Lin Ke could hold out against an enemy's concentrated attacks, but he couldn't resist this 'loving, tender call' from Forbes.
Before Forbes could dash over and give him a 'hug brimming with love,' Lin Ke stopped him in time. "All the money is still with you, right?"
When Lin Ke mentioned the money, Forbes immediately came to a stop and fished out the stack of bills from his suit.
Lin Ke squatted down and started to look for war spoils together with Treasure Hunter Rat.
[You've obtained three P21 Pistols (Damaged), 4,300 Wastelands Coins, and three Jack Gang signet rings.]
By the time Lin Ke had finished searching the bodies, an out-of-breath Forbes had also run over to him. Seemingly having forgotten the dangerous situation he had been in just a moment ago, Forbes excitedly asked, "Boss, how come you're here? I didn't see you when I came out just now, so I thought you had already left."
Lin Ke—who was squatting on the floor—pointed at the three corpses and asked, "Why didn't you give them the money when they wanted to rob you just now?"
With a serious expression, Forbes replied, "Boss risked his life to get this money. How can I hand it over to others?"
"Aren't you afraid that they'll shoot and kill you?"
When he thought of the scene just now, fear still lingered in Forbes. He replied, "I am! Why wouldn't I be? I'm afraid of dying the most! But this money belongs to Boss, so I can't just give it to them!"
"That's for the best. We'll come here again tomorrow."
Forbes panicked immediately. "Huh? We are coming back again?"
Lin Ke raised his head and waved the money he had just obtained from ransacking the thugs' bodies. "How are we going to earn money if we don't come here? If we don't earn money, how will we buy you new clothes and eat lots of food? Look at this; we've earned $4,300 so easily. It's not that much less than selling microchips, right?"
Forbes was stunned. It seemed like… that did indeed make a lot of sense! Forbes only reacted after quite a while, and he asked, "Boss, did you already know that people would set their sights on me?"
Lin Ke had a 'Isn't that obvious?' look in his eyes.
Anyone would be tempted, considering how Forbes had 'I'm a newbie! This is my first time here. I have treasures on me. I'm carrying a huge sum of money on me!' written clearly all over his face.
Although $10,000 was a huge sum of money to Forbes, this amount of money was practically insignificant to the veterans who struck deals in the underground black market every day. They would never make a big fuss over this bit of money.
Only ruffians and random thugs from small gangs would fail to keep their greed in check and follow Forbes when they noticed a 'docile little lamb' like him.
Forbes was Lin Ke's bait, and he was precisely fishing for these people with insatiable greed. Lin Ke had come out in advance and set up the Silver Army Ants in the shadows at the entryway.
Forbes had a small box of Silver Army Ants on him, so Lin Ke was able to detect his precise location.
After the enemies came out of the elevator, the Silver Army Ants had taken the opportunity to climb onto them secretly while they had their full attention on Forbes.
With its unique metal detection ability, Treasure Hunter Rat would know exactly what metallic objects the thugs had on them just by scrunching up its little nose and taking a quick sniff.
Lin Ke had made use of this and telepathically informed the Silver Army Ants of the firearms' locations so that they could bite off the pistol triggers without anyone realizing it.
Lin Ke rubbed the Jack Gang signet rings in his hand, and hints of a smile involuntarily appeared on the corners of his lips.
The victims today were from Jack Gang. Who will the victims be tomorrow?
Lin Ke had never been fond of violence. A classy, leisurely sport that could regulate one's temperament and cultivate one's disposition—such as fishing—couldn't be any more suitable for him.
After all… It was impossible for him to work for others, not even in his entire life.
After stowing away their war spoils, Lin Ke and Forbes exited the little alley.
"Boss, why did your gunshots today sound kinda different? It sounds like they are a lot softer than before?"
Lin Ke fished out the Glock 17 pistol. Attached to the muzzle was a long, black, and thick silencer! "I wasn't just leading the way for you today. I also wanted to go there to replenish my ammunition and refresh my equipment."
Now that they were in Sand City, he couldn't fire without any reservations any longer—as he had done in the wild. Thus, Lin Ke picked up silencers for the Glock 17 pistol and the tactical machine pistol while buying 150 9mm bullets along the way.
Lin Ke did a count on the way back—he currently had 17,500-plus Wastelands Coins.
I have four basic microchips left, and I should be able to sell them for about $50,000… The value of 300 grams of gold is approximately $60,000… I can also reel in quite a few fishes, so that's another $20,000-odd…
Lin Ke silently did a quick count. It seems like I'm still about $50,000 short of $200,000.
The main reasons behind Lin Ke saving up $200,000 were to improve his combat prowess as soon as possible and to pick up a main class.
Before he had transmigrated, Lin Ke had Fighter as his main class and Vampire as his sub-class.
Fighters' high HP and Vampires' unique recovery abilities had allowed him to fight and farm monsters in the wild for long periods of time without the need for healing.
However, Lin Ke now had the Zerg's Nest, obtained the Wastelands Planet's hidden main scenario mission, and had also been reborn while carrying six years of gaming experience with him.
In terms of one's degree of familiarity with the game, nobody would dare claim the top spot if Lin Ke claimed the second spot.
Martial Arts, Supernatural Ability, Mechanical, and Mystery—each of the four power systems had their own strengths. However, there was actually one more hidden system apart from the four power systems that were officially announced—Universal-type!
One could tell just from the name alone that there was a huge difference between Universal-type and the other four above-mentioned systems.
The four normal systems were distinguished by their type of powers, and every type of power branched out into quite a few different classes. However, there was only one class under the Universal-type—Scholar.
Scholars were extremely special because they could disregard the power system when learning skills. In other words, they could learn skills from any class!
One shouldn't be misled by how Scholars seemed to be in a highly superior position, though. There was also one major flaw to this particular class—the amount of EXP consumed when learning a skill was double the original!
Perhaps it wouldn't seem like much in the beginning, but the amount of EXP Scholars needed was massive as the skills increased in level.
As the saying went, 'Better a little that is well done than a great deal imperfectly.'
One would usually bring out a class's maximum effects by focusing on and developing one system and pinpointing where they should branch out.
Although a Scholar could learn skills from multiple classes and held a diversification advantage in the early stages, they would need increasingly more EXP to continue raising the skills' levels. This would eventually lead them to a situation where they owned a wide range of skills but specialized in none.
They could do everything and nothing at the same time. Such was the awkward plight of Scholars.
However, none of this was a problem for Lin Ke. Was there anyone more familiar with mission flow and mission rewards than him? Everything that Lin Ke was doing now was for the sake of unlocking the Universal-type, which had harsh and demanding requirements.
One of the prerequisites to unlocking the Universal-type was that all of one's attributes must reach ten points before the player reached Level 10!
As everyone knew, ordinary players typically started out with five points each in four attributes—Power, Agility, Endurance, and Intelligence. Even if there were differences in the values, it didn't go beyond a one-point difference.
The values of the three other attributes—Energy, Charm, and Luck—were completely random.
The Energy attribute represented one's ability to manage special powers. If a player wanted to take the Supernatural Ability-type route or the Mysterious-type route, their Energy attribute must be more than five points.
The Charm attribute influenced NPCs' attitudes towards players. It also influenced the outcome of some plot details and provided additive effects to reputation gain and friendliness meters.
The Luck attribute was related to critical hit rate and item drop rates.
A player could gain a total of 30 Latent Capacity Points when leveling up from Level 1 to Level 10. Even if one were lucky—all four of their non-random attributes had normal base values, and all three of their randomized attributes had five points each—one would require a total of 35 points if they wanted all seven of their attributes to reach ten points each!
The purpose behind Lin Ke saving up $200,000 was precisely to resolve the problem of his weak body's low attributes in one go. It was also to meet the prerequisite for unlocking the Universal-type along the way.
"We currently have $17,590. We'll round off the figure and take the $90 as a celebration for successfully finishing our 'apprenticeship'!"
In the slums, the spending power of $90 was still very impressive. It bought them two fried chickens, four hamburgers, and one large jug of beverage.
After consuming all of it, there were four new 'dead bodies' in Room 505.
Lin Ke, Forbes, Treasure Hunter Rat, and Sand Condor—all of them ate so much that each of their mouths was covered in grease.
They laid still and motionless on the bed and the floor like dead bodies.
After eating and drinking their fill, it was time to have a good rest. They would continue fishing the next day.
Lin Ke didn't take off his clothes when he went to sleep. He kept the gun under his pillow.
Sand Condor hung on the window and fell asleep after it ate its fill. In fact, it fell asleep even earlier than Lin Ke. From the looks of it, they couldn't count on it anymore.
Thus, the task of keeping night watch was given to the army ants that didn't need to eat or drink.
…
A night passed.
As per usual, Treasure Hunter Rat woke Lin Ke up.
However, Lin Ke was mildly surprised by the fact that Forbes didn't actually sleep in today. Forbes had even woken up earlier than Lin Ke.
"Forbes, you have dark circles under your eyes. Did someone beat you up…"
Forbes had a look of fatigue and even injustice on his face as he said, "Boss, I had initially already fallen asleep, but I heard a woman's screams of pain coming from the room next door in the middle of the night… I initially thought that the screams would go away after a while, but the screams next door only just stopped when screams began coming from the room opposite… Just like that, they continued to alternate. This went on for the whole night."
Lin Ke was terribly amused the moment he heard what Forbes said. The cheaper and smaller an inn was, the more such things would happen.
After all, the costs were low!
After teasing Forbes, Lin Ke felt Treasure Hunter Rat pulling at his clothes. Lin Ke lowered his head to see Treasure Hunter Rat with both its paws resting against its hip, its head held high, and its chest puffed out as though it was waiting for his praise.
Treasure Hunter Rat 'carelessly' shrugged its left shoulder at its master, indicating that something was to its left.
Lin Ke cast a glance at the stool beside the bed, and his eyes widened at once.
There was clearly a ring made out of pure gold on the stool.
Lin Ke finally reacted, and he asked, "Did you bring that here?"
Treasure Hunter Rat puffed out its chest and lifted its head as though the red scarf at its chest had become even more vibrant
It was at this moment that a furious roar rang out from the corridor.
"Why has my gold ring gone missing?!"