Chapter 203: Secondhand Dealer

For three consecutive days, Yang Bo worked overtime. The Fat Boss was also so busy his feet practically flew since the company had just hired new employees.

Yang Bo knew about the new hires but hadn’t actually seen them.

In those three days, he completed nine tasks, and then the hurricane hit.

“The people who live here sure are rich.” He looked at the dark clouds over the sea, the sign of an incoming hurricane.

For half of the year, strong winds came sporadically, creating sea waves as high as 20 or 30 meters. Why were the waves so tall? It was because of the three moons in the sky.

The three moons were actually satellites of this planet. Originally, the planet had five satellites, but how the other two disappeared was never explained.

After each session of the six-month wind season, homeowners with yards always had to pay for repairs.

“I’m taking the next few days off. Time to earn some money in the game.” Yang Bo planned to make some cash in-game.

While Yang Bo was preparing to farm in the game, on Pado Planet, the suppression of the rebellion had officially concluded.

In the Alliance Parliament, the military was reporting.

“The Pado Planet rebellion has been completely suppressed. During this incident, 7,983 members of the Red Earl group died. Of the core five-member elder council, one was captured while another escaped, and the remaining three were killed on-site.”

“The Red Earl organization even frantically attacked the warship system, causing over 2,000 unmanned mechas to lose control.”

“Additionally, we eliminated 24,500 rebels from the Red Earl’s government and destroyed 9,675 mechas…” The military representative had been reporting for hours.

“Why did the warship’s unmanned mecha system malfunction? Did the captain lose control of the ship?” someone from Parliament asked immediately.

“Your Excellency, the warship involved in the operation was the flagship of the Green Demon Planet’s fleet. After the pirate attack, the flagship was docked for repairs, which is why the warship malfunctioned. It wasn’t the captain’s fault, but a hardware issue with the ship.” The military representative quickly responded.

“But shouldn’t he still be held responsible for the management of the ship?” some in Parliament pressed.

“The military will propose a temporary leave of absence for the captain. We will conduct a thorough inspection of the warship. If he was truly negligent, we will handle it fairly.” The military representative knew that some politicians like to bark like mad dogs, and you had to throw them a bone every now and then.

The military representative thought this Parliament was doomed. Just look at the diplomatic team; only one person had actual expertise.

Every time the military submitted a proposal, these Parliament fools would always cut it, as none of them specialized in anything.

Besides, the Parliament officials didn’t have chips installed. Though they were Superhumans with great memory, they didn’t understand the details of every profession.

While even the high-ranking officers in the military didn’t have chips, at least they understood their own areas of expertise.

Yet, these parliamentarians had to vote on a myriad of issues daily—how many of them truly understood the professions involved? They just looked at the numbers on paper and slashed at will.

“How did members of the Red Earl group infiltrate the military? Don’t you review your personnel records? Are the internal review policies just for show?” someone from Parliament questioned again.

“That’s an issue for the Ministry of Education. All of the Red Earl members came from two academies, and we’ve already submitted the relevant evidence to the judiciary.” The military representative wasted no time passing the buck.

Immediately, the Parliament turned their questions on the Ministry of Education, which was notorious for being a lucrative department.

By the end of the day, the military representative had a headache from answering countless bizarre questions. They were completely illogical, but he still had to explain.

“Crazy! The captain of a warship who made such a contribution is actually suspended!” Yang Bo was reading the news, specifically covering the topics and decisions from the latest Parliament session.

“The Red Earl members even infiltrated the Ministry of Education and exploited that loophole to funnel their members to the military!” He was surprised by another news report.

The Ministry of Education managed many schools, and some of them provided talent to the military. The Red Earl organization had long exploited that loophole to place their people in the military.

As long as you had money, you could secure admission, and with more money, you could secure a post on a warship or in ground forces after graduation.

The corruption in the Ministry of Education was shocking. The current head of the department resigned to accept judicial investigation, and the judiciary had already arrested over 100 people in education, half of them high-ranking officials.

“These Parliament idiots.” Yang Bo wasn’t surprised by the Ministry’s corruption, but Parliament had failed to approve the repair plan for a warship that had contributed significantly in the rebellion suppression. It had sustained heavy damage and needed serious repairs.

Parliament thought the repair plan was too costly and only approved half the funds, but the military said it couldn’t be done with that amount. So, they were at a stalemate.

This reminded Yang Bo of when he was on Earth and some country’s plan to build an aircraft carrier. Initially, it was designed with four nuclear power systems, but Parliament slashed the budget in half, turning it into the world’s biggest joke.

On Earth, some departments even conducted statistical reports, revealing that most members of certain parliaments had no expertise in the areas they made decisions about. All they did was scrutinize data and then cut it in half.

They thought all the submitted figures were inflated and didn’t care about the technical details needed for something as massive as an aircraft carrier or how many engines it needed.

Because Parliament members didn’t need to understand these things. All they needed to know was how to keep their seat.

“This Parliament is doomed. If they fall apart, I’ll start a rebellion myself.” After reading for a while, Yang Bo felt that the Alliance was headed for collapse. If that happened, he might even get a chance to become a planetary ruler.

Re-entering the mecha game, he returned to Base 16. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw the Justice Gang players gathering.

“Rich bastards.” Yang Bo sighed inwardly, seeing their expensive mechas. Those high-end mechas were so pricey that even if you squeezed Robert dry, he could only afford a few.

Yang Bo wasn’t in the mood to tangle with them at the moment. Besides, Iron Bull didn’t need feeding too often. There was still plenty of time.

“The military wouldn’t dare provoke these guys.” Hearing the insults from players towards him, Yang Bo remained speechless.

The Alliance’s political correctness was even worse than Earth’s superpower. In-game harassment like that wasn’t even acknowledged by the officials.

Yang Bo was familiar with the area and knew where to find mutated creatures.

“I still earn the least.” Though he was unwilling to accept it, Yang Bo had no choice. How many materials could you extract from just one mutated creature?

And how much could those materials sell for? The little bit of money he earned in the game felt like nothing more than pocket change.

“If only I could get a list of material numbers and what creature or plant each represented.” The Alliance encoded all Gene Serum materials with numbers, making it impossible to tell which animal they came from.

“I wonder if I could Camouflage myself and use unrefined gene materials?” Suddenly, Yang Bo thought of a new idea.

“But it doesn’t matter. Even if I knew, I couldn’t bring these mutated creatures back. It seems I’ll have to develop the resources on March Planet on my own.”

“I need to make some money fast so I can buy land or sea area on March Planet.”

“Once March Planet’s mutated creature resources are developed, plenty of organizations and companies will swarm in.” Yang Bo thought of this sudden opportunity.

In the mecha game, the price of captured mutated creatures varied depending on their quality.

This included the value of a creature’s corpse. The more intact the corpse, the higher the price.

The highest prices, of course, went to live mutated creatures. Hunting or capturing them required a lot of skill and precision.

First was the mecha’s storage capacity. If you filled it with low-value mutated creatures, you wouldn’t earn much for the trouble.

High-value mutated creatures were fewer in number, and you could spend ages searching without finding any.

Sometimes, players set out to find highly valuable mutated creatures, only to wander around for hours and spend a lot of money, catching nothing but low-level creatures in the end.

Then, they’d curse the game officials for not respawning the creatures fast enough.

In reality, the game officials had no clue where mutated creatures would spawn either. If they did, the players would be in a genuinely virtual game.

Because the uncertainty of mutated creature spawns was real, players used Remote Control to operate their mechas from afar.

“Mutated lizards.” This time, Yang Bo’s target was a mutated lizard, a D-level mutated creature.

Yang Bo knew of an underground spot teeming with these mutated lizards.

Operating his mecha had become second nature for Yang Bo. One hand on the joystick, the other on the keyboard. It didn’t require much effort.

Thanks to his optical ability simulating signal output, Yang Bo’s mecha moved several times faster than before in the underground world. “Is he an idiot? Using a jetpack in underground caves…” Most players hunted underground for mutated creatures since the stone walls made it easier to catch them. On the surface, they’d flee too fast to grab.

“Exactly. Why use a jetpack in such a complex place? He’s bound to crash into something sooner or later.”

“He’ll cry when his mecha gets destroyed.”

“Some people are so full of themselves. Over 1,000 players got sued by the game company this year for not fixing their mechas. Most of them ended up bankrupt.”

“This game is a rip-off, yet people still make tons of money on it.”

“That’s for the best. If every moron made easy money, completing missions wouldn’t be as profitable for us.” This group of players was part of a small team that hunted mutated creatures for cash in the underground world.

Yang Bo couldn’t hear their chatter. He was too focused on moving ahead.

However, before long, Yang Bo was blocked by a group of mutants.

Yang Bo looked at the mutants signaling to him, but all he heard was a bunch of gibberish in a language he couldn’t understand.

“Is the military afraid of players interacting with mutants?” Yang Bo felt exasperated. Mutants were supposed to speak the common language of the Alliance, after all.

After a while, Yang Bo figured it out. These guys were eyeing his Shockwave Bomb.

They led him to a side area where he saw a bunch of tied-up mutated creatures.

“Damn!” Yang Bo finally realized he could make money much more easily. Why not just be a secondhand dealer? No need to hunt them himself.

He carefully examined the tied-up mutated creatures, calculated their value, and tapped a few of them with his mecha’s hand. Then he stepped far back.

The mutants, seeing Yang Bo mark a few of the creatures, appeared delighted but were confused when he backed away, following him hesitantly.

The mutants were puzzled, wondering why he was leaving after picking the animals.

Yang Bo placed a Shockwave Bomb on the ground and signaled the mutants again. They shook their heads, so he placed another one down.

This time, the mutants nodded, and Yang Bo threw the two bombs far away.

“You can’t trade with mutants directly.” Yang Bo understood the military’s policy, so he wouldn’t make the trade face-to-face.

The mutants rushed to grab the Shockwave Bombs and checked them over carefully. Everything seemed fine.

They left the mutated creatures Yang Bo had picked and took the rest with them.

Yang Bo hit the selected mutated creatures with his mecha weapons, knocking them unconscious before stuffing them into his mecha’s storage compartment.

“Time to head back.” Yang Bo hurried to return. If he could keep trading using Shockwave Bombs, he’d need to stockpile them in advance.

Once this trade method was discovered by the game officials, they’d likely raise the price of Shockwave Bombs.

“Are there other resources I can use?”

“Looks like I should stockpile a batch of supplies.” While running back, Yang Bo thought hard.

“If necessary, I could secretly message Iron Bull or Old Third Huang to arrange private, large-scale trades.” Another plan struck him.

“Is that idiot already coming back?” Seeing Yang Bo return so quickly, the underground players were shocked.

“These mutated creatures are smart! With all that noise, they must have fled ages ago.”

“Let’s find a new spot. With idiots like him around, we won’t find any mutated creatures.”

“Surely he bought some information off the forums. Mutated creatures in this game don’t respawn in fixed locations.”

“Only newbies buy that kind of data. No veteran player would.” The players chatted amongst themselves, thinking Yang Bo had been duped by someone.