good if Renault didn’t steal secrets from them.

As for Svarog Heavy Industries, it was straightforward. It was simply an industrial doll. Svarog Heavy Industries thrived by selling these dolls, so how could they refuse incoming orders?

Therefore, after finding the contact number for Ultilife, Helian didn’t rush to reach out. Instead, she placed an order for an industrial doll from Svarog Heavy Industries, ME78, which was said to be a cutting-edge model that the company itself was using. The price was not cheap.

However, the dolls sold by Svarog Heavy Industries naturally did not contain any core secrets in their programming. Although these dolls had mechanical engineering knowledge, they were all brand new and had not participated in any cutting-edge projects.

As Helian reviewed the order information displayed on her phone, she felt a strange sensation. This was truly her first time ordering dolls from companies other than IOP.

Next up was Ultilife. Similar to Svarog Heavy Industries, all the dolls available for sale were brand new and lacked significant medical experience. Medical dolls with experience were likely not for sale but rather rented or hired.

There were two dolls in total, one from each company. Although it was not a large order, the price for a doll with professional skills left Helian speechless. It was exorbitantly high.

The price of such a doll alone was enough for Griffin to order ten ordinary tactical dolls from IOP.

They all utilized the body structure of civilian dolls, but the professional skills stored in their neural cores were different, resulting in at least ten times the price. No wonder they could become a large-scale global enterprise.

----

Chapter 58: The Attraction is Too Great

"Have you bought the dolls?"

"I have, but this delivery method..."

"Delivery? Can they send the doll to us?" Renault was surprised because their location was in the red zone, and normal freight companies typically only deliver to places like the yellow zone.

Entering the red zone involves risks and costs that ordinary companies cannot afford.

"It's Svarog Heavy Industry. They said that a plane is passing by nearby, so they can airdrop it near the industrial park. However, the closest drop-off point to this red zone will still require us to transport it ourselves."

"Well, well, we still have to go and get it ourselves." Renault scratched his head. There was nothing to complain about except that it couldn't be delivered directly to their doorstep. After all, they were hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest Svarog Heavy Industry business point. It would take at least several hours to go back and forth.

"But I'm a little worried. Is the airdrop from Svarog Heavy Industry really safe? Won't the Doll be smashed to the ground and break before it reaches its destination?"

Helian was also troubled. She didn't expect the other party to mention delivery, but before she could voice her concerns, they had already arranged it and even taken over the transportation of the Doll from Ultilife.

Moreover, they wanted to sell her a whole set of collapse radiation shielding equipment, the kind used exclusively for Dolls. After much persuasion, she finally refused. The Doll alone was already very expensive; adding one, no, two sets of protective equipment for the dolls would likely double the price!

"Don't worry about that. They won't drop it without any protective measures. If one or two parts get damaged, they can be repaired easily."

As long as it wasn't shattered by falling from several thousand meters, Renault wasn't too concerned about the Doll's condition.

And if it did break? Then he would have to discuss compensation with Svarog Heavy Industry. Preferably with his spaceship parked in front of their business point.

"Well, here are the activation codes for the two dolls and the identification system authentication..."

"No, no, just let the dolls bring them back. The activation codes don't matter. They will be transformed anyway."

Of course, before the transformation, it was necessary to observe the state of the two new dolls because the mental models of the dolls Renault had previously transformed were essentially finalized.

He didn't know what the mental state of the newly activated dolls would be since he had never seen it before, even the ones who were near their manufacturing date like M1 Garand's team still had a month's worth of time experienced outside. So it was better to observe them for a while for safety's sake.

As for why the dolls on the Sangvis Ferri side can their root protocols deleted right away, it was because their minds were as clean as a blank slate, with no preset personality templates or relevant professional knowledge stored.

Even if the root protocol was deleted, it wouldn’t cause much impact. At worst, they would resemble other dolls slightly, but this could be adjusted. The Sangvis Ferri dolls were still very obedient.

However, the two Dolls sent by Ultilife and Svarog Heavy Industry were fundamentally different. The combination of their mental character and professional skills could potentially turn them into a mad doctor or a crazed individual shouting to join the Glorious Evolution...

Ahem. In short, there was such a possibility, but it was merely a possibility. The specific outcome still depended on the mental state of the two Dolls.

"Okay, then I'll go find M1 Garand now and ask her to arrange a few people to take the gunship to retrieve the goods."

After saying that, Helian walked out. It had been more than half an hour since she and the representatives from Svarog Heavy Industry agreed on the delivery location. Soon, the airdrop box containing the two Dolls should be dropped at the edge of the red zone.

Considering the preparation time for the Dolls and the travel time, they would be able to receive the airdrop when they arrived. Since it was just a simple task like picking up an airdrop, M1 Garand didn't think much about it. She called a few idle dolls and set off on the gunship driven by P226.

Hunter No. 1, who had nothing to do, M3, who was also free, and AR15, who had been drafted, along with P226 and Helian, who followed with a full set of protective gear.

"Helian, you don't have to come with us." AR15 said to Helianthus, who looked a bit nervous while holding a helmet.

The implication was that the red zone was too dangerous for her as a living person, and there was no need for her to accompany them.

Renault's communication was smooth; whether it was voice or holographic, he could be contacted anytime and anywhere. Plus, there was a gunship as a transit station, so there was no need to worry about losing contact.

"No, I should go with you to take a look. After all, I don't have any practical knowledge of places like the red zone. It's good to go out and see it together." Helian wiped the sweat off her face and said breathlessly.

Although the heavy protective suit she had retrieved from the warehouse provided excellent protection, it was an older model. Its weight and comfort were far inferior to the newer suits.

This suit was not only heavy but also very stuffy. Helianthus felt breathless just sitting there.

"Okay, but you still need to pay attention to safety. Although it’s on the edge of the red zone, there is still a possibility of encountering infected individuals." AR15 shook her head and sighed.

"The infected are one thing, but the real problem is those hyenas active in the yellow zone. They won't pass up the opportunity to seize this treasure that falls from the sky."

Just as AR15 and Helian reached a consensus, Hunter suddenly reminded them that they had to guard against more than just the infected this time. At least the infected wouldn't be interested in any airdrops that fell from the sky.

"Hyena...?" M3, who was listening nearby, tilted his head, somewhat confused. Could wild animals like hyenas really be found in such a place?

AR15 was somewhat taken aback, but Helian, standing next to him, frowned immediately after hearing what Hunter said. "You mean... those mercenaries and scavengers?"

"Of course. Although the pollution level in this area is worsening, there are still plenty of scavengers in the yellow zone. Today's weather is pretty good, and those guys can't possibly miss the movement of the Svarog Heavy Industry aircraft flying over."

Long before Sangvis Ferri started battling humans under the leadership of the Mastermind, Hunter and Executioner had already led teams to deal with problems caused by scavengers and mercenaries.

At that time, due to orders, they couldn’t be too harsh on the scavengers. Fortunately, the main targets for the scavengers were not these quasi-military-grade iron lumps, but various treasures left in abandoned towns—collectibles, industrial raw materials, or even surviving animals and plants.

However, the scavengers occasionally took advantage of the Sangvis Ferri Dolls' inattention to benefit from the situation, as there were many valuable materials in the Sangvis Ferri base.

"In other words, we have to fight those scavengers before we can take our goods back?" AR15 understood the situation.

Was there really such a disadvantage to airdropping in the yellow zone?

"It depends on luck. If we're lucky, those guys won’t arrive at the drop site in time. If we're unlucky... it will probably be just like the current situation..."

Hunter spoke halfway and gestured out of the porthole, indicating that the others should look out the window.

"Oh no! A large number of unidentified individuals are approaching us!" As they neared the airdrop site, P226 reduced its flight speed and adjusted course to the drop coordinates.

What they didn't expect was that the gunship, floating in the air, seemed to be perceived as a transport plane loaded with treasures by the scavengers.

Although gunships can indeed serve as transport vehicles, Renault's gunships were entirely different from typical transport planes.

"Where is the Svarog Heavy Industry transport plane? Has it been detected?"

"It was detected, but... they are at least ten minutes away from the scheduled drop site," P226 replied somewhat sheepishly.

Helian patted her forehead helplessly. She had originally wanted to wait at the drop site, but since the airdrop hadn't arrived yet, they had inadvertently led the scavengers from the yellow zone straight to their location.

AR15 was at a loss for words as he surveyed the entire convoy. "What should we do now? Should we kill these guys outright?"

"What else can we do? Are we supposed to wait for them to pull out heavy firepower and strike first?" Hunter narrowed her eyes. She held no good feelings toward these scavengers, as her base might have been looted by them had she not been careful.

The weapons in the hands of these scavengers were not as inferior as those of Griffin's Dolls. Anything salvageable could be put into battle with a little repair, and they rarely carried antiques that were decades or even centuries old.

Moreover, the scavengers had heavy weapons at their disposal. The restrictions on heavy firepower that applied to security contractors did not apply to these scavengers who scavenged for food in the yellow zone every day.

Whether it was heavy weapons from before the Third World War or valuable items dug up from its ruins, these scavengers could repair them and return them to use. Who said that today's technology is so advanced that repairing weapons and equipment from the Third World War is difficult?

Hearing Hunter's words, Helian scratched her head in frustration. However, before she could make a decision, the rushing scavengers had already begun to retrieve their treasures from the carriages.

"We're locked on!? Oh no! Interference! Which button is the Jamming device?!" P226 fumbled on the control console in a panic.

Just as anti-aircraft missiles were about to strike the gunship, she finally found the Interference button.

Three anti-aircraft missiles flying toward the gunship veered off course and flew away after being interfered with.

However, some rocket-assisted extended-range missiles were unaffected and struck the gunship's armor plate directly!

Boom!

"Oh no! I’m going to have to repair the armor plate like I did for SPAS-12 when I get back, right?"

Although the explosion was loud, there was not much vibration; clearly, this type of attack wasn't harmful to the gunship.

However, P226's scream was more piercing than the explosion itself, causing AR15 and Helian's eyes to twitch.

After being hit by the enemy, all P226 could think about was the overtime work required to repair the gunship's armor plate?

She appeared a bit too anxious, didn’t she?

"Well, now that we’re ready to counterattack, let me try this new... naval gun? Or whatever it’s called. Does this gun even have a name?" Hunter stood up and settled into the gunner's seat, looking at the attack system before her, which was completely different from that of the previous gunship.

"Well, it should be called the Concord gun in the system records, but the commander seems to have upgraded it. Wait! Let me turn on the camera function! Commander Renault asked me to record the actual combat effects of this gun whenever possible!" P226 checked the system records and explained.

"Okay, there are still ten minutes left, which should be enough to take out all these scavengers."

Seeing that Hunter and P226 had agreed on the attack method, Helian didn't intervene. There was no reason to stop them; she couldn’t possibly ask them to show mercy to a group that wanted to shoot down the gunship they were on, could she?

Even if Griffin's Dolls encountered scavengers who dared to initiate an attack, Helian would not have asked them to hold back.

Bang! Boom!

The gun on the gunship was quickly transformed before the scavengers' eyes. Yes, it was transformed, because they hadn’t seen any weaponry on the "transporter" just moments ago, but now the gun had flipped out from beneath the craft!

More importantly, the gun that suddenly fired left the scavengers completely unprepared.

They had identified the "transporter" as a soft target without any visible weapons! How could they be bombarded by the other side!?

"What on earth is that! Ouch! My... my leg is broken!?"

"Don't worry about your fake leg! Run! Something’s wrong!"

"I only have one leg! How can I run!?"

The sudden attack threw the scavengers' convoy into chaos. Without waiting for the gunship to launch a second attack, the scavengers scattered in all directions, with some even running toward the underside of the gunship.

In their minds, they thought the gunship couldn't hit the underside of its fuselage, right?

----

Chapter 59: Is the Car Going to Overturn?

"P226, how is the situation over there? We heard an explosion." M1 Garland frowned and asked P226 through the Doll communication protocol.

But her words did not elicit a response from P226. Could it be that something really happened?

Just as M1 Garland was about to inquire about AR15's situation, P226's somewhat panicked voice sounded.

"No, no, no! It's okay! Everything is normal! We just encountered some scavengers, or robbers, in the yellow zone! But it doesn't matter! Hunter and AR15 are already dealing with them! Commander Helianthus is also doing fine!"

Hearing P226's somewhat panicked tone, M1 Garland felt even more worried. "Everything is normal? Then why are you speaking so sloppily?"

"No! No! I just... Oh my! It's going to crash! Raise it! Stabilize the position of the aircraft! Keep the aircraft..."

While speaking, P226 suddenly screamed, muttering a lot of technical points related to driving a gunship.

Hearing P226's endless muttering, M1 Garland was speechless. If she had known, she would not have contacted P226.

Wouldn't it be better to ask AR15 directly? Must she pick on the novice driver who doesn't even know how to operate a gunship?

"M1 Garland? You'd better not talk to P226 now; otherwise, I'm afraid she will overturn the gunship like Simonov." Just as she was thinking this, AR15's voice sounded first. The tone was very calm, and it didn't sound like anything had happened.

"How is the situation?"

"Well, it's okay. These scavengers are more slippery than we imagined. P226 and Hunter are fighting wits with them."

"Uh, okay, what about the goods? Have you received them?"

"Ah, I haven't received them yet. Oh, I saw the transport plane of Svarog Heavy Industries. They dropped them. ...Tsk, these guys have such a bad service attitude. Don't they know to inform us in advance?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing. There was a problem with the landing point of the airdrop. If nothing unexpected happens, the scavengers should encounter the delivered goods before us. Okay, it's not a big problem, but I'm afraid we'll have to fight next. I hope I don't have to stay in the repair pod after I go back."

After AR15 finished speaking, she cut off the communication directly, turned her head, and looked at Hunter who was controlling the artillery with her lips pursed to chase the scavengers. AR15 turned her head and looked at M3, who was sitting next to her, and waved to her.

"Don't just stand there; it's time to get to work."

"Eh? Me?" Seeing AR15 waving at hed, M3 still didn't react, pointing at herself blankly.

"Is there anyone else here?" Seeing M3 like this, AR15 sighed helplessly. M3 probably just eats and drinks every day since coming to Renault.

Is this her first time going on a mission? Or did she never go on a mission when she was in Griffin?

Impossible? If she hadn't been on a mission, how could she stay on Renault's ship? You know, M3 and all these Griffin dolls were kidnapped by Renault on the battlefield after the war.

"You haven't been to the training room on the ship, have you?"

AR15 asked M3 suspiciously while reaching out to open the hatch of the gunship.

"Eh? I've been there! I've been there! But... isn't that really a game console?" M3 looked at AR15, who was ready for battle, timidly.

She had indeed been to the training room before, but the simulated reality in the training cabin had nothing to do with combat training...?

"Games... Forget it. Let's talk about this later. Anyway, catch up now. If we don't hurry up, the goods dropped by Svarog Heavy Industries will be snatched away by those scavengers!"

After saying that, AR15 jumped out of the open hatch!

"Hey! Wait! Wait for me!" Seeing this, M3 hurriedly followed but hesitated when she stood by the hatch.

Now it was at least 30 meters from the ground. At this height, her body shouldn't be damaged, right?

P226 didn't notice that AR15 had opened the hatch, and during the few seconds M3 hesitated, the gunship had already flown over the roof of a building.

AR15, who landed on the roof, looked at the empty space behind hed and was a little dumbfounded.

Where is M3?

"Ah-ah-ah!"

After waiting for a few seconds, M3's scream rang out; she missed the roof and fell directly to the ground!

Helianthus who had seen the whole scene in the cabin patted her helmet with a headache. If she had known that this would happen, she would have called a few more reliable Dolls over!

However, Helian didn't say much because she had just put on the helmet of the protective suit, and she spoke in a muffled voice, uncertain whether Hunter and P226 could hear her.

Because the cabin door was open, the whole cabin was full of whirring wind. Even if she shouted at the top of her voice, no one might hear her.

Sure enough, she shouldn't have followed!

Fortunately, Hunter finally withdrew her attention from the artillery control console at this time, gestured to Helian, indicating that she should take over her work, and directly pulled the hatch switch. She then took advantage of the delay in closing the hatch to jump out like AR15.

The number of scavengers was not small at all. Their previous convoy had at least 20 to 30 vehicles. Even if there were only four people in each vehicle, there would be at least a hundred people in total.

Although the previous bombardment was indeed a sudden attack, because it was a convoy, only three vehicles were destroyed in the first attack. The other scavengers' vehicles were not intact, but at least they could still run around in the ruins of the city.

Plus, P226's novice-level driving skills chased and shot for a long time but only destroyed four or five vehicles, and the total number was not even ten.

However, even though one-third of the vehicles and manpower were lost shortly after the encounter, these scavengers were far crazier than Hunter had thought. When a normal person suddenly encounters a large loss, the first thought should be to retreat, right?

But these scavengers just didn’t leave; instead, they played hide-and-seek with the gunship in the ruins of the city. Maybe after seeing the gunship, these guys thought that the items trying to recover by thw gunship must be priceless. So, even if they lost manpower, they would not retreat easily.

What's more, the airdrop was already floating in the sky with a parachute, and their vehicles were guarding the landing point. Would the gunship dare to fire directly at the airdrop box?

Well, in a sense, the items loaded in the airdrop box are indeed priceless, but the unactivated Dolls, even if recovered, could only be forcibly dismantled and sold for parts.

If there were people who understood Doll technology among these scavengers, that would be another matter. However, there is no doubt that two brand-new Dolls, or two professionals with expertise in their respective fields, could definitely be sold for a good price on the black market, whether sold whole or disassembled.

After Hunter left the cabin, Helian hurriedly moved to the gunner's seat and carefully looked at the control equipment. However, she hadn't been idle just now. At least when Hunter was controlling the artillery to attack the scavengers, she had observed how the other party used the system.

P226 in the driver's seat did not notice that the controller in the gunner's seat had changed. She was still controlling the gunship to slowly hover over the ruins according to Hunter's instructions.

On the other side, AR15, who had landed on the roof, looked around and took in the approximate location of the scavengers.

If there were others to support her, she would definitely stay here to snipe the scavengers.

It's a pity that there was no one. Even if M3 could reach the airdrop point in time and Hunter could support them, it would be difficult for the two of them to drive away the scavengers without damaging the airdrop.

The previous bombardment had already proven how eager these scavengers were to make a lot of money. They didn't hesitate after losing more than 30 people.

Well, maybe these guys didn’t know that they had lost one-third of their personnel.

After all, communication equipment that works in the interference zone can't be cheap.

After jumping down, AR15 rushed directly to the landing point.

She regretted it now; she should have updated her vitality equipment a long time ago. With only her original imprint weapons and an AR15 modified by Renault, it was still a bit troublesome to deal with these scavengers.

At least the efficiency wasn't high enough. If she had some explosives or grenades, she wouldn't have to worry about the scavengers rushing over... Uh, chariots?

Can they be considered chariots? These vehicles, equipped with thick armor, off-road suspension, and even obstacle shovels and ramming devices on the front, should also deserve the term "chariot." Well, it just looks a bit tacky...

"Don't be in a daze! These guys can't do anything to your body! Come with me to the drop point!"

AR15 jumped down from the building and saw M3 just crawling out of the pit a few steps away. Her uniform had turned gray and black, stained with who knows what...

"Ah, yes!" Looking at her dirty body, M3 followed AR15 with tears in her eyes and ran toward the airdrop point.

Hunter, who jumped off the gunship following AR15 and the others, did not follow their direction but took a slight detour and rushed to the drop point from the other side.

Compared to AR15 and the others, who were running on the ground, Hunter was much bolder. She jumped directly onto a nearby ruin and rushed to the drop point from the top of the ruins and the roof.

This kind of thing was already familiar to her, as she was a tough fighter. The body that Renault replaced for her also made her more mobile. Some places that she had to climb in the past could now be easily crossed with just a light jump.

AR15 also noticed Hunter's movements, but she couldn't imitate them now because M3 was still following her. If she went up and down like Hunter, M3 would definitely be left behind.

By then, there would be one less combat force.

Although the imprint weapon in M3's hand could be considered a toy for them now, M3 still had a body. The body weighing hundreds of kilograms was not something that those scavengers could easily handle, even if they rushed up to punch her.

Bang!

Just as several people were sprinting toward the airdrop box floating in the air, a sudden gunshot rang out!

Then the rope of the parachute hanging above the airdrop box was broken by someone!

The parachute lost its balance and instantly went out of control, being dragged to the ground by the heavy airdrop box!

"Oh no! These guys!?" AR15, who thought she could wait until the airdrop box landed smoothly, suddenly felt a shudder in her heart when she saw this.

She had miscalculated again! These scavengers!

She needed to wait for the airdrop box to land smoothly to ensure that the Doll inside would not be damaged, but the scavengers didn't need to! They didn't even know what was in the airdrop box!

For those guys, no matter what was in it, the right thing to do was to put the box in their vehicle and run away!

As for damage? If the items in the hands of the scavengers weren't damaged in one or two places, could they still be considered the same items?

"Hurry up! Chase after them! Don't dawdle!" AR15 didn't care about M3 anymore and rushed out directly at a faster speed.

After a few seconds, AR15 finally saw what was happening at the location where the airdrop box landed. She now understood why those guys from Svarog Heavy Industry suddenly threw out the airdrop box...

Because this is a large stadium! Although it has been abandoned, this place is the widest area around! Throwing the airdrop box here can at least ensure that it won’t hit any ruins or buildings.

In that case, the goods in the airdrop box could be guaranteed to be intact, so that customers wouldn’t have trouble because of damaged goods.

"Stupid delivery personnel from Svarog Heavy Industry! Don't you know the specific situation below!?"

AR15 cursed while raising the weapon in her hand and shooting directly at the scavenger who had already arrived next to the airdrop box!

Da da da da!

AR15, who practiced diligently, naturally had no chance of missing a shot. A series of bullets directly knocked down two scavengers with their backs to her, but the two scavengers facing her had already hooked their grappling hooks onto the airdrop box!

The scavenger driver in the truck, after hearing the gunshots behind him, he didn’t even pay attention to the scavengers in the back who were responsible for carrying the airdrop box, and stepped on the accelerator directly!

Then the truck rushed out, dragging the airdrop box with it!

"Hunter! What are you waiting for!?"

"Hmph! Hunters always take action at the most critical moment!"

"Stop talking nonsense! When did you not flip over when hunting!?"

---

Chapter 60: I'll Come Back to Fight Next Time!

Bang, bang, bang!

Hunter, who had already bypassed the side of the vehicle, fired at the train cab without hesitation.

Although the truck modified by the scavengers was equipped with armor plates, the materials used were obviously subpar. They probably were just ordinary iron or steel plates.

Two of the three shots from Hunter shattered the glass, and one of them went straight through the door.

The driver in the car, who was swaying and trying to escape, immediately slumped onto the steering wheel and died.

However, the driver’s actions of lying on the steering wheel caused his straight legs to press down on the accelerator! Not only did the truck not slow down, but it also surged forward even faster!

“Tsk!” Seeing this, Hunter didn’t care about maintaining her dignity; she holstered her gun and rushed toward the truck!

AR15 was also hurrying. Although she wanted to shoot and directly sever the cable hooking the airdrop box, upon closer inspection, she realized it was not a rope at all, but a metal cable as thick as two fingers!

Moreover, with the airdrop box being dragged back and forth, even if her shooting skills were very accurate, she couldn't break the cable with just a few shots under such circumstances.

What’s more, Hunter was in that direction. If she hit something and it bounced back, it might hit her and cause trouble!

Of course, if Hunter failed to stop the truck, maybe she could try...

In this ruin, the speed of the truck couldn’t increase to the point where they couldn’t catch up on foot. Even if they stepped on the accelerator, it wouldn’t be enough; they were about to collide with something ahead.

Bang!

Before the truck hit anything, Hunter had already reached the front of the vehicle, opened the door, and pulled the driver’s body out with one swift motion, then braked and turned off the engine. The series of actions was so smooth, it seemed as if he was familiar with it.

“Heh, I thought you would just run headfirst into the truck like a wild boar.” After seeing Hunter successfully stop the truck, AR15 felt relieved, but she didn’t praise her.

“Hmph, that’s just you.” Hunter replied, jumped off the truck, and turned back to check the condition of the airdrop box behind it.

While she didn’t think being dragged by the truck for just a few dozen meters would affect the airdrop box, she checked it anyway, just in case.

“Eh? Already finished?” M3, who was running over quickly, saw AR15 and Hunter walking toward the airdrop box as soon as she arrived in the open space. There appeared to be a few scavengers lying fallen in the distance.

“Yeah, it’s done. Don’t worry. When we get back, I will definitely report the situation of this operation. Just wait patiently for someone to take you to the training room!”

AR15 said helplessly. Although M3’s reaction was not bad among tactical dolls, it was still not utilized at all in this operation.

Without a commander’s orders, it was actually a kind of weakening for some passive tactical dolls like M3. After all, not all dolls could make correct judgments decisively based on the current situation.

When in Griffin, ordinary tactical dolls like M3 often acted according to a commander’s orders. There were even instances where Griffin dolls continued to patrol in the Sangvis Ferri control area due to loss of contact while searching for data.

After returning, she thought it might be better to propose directly to Renault to establish an assessment project. At the very least, the dolls should know what they are supposed to do when on a mission, right?

Looking at AR15’s gloomy face, M3 felt like crying. Did she mess up the mission again!?

AR15 and Hunter had no time to care about M3’s mood at this moment. They checked the half-human-high, two-meter-long airdrop box, confirmed that there was no damage on the outside, nodded in relief, and began to call P226 via the communication protocol.

Although the movements of the scavenger vehicles could still be heard around, who could care about those guys at this time? They needed to quickly get P226 to land, put the airdrop box into the cabin, and leave!

As for the scavengers? They could deal with them later! Anyway, after Renault entered the industrial construction plan, the dolls would have a lot of free time.

“AR15! Hunter! Those scavengers! They are surrounding you!” P226 shouted, and AR15 and Hunter sighed almost in unison.

This girl could really be overdramatic!

How could they not hear such a loud noise around them?

“Yes, yes, I know, so can you hurry up? Are you in a hurry?”

Because it was a call within the communication protocol, Helian, who was not equipped with the corresponding communication equipment, was completely unaware of the conversation between the dolls. She was still focused on watching the scavengers below.

Bang!

However, while P226 noticed the gathering scavengers, Helian also saw them. But she didn’t expect P226 to drive the gunship according to her ideas; this girl was too timid, and saying a few more words would only make her panicked and distort the gunship’s balance...

So Helian didn’t notify P226, but directly controlled the artillery to fire.

Of course, the target of the attack was not the scavengers; the gunship’s current firing range couldn’t reach them at all.

Her target was the ruins of the buildings surrounding the square where AR15 and the others were!

The wreckage of the buildings, which were already on the verge of collapse, made a sharp cracking sound under Helian’s attack.

The abandoned structure that was still standing fell to one side! Then it crashed onto a road leading to the square.

Bang! Boom!

While P226 had not yet reached the top of AR15 and the others, Helian took the opportunity to fire continuously, demolishing seven or eight multi-story buildings in a row.

Almost none of these buildings missed the road.

AR15 and Hunter, who were standing next to the airdrop box, couldn’t help but stare at the scene. They both felt that Helian was incredibly skilled. Her precise attacks, especially her ability to identify the vulnerable points of the buildings and make them collapse as she wished, were impressive.

In this way, all the passages around the square were blocked. Although these ruins were not very large and wouldn’t stop the scavengers for long, they didn’t need much time. They just had to grab the items and leave before those guys climbed over the ruins and rushed in.

Helian, who arranged all this herself, felt relieved. As long as nothing went wrong, she turned her head and saw a red warning flashing on the screen in front of P226.

But P226 still appeared oblivious. She stared intently at the altimeter, controlling the gunship to descend slowly.

“Form! Switch the aircraft’s form!” Helian hurriedly repeated the warning content from the screen, finally realizing that the main gun of the gunship was still hanging directly below it.

When using the artillery, the turret appears directly below the gunship through the deformation of the aircraft main body.

This configuration is fine when flying, but not when landing! This idiot driver! Where did she learn her driving skills?

“Eh!? Eh!? What should I do? Stop first! Stop for a minute!”

After Helian’s reminder, P226 finally noticed the red warning. She frantically searched for the body deformation switch on the console, unsure of who she was shouting at. She looked ready to cry!

Watching the flustered P226, Helianthus was truly speechless. It seemed that Renault's deletion of the underlying protocol wasn’t always a necessarily a good thing...

She raised her hand and pressed the flashing button for P226. Instantly, the warning in the gunship disappeared, and the guns on the outside of the body retracted.

Helian picked up the control manual from the co-pilot seat, glanced at the straightforward driving tutorial, and pressed P226’s palm to help guide the gunship down slowly.

Boom.

Although it was a bit rough, the landing was smooth overall.

As soon as the hatch opened, AR15 and Hunter pushed the airdrop box into the cargo hold. After pulling in the slow-reacting M3, the two shouted almost in unison.

“Hurry up! Take off and run!”

Hearing their urging, Helian sighed helplessly. When she opened the hatch, she hadn’t even bothered to buckle the helmet of her protective suit. She hoped there wouldn’t be any major issues when they returned.

Although the landing was a bit shaky, P226 was very familiar with taking off. This time, there were no issues. The gunship rose steadily and then turned to fly toward the direction of the industrial park.

“Hey, how did you land during training before?” Helian sighed; she really couldn’t figure out why Renault agreed to let such a clumsy driver operate the gunship.

“Eh? This... crash...? Probably?”

Seeing P226’s uncertain expression, AR15 sighed again. “Haven’t you driven the gunship several times before? Were you this panicked then?”

This was obviously impossible. If previous attempts had been at this level, how could Renault have let P226 fly the gunship alone?

Now she was panicking just controlling a gunship. If she were in charge of piloting a spaceship, God forbid! This girl would probably crash Renault’s spaceship one day!

“No one attacked the gunship before...” P226 replied, sounding aggrieved.

From the moment the gunship was suddenly attacked, P226 began to panic, and all the driving essentials she had memorized flew out of her mind.

Helianthus and the others escaped with the gunship, while the scavengers who failed to enter the square could only watch as it flew out of sight.

Without interference, P226 was finally able to drive the gunship smoothly. The journey back was naturally easy.

As soon as the gunship returned to the hangar, Renault, who had been waiting there for a long time, noticed the scratches on the gunship's armor plate. His expression darkened, surprised that anyone would be so blind as to attack an armed gunship in that location.

After AR15 informed him of the general situation during the operation, Renault’s expression grew even darker. If M1 Garand hadn’t picked M3, he would have been unaware of such a payroll thief in his ranks.

You could say she was slacking off, but she was doing her usual work, so she wasn’t really slacking... He had changed her neural core and body, yet her combat power remained the same, or even weaker than before...

P226 was even more outrageous. Renault had clearly seen that P226’s driving skills were proficient enough to operate a gunship alone, as she had flown steadily on two previous occasions.

It seemed P226 was only able to drive steadily under certain conditions; any radical action would send her into a panic.

If the scavengers had possessed weapons capable of penetrating the armor, the gunship piloted by P226 would have been shot down as soon as it encountered them.

Could this be why Taskforce DEFY had crashed? They weren't shot down by Architect with the Jupiter cannon?

No, no, no; there had indeed been signs of shrapnel hitting the fuselage at that time. The issue was probably that P226’s driving skills was closely tied to the base root protocol.

Without it, the knowledge in P226’s mind about piloting aircraft became incomplete.

Of course, compared to the mistakes made by his own doll, what annoyed Renault the most was the outrageous cargo delivery method of Svarog Heavy Industry.

“Helian, remember to give a bad review of Svarog Heavy Industry’s cargo transportation service—zero points. If those guys have any objections, just apply for a refund from Svarog Heavy Industry.” He said this because they still needed their services.

Otherwise, if ordinary customers encountered such a group of scavengers, who would dare to go up and forcibly retrieve their belongings?

“Of course. If I had known this, I would have directly refused the delivery service. It would have been more convenient to take it myself.”

Although it would take longer, at least she wouldn’t have been almost surrounded by a group of scavengers.

The return of the gunship didn’t attract the attention of the dolls at home; after all, it wasn’t a big deal. Instead, M1897, who was leading a cleaning crew of Rippers in the cargo hold for routine cleaning, gathered around with the group of Rippers.

Because the two newcomers looked different, but there was a doll “coffin” lying inside.

“Commander, are these two new dolls?” M1897 asked Renault, tilting her head as she leaned on the mop.

“Yes.”

“This one looks a bit like PA15.” AR15 recalled the white-haired doll; after all, the number 15 was also in the other party’s name or code.

“Probably the same model,” Hunter said, arms crossed. She was also curious; after all, this is her first time seeing a doll storage pod being opened for the first time.

As Renault entered the preset password into the panel on the storage cabinet, the two compartments opened simultaneously.

Swish—

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