13: Level up

He casually opened a box, and what met his eyes were disks of 7.62mm ammunition, neatly packaged in green-lacquered iron boxes, each containing one hundred rounds!

"Holy cow! We're rich, we're rich!"

Li Xiao waved his hand, quickly sweeping box after box of ammunition into his backpack. He now understood why a one-hundred-slot backpack had no upper limit—the reason was here.

In just over ten minutes, Li Xiao had cleared out hundreds of boxes of ammunition from the Transit Yard, acquiring a total of 120,000 rifle rounds, 20,000 pistol rounds, and 2,000 fragmentation grenades.

Next, he raided the food section, and the haul from there greatly exceeded Li Xiao's expectations.

There was rice, cooking oil, canned goods, flour, vacuum-packed chicken, and even fresh fruits and vegetables.

After organizing everything, there were five hundred 50-pound bags of rice, fifty boxes of cooking oil, one thousand cans, and a full one thousand 50-pound bags of flour.

"I can't take it anymore... time to scram!"

Having taken such a huge advantage, Li Xiao felt that the Black Hawk Empire might retaliate at any moment, so it was important to make a quick getaway.

Ye Ming and his team also found over seventy rifles, more than ten handguns, roughly a thousand rounds of ammunition in total, and over thirty grenades.

Of course, there were also over two hundred Star Coins, which Li Xiao valued the most. From the barracks onward, building required Star Coins, and the demand would surely be even greater in the future.

With all the supplies swept clean, everyone excitedly rushed back to the base overnight.

To prevent the Black Hawk Empire from tracking their movements, Li Xiao also arranged for Zhao Feipeng and Yang Chao to guard the west and south sides of the base.

After everyone had finished their late-night snack, Li Xiao hid alone on the second floor of the command center and began "fencing goods."

First, the ammunition. He himself hadn't even reached a squad's worth of troops yet, so he only kept 10,000 rifle rounds, putting the remaining 110,000 rounds up for sale.

It had to be said that players were fighting more and more frequently now, and ammunition was being consumed extremely quickly; there was virtually no ammunition listed in the trading center.

According to previous transaction prices, one point of steel or fuel could be exchanged for five rifle rounds, and rare ore could be exchanged for ten rounds.

He planned to use 40,000 rifle rounds to exchange for 8,000 points each of steel and fuel, and the remaining 30,000 rounds for 3,000 points of rare ore.

Pistol rounds were slightly cheaper; 20,000 rounds could be exchanged for 2,000 points of steel and fuel.

Then there were the grenades; he kept five hundred for himself and sold the rest.

For grenades, he directly specified Star Coins as the payment, as they were currently the largest area-of-effect weapon he had encountered. Five Star Coins per grenade was completely reasonable.

As for food, Li Xiao didn't plan to sell any of it. With more and more troops in the future, his logistical pressure would be immense. Stockpiling now would ensure an easier life later.

The scarcity of bullets was indeed beyond imagination; a total of 130,000 rounds of ammunition sold out within five minutes of being listed.

Even faster to sell than ammunition were the grenades. It seemed players were truly lacking in assault-type weapons.

Looking at the tens of thousands of points of steel, fuel, and rare ore in the base's information, Li Xiao couldn't stop smiling.

If it weren't for the Life Pool granting soldiers a significant amount of health, even if he had successfully blown up the fuel storage area with C4, he wouldn't have been able to defeat the remaining Imperial troops in the Transit Yard.

"What are we waiting for! Upgrade!"

Li Xiao tapped his finger, and the system deducted five hundred points each of steel and fuel, and two hundred points of rare ore. The base entered its second upgrade state.

This upgrade process was noticeably slower; it took an hour for the entire base to change.

The second upgrade expanded the base's concrete pouring area to one thousand square meters. His command center's exterior walls were painted in camouflage for the first time, finally looking less plain and simple.

Moreover, a surprisingly large dish, an antenna receiver, was added to the rooftop.

Li Xiao hastily checked the upgraded base information. This time, the command center displayed durability, similar to a vehicle. A Level 3 base command center had a whopping 10,000 health points, suggesting it could withstand many attacks.

Additionally, the daily conscription orders increased from two to three, which was good news for some but bad news for others.

Of course, Li Xiao, who had no worries about food or drink, was now most in need of troops.

The Level 3 base added a new building: a cafeteria. This functional building solved a major problem for Li Xiao.

As long as he stationed a cook in the cafeteria and handed over all the food he had, Li Xiao wouldn't have to worry about distributing food anymore.

This cook could even prepare various cooked meals based on the ingredients. Of course, the cafeteria's supply capacity was limited, and more cooks would be needed as it upgraded later.

Building the cafeteria cost fifty points each of steel and fuel, thirty points of rare ore, and forty Star Coins. The cost was incredibly affordable, so Li Xiao didn't hesitate to build one next to the barracks.

While the cafeteria was being built, Li Xiao used his three conscription orders. As expected, among these three new recruits, there was indeed a cook with a chef's certificate.

The other two were an infantryman and another new troop type: a signalman!

Signalmen carried individual satellite communication terminals and radio transceivers, enabling them to maintain all-weather communication with the base, and later, with rank upgrades, they could conduct real-time video communication.

"Excellent! With a signalman, we won't have to run around to communicate anymore!"

Signalmen were also equipped with rifles, handguns, and other tactical gear, but due to their heavy load, their mobility was relatively weaker, and their combat capability was inferior to infantry.

Considering the signalman's importance, Li Xiao allocated four hundred health points from the Life Pool to this fellow named Li Le, leaving the remaining two thousand health points in the Life Pool for future use.

An hour later, the cafeteria was completed. This cafeteria came with five inventory slots, and Li Xiao put all the rice, canned goods, flour, and field rations from his backpack into it.

"Du Ziteng, from now on, all our meals are in your hands!"

Li Xiao patted the cook's shoulder, speaking with a sense of weighty responsibility.

"Reporting, Boss! Don't worry, I'll definitely make sure all our comrades are well-fed!"

Li Xiao nodded in satisfaction, then opened the information panel to upgrade the base again.

The resources required for a Level 4 base upgrade quadrupled this time, needing 2,000 points each of steel and fuel, 1,000 points of rare ore, and an additional 200 Star Coins.

Li Xiao secretly rejoiced that the grenades were sold for Star Coins; if it had been resources, he would have had to sell food to accumulate Star Coins.

The Level 4 base upgrade lasted a full five hours, completing only in the afternoon.

The newly expanded 2,000 square meters of empty space had only three buildings on it, making it seem quite empty, so Li Xiao added another barracks.

His troop strength had now reached a squad. If he didn't add one today, the new recruits wouldn't have a place to stay tomorrow.

Opening the Level 4 base information again, Li Xiao finally saw a building that made him extremely excited.

Military Factory: A special military building for manufacturing tactical equipment and vehicles for troops.

Building Area: 400 square meters

Building Conditions: Steel 1000, Fuel 1000, Rare Ore 2000.

Construction Time Limit: 24h