Chapter 130: Brother He Ping Promoted to Level 5
“So I believe cross-zone intelligence gathering should naturally become one of its key development paths…”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Lin Huai raised a hand to cut him off gently. “There’s no need to pitch it so hard. I had the exact same idea in mind when I encouraged you to keep that vehicle in the first place.”
She gave him a direct, encouraging look. “What materials do you need to push it to Level 5 right now? All the stockpiles in our squad warehouse will be prioritized for your upgrade!”
Brother He Ping had certainly hoped she would agree, but he never expected her to approve the request so instantly and without reservation. The rest of the persuasive arguments he had carefully rehearsed were left entirely unneeded.
Her reaction spoke volumes about the sheer depth of her trust in him. For a cool-headed, rational legal professional like Brother He Ping, this kind of unconditional faith and high regard stirred a rare, genuine warmth in his chest.
He smiled, pushing up his glasses with a slightly eager tone. “I still need over a thousand metal units, more than seven hundred ores, and about thirty electronic components…”
All the collective team supplies were stored inside Lin Huai’s dimensional jade bangle, ready to be distributed according to the squad’s strategic needs. The massive haul of goods gathered during their recent trade run in District 85, Zone 275 was still sitting untouched in her inventory.
Without a second thought, she transferred the bulk of those materials directly to Brother He Ping to ensure his upgrade went through immediately.
Since players were not allowed inside their vehicles during structural overhauls, Brother He Ping remained aboard Lin Huai’s hearse. Together with the Young Miss, the three of them continued fleshing out their upcoming road map.
Just then, an additional lane materialized alongside their stretch of highway, and Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar’s armored ambulance pulled up beside them.
The moment the ambulance matched their pace, Milk Tea hopped out, bubbling with excitement as she invited Lin Huai over to inspect her newly altered interior.
The Young Miss and Brother He Ping tagged along as well. Although neither was a stranger to the medical vehicle, it was their first time visiting since the bronze cauldron had been installed.
Stepping inside, both of them were thoroughly stunned by the towering, ancient vessel standing in the center of the cabin. Even the habitually logical Brother He Ping felt a lapse in reason; the mystical cauldron looked like something ripped straight out of ancient mythology rather than the real world.
Moments later, Milk Tea introduced an element that defied reality even further.
“Sister Bone Ash, come quick! Look at the special reward I received from the trial instance!”
Following Milk Tea’s pointing finger, Lin Huai looked toward the open space near the emergency room threshold. There, a patch of rich, damp earth had appeared right on the reinforced floor.
The plot was modest, measuring around two square meters, but floating directly above the soil was a translucent, dome-shaped shield of soothing greenish-blue energy.
Lin Huai was experienced, but she still blinked in pleasant surprise. “A personal cultivation plot?”
Milk Tea nodded enthusiastically. “Mm-hmm! It happened just as you predicted, Sister Bone Ash. Ever since I equipped the bronze cauldron, it feels like I unlocked a hidden divine physician path. Related treasures and opportunities just keep landing right in my lap!”
Beaming, she gently pulled Lin Huai toward the three-legged cauldron. “And look inside! The Samadhi True Fire from the volcano was the exact missing piece this cauldron needed.”
Lin Huai leaned over the rim. Inside the once-dormant bronze interior, bright golden flames danced with lively vigor, casting warm reflections across the intricate ancient reliefs carved along the inner walls.
Through the flickering glow, three classic characters stood out with sharp clarity: Shennong Cauldron. It truly was a legendary alchemical furnace!
The Young Miss’s eyes sparkled with commercial excitement. “This is incredible! Milk Tea now has the legendary Shennong Cauldron, the divine Samadhi True Fire, and her own private herbal garden. As we collect more pill formulas down the line, all we need to get production rolling is a steady supply of medicinal seeds, right?”
Lin Huai gave a firm nod. “That’s right. But keep in mind that alchemy ingredients aren’t limited to ordinary herbs; many peculiar, supernatural materials can also be refined into medicine.”
Turning to the Young Miss, Lin Huai instructed, “Going forward, alongside the usual hardware we need for vehicle upgrades, our trade priority must expand. We need to actively hunt down pill recipes, rare botanical seeds, and any strange catalysts with unidentified properties.”
Reaching into her pouch, Lin Huai pulled out several peculiar trophies she had gathered earlier—such as dried crimson spider lily petals and calcified dragon scales—holding them up for the group to inspect. “Keep an eye out for items like these.”
The Young Miss nodded with sharp focus. “Understood, Boss. Consider it done.”
While they were inspecting Milk Tea’s herbal plot, a notification chimed: Brother He Ping’s communications vehicle had successfully completed its Level 5 transformation.
Just as they had theorized, the broadcast vehicle had officially unlocked a cross-zone reconnaissance capability, though it came with strict system limitations. At its current tier, it could tap into the public chat feed of only one outside district beyond Zone 444 per cycle. Furthermore, the vehicle could only infiltrate the same target zone once every twenty-four hours, with each listening window capped at three hours.
Despite the restrictions, the strategic utility was enormous.
When combined with Lin Huai’s plan to plant undercover scouts, the flow of intelligence and market trends across the broader server would fall entirely under their command.
Moreover, Brother He Ping’s surveillance capabilities could monitor market activity and keep tabs on foreign trading agents, serving multiple functions at once. One could easily argue that his communications vehicle was the foundational cornerstone of their entire cross-zone trade initiative.
The next logistical hurdle was bulk storage space—they needed a dependable way to transport massive shipments between zones without drawing attention.
The Young Miss was already sketching solutions onto her notepad. “Standard personal backpacks won’t hold enough cargo to satisfy an entire district’s market. Looking back at the purchasing power of that sub-zone we visited, a single backpack of goods barely scratched the surface.”
Pausing her pencil, she glanced toward Lin Huai’s wrist, her eyes lingering on the green bracelet. “Boss… do you think your dimensional jade bangle could be… loaned out for runs?”
Lin Huai had no personal issue with lending the treasure, but she felt relying on a single artifact wasn’t a sustainable operational model.
Deciding to pool their minds, she called the rest of the squad over to brainstorm.
In particular, she wanted to see if the specialized utility rigs driven by The Three Knight Brothers held any hidden cargo advantages.
Her instincts proved spot-on. Fastest Hand at SF Express, the senior brother of the delivery trio, piloted a specialized logistics van with native spatial compression.
Realizing his rig held the exact utility the squad needed, he pumped his fists together in pure triumph. “Finally! A real chance for me to shine!”
He grinned proudly. “My van has a dedicated freight dimension built right into the cargo bay. At Level 4, it already holds one hundred cubic meters of storage!”
He added with a wink, “And the capacity expands with every vehicle upgrade!”
Lin Huai nodded with deep approval, handing over the remaining squad building supplies directly to him. “That solves our bottleneck. Get your van upgraded to Level 5 right away. List whatever raw materials you’re missing, and the entire team will chip in to cover the gap. We need to clear every logistical hurdle for the Young Miss’s trading network. Once our cross-district supply lines are running smoothly, our overall resource gathering will skyrocket, and everyone’s rigs will level up twice as fast!”
It was a win for everyone involved, and the rest of the squad supported the decision without a hint of jealousy. They had complete faith in Lin Huai’s method of prioritizing key assets for the collective good.
Dragon Emerging from the Sea gave a steady, reassuring nod. “Even though the warehouse belongs to the squad as a whole, the Boss has absolute authority over resource allocation. Distribute the gear however you see fit—you’ll never hear a complaint from us!”
