Chapter 552 Chapter 549 Tactical Procurement
The high-altitude frame was never designed for sleeping. Zhuang Xuteng could only curl up as much as possible and rely on the tentacles of the wraith and the hooks of his clothes to fix himself to prevent him from rolling down in his sleep. Fortunately, the night was not long, and Zhuang Xuteng was not particularly tired. He only needed six hours of sleep to regain his energy.
"I spend so much money to sleep here, I must be the worst guest, right?" Zhuang Xuteng opened the resentment jelly and carefully explored the two rooms. The service in the hotel is really good. I said I won't bother you, but I didn't bother you at all.
Climbing back from the balcony and stretching, he was also reflecting on whether he was a little too frightened. Although the company is powerful and can monitor all aspects of social life, it is probably impossible to accurately monitor everyone in a big city with a population of tens of millions, right?
"Well... looking at the root cause, I am still too weak and lack confidence. I still need to improve my combat ability, especially upgrading the sensory tentacles to death tentacles as soon as possible, and increasing the eight flashes to the limit, and strive to enter the nine flashes as soon as possible."
Zhuang Xuteng already has ideas and methods on how to improve his martial arts and necromancy skills. All he needs to do next is practice hard. In addition to these two aspects, he will not give up improving his combat effectiveness in other aspects, such as purchasing better shadow slave equipment for himself.
In fact, after getting the Eye of Kaho, he once lost the desire to improve the implant and shadow slave. The more advanced the shadow follower product is, the more susceptible it is to the impact of the shock wave. Once it is disabled by the shock wave, it means that the investment will not be able to form combat effectiveness. Fortunately, he had a fight with Isabella and learned that weapons such as shock waves were commonly deployed among enhanced people. They were only used when suppressing ordinary people and would not be used in battles of the same level.
The shackles of war mean a fight to the death, which means both sides have to give up their respective strengths in shadow slaves and implants to compare their basic capabilities. The "enhancement" of an enhanced person is not a basic ability. Each enhanced person invests a lot of energy in the improvement of shadow slaves and implants, and has full self-confidence. On the contrary, he overthrows all these and compares his basic ability level that cannot be predicted in advance with his life and death opponents. This is obviously not responsible enough for his own life.
In fact, Zhuang Xuteng's thinking here is still biased. The real target of the shock wave is complex shadow slaves, especially various security systems based on shadow slave chips, including access control, armed traps, etc. Once the shock wave goes down, these things will be swept away, opening the way for the enhanced person to quickly break in.
In any case, Zhuang Xuteng knew that he did not need to give up using high-level shadow items because of fear of "war shackles". In fact, every enhancement person knows about war shackles, but they still spare no effort to strengthen themselves, which shows that war shackles are rarely actually used, and everyone focuses on how much combat effectiveness they can exert in a wider range of scenarios.
"There are some things that we still need to pay attention to. For example, we should not focus on the auxiliary system in combat, and try to keep the equipment with communication functions outside the body as much as possible."
Because the wraith tentacles, servants, shadows and sensory tentacles can help Zhuang Xuteng solve many problems - such as using a hook to let him swing between buildings, forming a parachute to help him descend slowly, and using it as a hidden weapon to cover other people's eyes - Zhuang Xuteng currently has relatively few shortcomings. Based on the dismantling of Kaho and Isabella, he roughly understood the main strengthening direction of the company's strengthened people. Learning from the mature experience of the strong will at least not be a big mistake. Therefore, Zhuang Xuteng believes that his current main shortcoming lies in comprehensive transaction processing.
Now he hands over the comprehensive transaction processing function to Brother Pingtou. Its computing power is sufficient and its communication functions are quite comprehensive, but its size is still too large and it needs to be connected to his back at all times. If it is in a latent state and does not require activity for a long time, then this is not a problem. But considering daily operations, especially sneaking in disguise, or in combat, the size of Flathead Brother is a problem.
"Hiding it under clothes will obviously pose a major challenge to the clothes. And although it is a military product and can adapt to the battlefield environment, the fists of the people I faced were heavier than the last, and Brother Flathead couldn't bear any attack."
In addition to this reason, when the flat-headed brother is behind him, his ability to detect the environment behind him will be slightly affected.
"External personal processor, smart phone...small computer...bowl ring or subcutaneously implanted computer?" Zhuang Xuteng didn't know which one was best for a while, but he had a general direction.
In addition, finding an implant doctor to ask about the contents of the Isabella implant that was just removed is also what he needs to do now. He felt that he had removed the main components of the high-speed and high-explosion device, but without a doctor's appraisal, he was not fully confident. Besides, without an implant doctor, he couldn't install this thing! The only good news is that he has better implant maintenance capabilities than the company: with the help of super cache martial arts and dormant martial arts, Zhuang Xuteng can transfer all side effects to others, without bearing the burden at all. There is really nothing better than this. .
The idea is already there, and the next step is to solve the operational problem. Zhuang Xuteng picked up the hotel phone and called the front desk, asking them to send a well-informed and well-connected receptionist. There will always be this kind of character in high-end hotels. They can't solve many problems, but they definitely know who to call to solve the problem. They are the city's walking Yellow Pages, as well as real-world search engines and portals.
Zhuang Xuteng has always been a cautious person. He booked two luxury rooms and was not allowed to stay outside the building. Naturally, he would not tell the "search engine" his true thoughts. According to the experience of the mercenary industry, during the commissioned mission in other places, if there is an urgent need to replenish the equipment that is only available on the black market, the best way is to find a local middleman, hire security guards in the form of commissioned tasks, and conduct local black market transactions through them. Ge Gongdao took on this kind of work in his spare time, and there were quite a few of them. Of course, that was before he took charge of the moat. Finding black market transactions in the form of commissioned tasks is much more secure and confidential. The key is that it can greatly reduce the occurrence of being cheated and cheated by the black market.
"It's not that I'm afraid of being cheated by the black market. Anyway, with the combat effectiveness of the black market, I basically eat it." Zhuang Xuteng is still very confident in this regard. "The key is that I don't want to waste time, I don't want to buy counterfeit and shoddy products, and I don't want to be reported to the company right away."
He used the "search engine" to find several middlemen with the best reputation in the city, and randomly selected one of them to visit. Under normal circumstances, the hotel's "search engine" would accompany Zhuang Xuteng to the door, mediate, and charge a fee. Zhuang Xuteng saved him the trouble and directly paid him both parts of the fee together. He only needed to write a letter of recommendation.
"A letter of recommendation that is only valid for three days actually costs 1,000 euros? Is the consumption level in the capital Constitution City so high?" Zhuang Xuteng felt that he was being slaughtered as a fat sheep, but he has been exuding the smell of a fat sheep since he entered the hotel, so he can't blame others. "Okay, as long as you can get the job done, don't worry too much."
Zhuang Xuteng took all the equipment, prepared for battle, and then changed his appearance and left the hotel secretly. He contacted the middleman with a pay phone on the street, made an appointment for the door, and set off.
The conversation with the middleman will not be described in detail. After all, it is easy to use money to open the way, and a skilled mercenary certainly knows how to avoid the pit buried by the middleman. As long as the middleman fails to dig a pit twice, he will not cause trouble again for the sake of money. Of course, if the middleman is found out by Zhuang Xuteng for the third time, he will not cooperate, turn around and leave, and go back to ask the "search engine" to compensate for the loss. If the middleman wants to forcibly keep Zhuang Xuteng, he will fall into Zhuang Xuteng's hands.
Scarecrow never minds making some quick money for justice.
Perhaps the mercenary-middleman market in the capital Constitution City is not big, and there is no need to smash it when encountering a risk-free and profitable business. Therefore, after two unsuccessful attempts, the middleman will honestly earn the money in front of him. He contacted Zhuang Xuteng with merchants who have connections in the black market, made a greeting in advance, and asked his mercenaries to accompany Zhuang Xuteng.
The mercenary is called Rice. He has dark and shiny skin, a bald head without eyebrows, a wide nose and thick lips, and solid tendon meat. It can be seen that he has used a lot of implants. For this job, he did not show much concern, nor did he act carelessly. Being able to treat the task with a normal mind shows that he should be very experienced.
So, Zhuang Xuteng came to the Xianmin Mall later that afternoon, successfully passed the black market's access control inspection, and went straight to the core trading area here.
The black market in the capital Constitution City uses bars as a cover, and this bar named "Shadow of the Lamp" has the meaning of "darkness under the lamp", but it can also be interpreted as "shadow of the lamp" or "servant of the company". Zhuang Xuteng is a little unsure about which explanation is more likely, so he is always very careful here. His caution is mistaken for nervousness, which is quite consistent with his identity as a newcomer who comes here for the first time. In the eyes of black market operators, this is a signal that can be assured.
The black market does not always bully newcomers. If it does so, there will be either no old customers or no black market. It is unknown which will happen first. Until you find a middleman to guarantee and are willing to add guarantees for the transaction, this new customer will clearly show the attitude of "I have money and know the rules", and the black market's first choice will be to cultivate him into a repeat customer.
The man who came to trade with Zhuang Xuteng was a middle-aged man named "Skinny". He was dressed like a resident DJ in a bar, with gold all over his body and his fingers always tapping the beat on his knees. Through the Shadow Eye, Zhuang Xuteng knew that he had installed enhanced vision and hearing, encrypted communication implant modules and an integrated transaction processor located at the back of his neck. The skin only used reinforced armor in key areas, and two holes were dug in the thighs to hide weapons.
"Whether it is goods or services, I want the best." Zhuang Xuteng pointed to the mercenary who followed him and said, "I paid the middleman. If you cheat me, I don't mind giving the middleman some more business to let him vent my anger. You must understand what these words mean, so I won't repeat them. First of all, I want the best integrated transaction processor, external, at least military grade, you can start looking for the catalog now."
"Yes, there are quite a few of these shadow slaves, military products. Do you want to report other things to me together, and I will directly issue an order?"
Zhuang Xuteng hadn't spoken yet, and the mercenary who followed him spoke. He said, "No, finish one before you do the next one. List them all out, waiting for you to take advantage of them? You take the whole list and walk out of this door, and you can immediately form a price alliance with the main source of black market goods. Humph, don't use the tricks that fool others. If you do business with him, it is equivalent to doing business with me."
Okay, this mercenary is not bad, and this reasoning is quite correct. The money he hired was not wasted. Zhuang Xuteng is also a mercenary, and he has been in and out of the black market many times, so he naturally understands this principle. Whether it is shipping or purchasing, as long as it is not to sell stolen goods to save trouble, then do it one by one, don't be in a hurry, and don't be in a hurry.
As the capital and the headquarters of the four major companies, it is also a place where dragons and snakes are mixed. The dragons and snakes here are more advanced than Peicheng. After finishing a cup of coffee, the inventory was delivered, which listed thirty-two pieces of equipment that met Zhuang Xuteng's needs. If you were in Peicheng, you could collect less than half of the amount in half an hour.
"If we dig deeper, there will definitely be better ones, but they are for repeat customers, so I won't put in the effort this time. How much money you want to make will be how much sincerity you show." Zhuang Xuteng read the document carefully. First, eliminate the types that are inconvenient to carry and have relatively weak functions. He was going to ask a few questions, but suddenly a better idea occurred to him.
"If it were you, which one would you buy? Don't consider the cost, only consider whether it is useful." Zhuang Xuteng handed the bill of goods to the mercenary Rice who came with him.
Rice frowned. He didn't want to take the order. However, Zhuang Xuteng expressed his willingness to pay one thousand euros for his advice. As a mercenary, Rice immediately didn't find this troublesome.
"My first choice would be an implanted transaction processor. It can be hidden and the model number is not exposed, which saves trouble. But today we will discuss the external one..." Rice had no eyebrows, so he squeezed the skin above his eyes. "When choosing among these, I would choose this double snake neck ring. People I know use this and say it is very good. Moreover, this is the active equipment of the commander of the Constitutional Forces and is constantly being updated, which is an advantage."
Zhuang Xuteng nodded and asked, "Are there any other benefits?"
"Although it is a neck ring, it is not a necklace. It is in the shape of a double snake. The snake head bites the tail. The two snake heads are hard connected to the skin at the front and back of the neck, so it will not shake, swing or flutter. The connection at the back You can use a subcutaneous data cable to connect to the bus necklace of your implant. After the snake head is opened, there is an XM-type universal data interface that can be connected to other devices. My friend bought a gemstone communication station and modified it slightly. On top, this thing can be used as a mobile phone.”
"Another benefit... My friend used armored skin and placed it directly under the skin. It is very thin and inconspicuous. Whether it is hidden under the skin or dyed with the same color as the skin, it is easy to be ignored. . I prefer implants, so as close to an implant as it gets, I’ll give it an extra point.”
"I don't care whether you hide it or not." Zhuang Xuteng had a shadow and an invisibility cloak. It was not easy to cover up a necklace. "The front-to-back hard connection you mentioned is good. It is not an implant, but gives the feeling of an implant. There are always some side effects of implants. Avoid them if you can. A shadow follower is more reassuring."
"Just use it!" Zhuang Xuteng decided. "Find someone to make the system better and make it cleaner. I don't want to see any mess in it. By the way, let's follow the plan for making a system for mercenaries. You should be familiar with this, right?"
"No problem, this kind of thing must be brushed before it can be delivered."
Zhuang Xuteng stopped his tirade and said, "Next, let's discuss the gem communication station we just mentioned..."