Chapter 204: Transporter

PS: The second update will still be before noon.

Right now, Yang Bo’s mind was filled with ideas on how to make money. He pushed the mecha’s speed to the extreme, rushing back to the base. The staff at the base were left stunned as he handed over several mutated animals.

Catching live mutated animals was rare. First, these animals were fast, and second, the mecha was so large that it was a miracle to get a complete corpse when encountering them.

If you were a game player and saw money about to slip away, you’d just shoot them with a laser cannon.

So, after a while, when mutated animals saw mechas, they would fight for their lives. Live ones were still caught occasionally, but bringing back four live ones at once was extremely rare.

After handing them in, Yang Bo stopped caring and started checking what items could be bought and sold at the base.

“Too bad there’s no life essentials.” Yang Bo knew that life supplies were worth more in the Mutant Tribe. Ordinary cigarettes and alcohol were hard currency there.

Many mutants were once people from different countries. Some had been forcibly taken by large organizations; others had come voluntarily.

After gaining power, they no longer wanted to work for these organizations and went independent.

They longed for the life supplies of civilized society, like cigarettes and alcohol.

“I’ll just buy some Shockwave Bombs.” After about half an hour, the base credited the game currency to his account and sent him an email confirming the animals met their standards.

“This doesn’t seem very secure.” In his warehouse, Yang Bo already had quite a few Shockwave Bombs. He bought more to fill it, but then realized there was a problem.

If the official game developers got shady, those bombs in his warehouse might become virtual items.

Maybe when you throw out a Shockwave Bomb, they just give you a special effect. What are you going to do about it? In less than three minutes, Yang Bo thought of a plan: “Transfer these Shockwave Bombs to my territory.”

Yang Bo wasted no time. He loaded himself with as many Shockwave Bombs as he could, everywhere they could fit, including the storage compartments of his mecha. Then, he controlled the mecha and headed toward his territory.

“It’s a bit far, but it doesn’t matter.” Yang Bo, fully loaded with Shockwave Bombs, charged out of the base.

The players on the road stared in disbelief. Where did this lunatic come from? What was he planning to do with so many Shockwave Bombs? “Anyway, I’m not working right now,” Yang Bo controlled his mecha, speeding through the underground passage. The Optical Ability made his speed faster than manual control.

“My operating speed now is only slightly slower than the old neural network control.”

“I’ll just think of this as training my mecha control speed.”

Thus, many players in the Underground World witnessed a bizarre sight. A mecha loaded with Shockwave Bombs was hopping and skipping through the underground passage, occasionally even performing a tap-dance-like routine.

Seeing this, many players instinctively kept their distance, fearing that the next second, this guy would go crazy and blow everything up.

As soon as he arrived near his territory, Iron Bull appeared. Yang Bo handed him the Shockwave Bombs and let Iron Bull take them back.

After a round of gestures, Iron Bull finally understood and nodded.

Soon enough, Iron Bull and his brothers came to help, speeding up the process considerably.

Yang Bo continued to control the mecha, bouncing around and performing all sorts of ridiculous maneuvers.

For instance, in underground spaces only tens of meters high, his mecha jumped from one end of the space to the other in an instant.

He swung the mecha’s weapon like a true warrior.

Of course, that was just Yang Bo’s impression. To those around, it just looked like a crazy person.

Second trip! Third trip! Fourth trip! Finally, the warehouse was emptied, and he continued buying.

“Everything about the Optical Ability is great, except for the mental energy drain.” After logging off the game, Yang Bo quickly drank a bottle of milk and went to sleep.

The best way to replenish mental energy is through sleep.

Regarding the Mecha Game, since the Military was busy with other affairs recently, they hadn’t been too strict with game management.

As long as the system didn’t flag any data warnings, the Mecha Game generally disallowed players’ profiles to be checked.

The last time Yang Bo’s mecha was tracked on Pado Planet was because of a major event, which gave them permission to freely investigate player profiles.

That time, the Parliament and High Judge had authorized a special operation.

After three days, Yang Bo had stockpiled over 4,000 Shockwave Bombs, all stored in his territory. With Iron Bull and his brothers in charge, there were no issues.

Additionally, Yang Bo’s current territory was autonomous, giving him many privileges. The Alliance government wouldn’t interfere publicly within his domain.

Yang Bo hadn’t purchased mini-hydrogen bombs since they were expensive and had purchase limits.

Besides, Yang Bo wasn’t a mutant, so he couldn’t trade mini-hydrogen bombs with mutants. Who knew what kind of trouble they’d cause?

Yang Bo kept transporting Shockwave Bombs, though he had now gained fame on the game forum.

The most attention-grabbing footage was a video of a 9th-generation mecha loaded with bombs, performing what seemed like tap-dancing down an underground passage.

There were over ten thousand comments under the video. The top one read: “This guy is either a genius or a madman.”

Yang Bo took a glance and lost interest. Moving the Shockwave Bombs was more important.

In fact, Yang Bo could have used other methods to transport the bombs.

He could’ve used flying attachments to send the fully loaded mecha directly to his territory.

But that had drawbacks: First, the flying attachments cost money, and second, it would reveal the general area of his destination.

There was another quick method: buy the bombs somewhere else and pay for delivery to his place.

But this had its own issues: delivery costs were high, and second, Yang Bo couldn’t carry a thousand bombs at once. He couldn’t exactly have the delivery dropped off in the valley where Iron Bull and his brothers lived.

Yang Bo wasn’t too fussy and just thought of this as training for his Optical Ability control over the mecha.

After several days, Yang Bo found his mecha control had improved a lot. However, he still kept his hands on the control sticks and keyboard.

He had to maintain the habit. If he didn’t keep them on the controls, it could be a problem if someone noticed later.

By the fifth day, Yang Bo had become very familiar with the Underground World, having run back and forth countless times.

The storm outside continued. Through the massive windows, waves over 20 meters high could be seen crashing down on the shoreline.

The lawn in front of his house was littered with various debris, along with some fresh seafood.

Yang Bo even spotted a fish, at least two meters long, being blown toward Redstone Mountain by the high-altitude winds.

Tides are mainly caused by the planet’s rotation, the sun’s gravity, and the moon’s gravity.

After eating and drinking, he went back into the game. Yang Bo had started spending money again, converting his credit points into game currency.

“Looks like Green Demon Planet’s base just recovered. That comes with benefits; at least they have access to plenty of Shockwave Bombs.” As he mounted the bombs onto his mecha, Yang Bo mumbled to himself.

His mecha could now carry over 200 Shockwave Bombs at once—on his arms, chest, back, and shoulders.

Yang Bo had purchased six mecha accessory mounts, auxiliary equipment that allowed the mecha to carry more items.

“Too bad there isn’t a backpack.” Yang Bo set off again.

By now, the players at Base 16 weren’t surprised by Yang Bo’s antics anymore. Seeing him wasn’t so shocking; people were just curious where he was taking all the Shockwave Bombs.

After another day of transporting, Base 16’s Shockwave Bomb stock had reached its warning level.

The Central AI System at Green Demon Planet’s Base 16 submitted this data for restocking more bombs.

When Yang Bo made his purchases, the base placed the Shockwave Bombs directly into his mecha’s storage room.

Since the base had just been rebuilt, there was a lot going on, and there were even complaints from the Mutant Tribe about players interfering with their daily lives.

They hadn’t noticed the irregular data. The first to uncover this was the new fleet stationed at Green Demon Planet.

Shockwave Bombs were manufactured using fleet equipment. Space is filled with countless asteroids loaded with enough materials. With enough time, the fleet’s warships could even manufacture another warship from scratch. Of course, they couldn’t replicate the Central AI System, as that required specialized manufacturing.

The fleet realized the abnormal use of Shockwave Bombs at Base 16 but didn’t have the authority to check the specific records.

Eventually, this info was reported to the Military.

The department overseeing the Mecha Game checked the data and found that all transactions were legitimate. Players had purchased the bombs with game currency, with no violations.

Additionally, no complaints had been received from Green Demon Planet nor the Mutant Tribe.

As long as there were no violations, the transactions could continue.

Thus, the Military made no further decisions regarding the matter.

Green Demon Planet’s fleet replenished Base 16’s Shockwave Bomb stock.

In the fleet captain’s view, this type of Shockwave Bomb posed no threat.

“The sky’s clearing, we’re running out of bombs, and I’m out of money. Should I expose this bug and let the game officials fix it?”

“Otherwise, if everyone starts buying Shockwave Bombs to trade with mutants, I won’t make any money. With so many mutated animals, the Military will definitely lower prices.” Within half a month, Yang Bo had transported nearly 60,000 Shockwave Bombs. Early on, before he had mecha attachments, he had sold them. Later, his transport speed increased, and his money and game currency had nearly run out.

Ten days ago, Yang Bo had already noticed people following him, but he had always managed to shake them off.

In the underground world, no one could keep up with his mecha’s speed.

Yang Bo had returned with more mutated beasts. This time, he was deliberately drawing attention, carrying two large mutant creatures in his mecha’s hands. They were six-meter-long crocodile-like creatures, one in each hand as he hauled them back to the base.

These crocodiles were D-rank mutant animals, but they were worth several times more than smaller creatures.

Mutated animals of the same rank were priced according to their size—bigger ones naturally being more valuable. This made sense, since their material yield was higher.

“Where did this guy find such good stuff?” Many game players who saw this were filled with envy.

These large live mutant creatures were worth quite a bit. One was valued at about a million game coins.

Of course, if dead, they’d only be worth around 200,000. After all, live ones could be kept for drawing blood or other purposes.

Dead ones were one-and-done, gone once disassembled.

“There’s probably more good stuff in his mecha’s storage box.”

“Has he discovered some kind of bug in the game?”

Yang Bo was intentionally drawing attention. The two large crocodiles he brought back caught the eye of Base 16’s leaders. Such large, live mutated creatures were of high research value—not to mention their economic worth.

“One male, one female; shouldn’t you pay me more?” Yang Bo loudly asked this when handing in the task.

“Sorry, we don’t have such a policy.” The base staff looked at the mecha and politely replied.

The base staff, being Military personnel, naturally knew these mechas were being controlled remotely.

“Well, okay.” Yang Bo was just trying to draw attention and also to see if a male and a female were worth more.

After turning in the crocodiles, he also took out some smaller lizards from the mecha’s storage compartments.

The game players who saw this were even more convinced Yang Bo had discovered some kind of bug.

When Yang Bo took off again with a load of Shockwave Bombs, there didn’t seem to be anyone following him.

However, as he entered the Underground World, Yang Bo noticed that every few minutes, he would encounter some game players.

“Heh, I’ll make sure you guys see me.” Yang Bo pretended to take a detour and arrived at his usual trading spot.

The mutants of the tribe were equally excited when they saw Yang Bo with all those Shockwave Bombs.

It seemed like Yang Bo’s mecha had no direct communication with the mutants. He proceeded down a path that led to an enclosed underground space.

Inside, there were no mutants, but there were already several mutated beasts, four of which were large crocodiles. They were placed there, seemingly abandoned.

Yang Bo controlled his mecha, setting down the bombs before hoisting the four large crocodiles. In the past, he would have knocked them out first, but now the mutants handled that part themselves.

With a swagger, Yang Bo carried the four large crocodiles back, pretending not to notice the players around him.

“Oh god.” The two game players watching were stunned. While they had been chasing down mutant creatures in the Underground World, they had no idea you could trade Shockwave Bombs with the mutants.

They immediately instructed their team members to buy a bunch of Shockwave Bombs at the base, ready for trading.

“I just wonder if the game admins will catch on and start giving out fake bombs to stop mutant complaints.” Yang Bo of course knew the game admins’ background. It was something they’d definitely do. But by then, he would’ve built up enough supplies.