Chapter 1862 - 1861: ‘Merchandise’ and ‘Believers’

The morning sunlight streamed down from the canopy of Heaven, illuminating the city below.

Anke yawned, started the vehicle, and drove the off-road car into the market.

When they arrived yesterday, the market was not yet open, so Anke slept outside all night.

"How are you planning to handle these weapons?" He Ao asked in his ear, with keen interest.

"It’s not a big deal." Anke chuckled, stopping the vehicle directly in front of a shop that had just rolled up its shutter, nearly blocking the entire entrance.

"Hey, sir," a skinny little old man wearing glasses walked out of the shop, glanced at Anke sitting in the off-road car, and paused slightly, "This is the front of my shop, not a parking spot. You might want to park elsewhere."

But Anke seemed not to hear him, kicked open the door, jumped out, and looked at the Boss, "Are you buying stuff?"

"Are you a military man?" The little old man lifted his gaze, took a look at Anke’s attire, and asked curiously, "What are you selling, military man?"

"Some little things." Anke raised his hand, opened the back door of the off-road car, pulled out a long box, opened it, and exposed the neatly arranged rocket shells inside.

Seeing this, the little old man paused slightly, quickly reached out to press the box cover and closed it, "Military man, this stuff shouldn’t be brought out!"

"Are you buying?" Anke casually tossed the long box into the car’s back seat.

"This," the little old man paused slightly and looked at Anke, "These are restricted materials now. We don’t dare to trade them recklessly, military man."

"I’ve come here before," Anke glanced at the little old man, "Sold a grenade, from the Evis Spatial System, remember?"

Upon hearing this, the little old man paused again, took another look at Anke, and then looked around.

Finally, he raised a remote control and opened a side shutter, exposing a spacious warehouse space, "How about this, sir? You drive the car inside first?"

"You drive it yourself." Anke simply raised his hand and tossed the keys to the little old man.

The little old man hurriedly caught the keys and glanced at the off-road car.

He then turned to look at Anke, noticing Anke swaggering into the shop.

He turned around, took a look at the surroundings, and then waved to a young man who seemed to be a shop assistant, "Hey, you over there, come over."

When the young man came over, he handed the keys to him, glanced at the open warehouse door, "Drive the car inside, be careful."

The young man nodded and headed to the driver’s seat.

The little old man walked into the shop.

At this moment, Anke was already at the water dispenser pouring water, "Why don’t you even have a coffee machine here?"

He took a sip of water, "Damn it, tasteless, haven’t had coffee in ages."

"We have coffee, of course we have coffee," the little old man quickly walked over, opened the coffee machine, began brewing coffee, glanced at the mud on the tires of the off-road car outside, "Looks like you just came back from the wilderness?"

"Just back from the battlefield," Anke took a sip of water, rinsed his mouth, walked to the shop door, and spat out a mouthful of slightly blood-stained water, "Damn place, not fit for humans."

The little old man glanced at Anke and finished making the coffee.

By this time, the young man had already driven the off-road car into the warehouse.

The shop and the warehouse were connected by a small door, and with the door open, one could see the off-road car driven into the warehouse from inside the shop.

As the off-road car entered the warehouse, the little old man also pressed a switch, closing the warehouse door.

A faint shadow enveloped the entire warehouse, also covering the off-road car.

"Want to check the goods?" Anke took the coffee from the little old man and said casually, sipping it.

The little old man gave the young man on the car a signal with his eyes, watched him get off, open the rear car door, and start moving the items from the car. Then he turned back to look at Anke, "Military man, there’s quite a lot of stuff in here; our small shop might not be able to process all of it."

Anke raised his head, took a look at him, sipped his coffee, and said casually, "You don’t need to worry; it’s not from the top."

Upon hearing this, the little old man paused slightly, turned to look at Anke, paused, and asked softly, "Military man, how much do you plan to sell for?"

"You’re the buyer, aren’t you? Selling price is up to you." Anke glanced at him, took a West Steel credential from his pocket, and placed it on the table, "Quickly, the brothers are waiting for me to go back."

The little old man raised his head, took a look at Anke, and then at the credential, smiling ingratiatingly, "Military man, you’ve brought so much goods, at least let me inventory them, can’t rush it."

"Just take a glance," Anke glanced at the little old man, said coldly, "How complicated can this stuff be? They’re all new, barely used, still in packaging."

"Yes, yes, let me take a look," the little old man quickly walked over to the side of the off-road car and began opening and counting the closed boxes one by one.

Occasionally, he would raise his wristband to take photos.

But his actions were indeed quick; Anke hadn’t finished his coffee when the little old man returned.

"Military man, I checked, roughly twenty guns, three rocket launchers, nineteen shells, and about a thousand bullets," the little old man looked at Anke.

"Checked the inscriptions on the guns?" Anke responded immediately, "These are all high-quality goods produced by the Evis Spatial System."

"Of course, of course," the little old man smiled, "These guns are high-quality and quite new, but you know, handling these guns isn’t easy; it takes a lot of money. Currently, on the market, high-end rifles from the Evis Spatial System are around 1800 federal coins each. We can offer a good price, 1300,"

He glanced at Anke’s expressionless face and paused, "How about this, since you’re a regular customer, I’ll give you 1500? Those rocket launchers aren’t worth much, just about a thousand; shells, I’ll give you 300 each..."

"Alright, stop with that," Anke waved his hand impatiently, "Just give me a package price."

"I’ll quote 30,000 for the guns, 9,000 for the launchers and rockets, and the thousand rounds aren’t worth much, so total, how about 40,000 federal coins?" The little old man spoke while raising his head to observe Anke’s expression.

"Fine." Anke’s expression didn’t change, "I don’t want a transfer, do you have cash?"

"We don’t keep that much cash in the store," the little old man glanced at Anke, "I’ll give you hardware cryptocurrency wallet with 30,000 and 10,000 in cash, how about that?"

"20,000 cash." Anke looked at the little old man, "5,000 in small bills."

"Deal." The little old man nodded, raised his hand, and spoke into his wristband.

At this moment, a cargo truck marked with "West Steel Collection" sped past outside the door.

Faint cries could be heard coming from the cargo truck.

Anke glanced at the cargo truck in confusion, and casually put away the documents on the table, "Is this from our Mercenary Corps too? That’s not the Mercenary Corps’ base over there, and there are people inside?"

"You just returned from the battlefield, so it’s normal not to know," the old man looked at the receding vehicle and sighed, "Those are from the Special Task Force, they’re currently arresting ’K’ believers everywhere."

At this point, he slightly opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again.

Anke glanced at him and did not press further.

At this moment, a young man came around from the back of the shop, handing over a black shoulder bag and a black strap.

The old man took the black strap and handed it to Anke, "This is a cryptocurrency hardware wallet with twenty thousand federal coins."

Then he took the shoulder bag, opened it in front of Anke, "This is twenty thousand federal coins in cash, inside there are five thousand in change of twenties and tens."

"Thanks." Anke directly took the strap and shoulder bag, passed through the small door, and headed toward the off-road vehicle.

By then, everything in the off-road vehicle had already been unloaded.

He got in the car, glanced at the empty back seat, and instinctively asked, "Old man, are you still here?"

"Here." The old and calm voice sounded in his ear.

He sighed in relief, started the vehicle, tossed the shoulder bag into the passenger seat, and reversed out of the store.

"Come back next time, young man!" The shop owner, an old man, smiled and waved goodbye to Anke.

Anke also waved back, maneuvering the vehicle onto the main road.

"Do you come here often?" He Ao asked in Anke’s ear.

"Only once before, a seasoned old hand from the Mercenary Corps brought me," Anke shrugged, "I hadn’t received my salary back then, so they brought me here, sold a high-explosive grenade, exchanged it for money, and sent it home."

"Doesn’t your Mercenary Corps check these things?" He Ao asked with interest.

"I was worried about that at first, but later I found out, it’s just a grenade," Anke laughed, "Now that the war is so intense, you just report these disposable things as lost, and no one checks. Our captain does even bigger stuff, selling small laser cannons outside, we are just small fry."

He shrugged, "In just one battle, these things are all reported as losses, and no one investigates these matters."

"Is selling military supplies common in your Mercenary Corps?" He Ao asked quietly.

"It’s something unavoidable," Anke sighed, "Before I joined the Mercenary Corps, they said the salary was six thousand a month, including room and board, but the pay has never been on time,"

He held the steering wheel and looked at the houses on both sides of the street, "Those gentlemen said they didn’t originally plan to recruit so many mercenaries, but felt sorry for us and recruited more,

"They said originally West Steel only had two Mercenary Corps, and during the war, they directly expanded to three more, becoming five Mercenary Corps. Now, there’s a shortage of supplies on the front line, so the salaries are always delayed by ten days to half a month at least."

He sighed, "Don’t even mention the salary, I’ve heard of several brothers who died and got no compensation. Their families are still wrestling with West Steel."

"Under these conditions, mercenaries can still endure?" He Ao curiously asked.

"There’s no way, can’t survive otherwise," Anke seemed to remember something and said softly, "Although the salary in the Mercenary Corps is unstable, at least there’s a salary. Without the Mercenary Corps, there’s nothing but starvation."

Saying this, he raised his voice slightly, glanced at the bag beside him, reached over to pull the bag a little closer, "But honestly speaking, forty thousand federal coins, damn, it’s the first time in my life seeing so much money."

"I saw you were quite calm just now." He Ao laughed.

"That was just an act!" Anke’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, slightly raising his voice, "Damn, old man, you don’t know how much effort it took to suppress my expression. Those black market traders are all shrewd people. If they knew I was alone, working solo, they might have killed me on the spot and robbed my goods."

Saying this, he turned his head to look at the shoulder bag again, "Shit, forty thousand federal coins, it would take me five months of risking my life to earn that much, no wonder those thieves love robbery so much."

He paused slightly, "But without your help, old man, I couldn’t possibly have gotten this windfall."

"Did I help you with something?" He Ao laughed and asked, "Wasn’t it all your own doing?"

"Don’t joke around, old man," Anke glanced at the shoulder bag, "Without your guidance, I’d be dead long ago."

"So, where are we heading now?" He Ao asked quietly.

"To buy a bracelet and connect to the internet!" Anke took a deep breath, looking at a bracelet store ahead with its lights on, and stopped the car.

He pushed open the car door and got out.

A desolate wind blew across the deserted street, making him shiver slightly.

He walked over to the passenger side, took out the shoulder bag, and slung it over his shoulder, looking at the old and desolate street around him, "I remember last time I came here it wasn’t this desolate, and West Carter wasn’t a frontline city."

He shook his head and walked into the store.

"Hello, may I help you?" The shopkeeper was a young girl, and when she saw Anke enter, she was slightly stunned, then smiled and asked.

"Get me two bracelets," he glanced at the counter, "a basic model and the latest one."

The girl was slightly stunned, nodded, and turned around to get two bracelet boxes, "Would you like to consider our promotion with the telecom company? Participate in the promotion and bind a specified plan, and you can take the latest bracelet for free."

"No need, just give me the price, how much?" Anke directly asked.

"The latest Nord ST model, 1199 federal coins, this basic Nord SE model, 499 federal coins." The girl looked at Anke, "Altogether, 1698 federal coins, would you like to pay by credit card? There’s a discount for installment payments···"

But before she finished speaking, Anke took out a handful of cash from the handbag, counted seventeen hundred-dollar bills and handed them over, "Change."

The salesgirl was slightly stunned, but still accepted his bills, verified them, and took out two federal coin coins, "Are coins okay?"

"Fine." Anke received the bracelets and coins.

Then he directly opened the basic bracelet, wore it on his wrist, activated the electronic communication card, connected to the internet, and typed in the search box—

Then he paused slightly and said softly, "Old man, how do you write that ’Kovotra’ of yours?"