31: Yun Dongliu’s request

“Good heavens, he must have consumed quite a few Black Hawk Empire troops. Team combat really does earn money.”

Li Xiao happily collected all these supplies.

With a thunderous roar, Luo Feng's command post was reduced to a pile of rubble. At the same time, Li Xiao received a system notification.

“You have destroyed Luo Feng's Level 5 exclusive base, gaining resource rewards: Steel * 3951, Fuel * 3800, Rare Ore * 1205!”

Simultaneously, the thousands of square meters of base beneath his feet quietly vanished, reverting to its original jungle appearance, as if the trees and plants had never disappeared.

That’s right, destroying other players’ bases not only causes the player themselves to die, but also grants 50% of the base construction resources as a reward.

Li Xiao had seen this in the chat channel; everyone had been discussing this setting recently. It felt as if the system was encouraging players to kill each other, and various conspiracy theories had popped up.

However, whether it was a conspiracy theory or some other reason, survival was the ultimate truth.

The remaining players of the Tian Chao Squad had already fled when they saw the unfavorable situation. Li Xiao didn’t have the extra energy to deal with them right now.

Once his condition recovered tomorrow, not one of them would escape.

The bodies of Zhang Shuang and the other four soldiers disappeared along with the base. Li Xiao didn't even have time to say goodbye.

Zhang Shuang, the machine gunner, was usually taciturn, but he was meticulous in carrying out missions. Li Xiao had originally planned to give him more health after this, to train him into a core backbone, but he never expected things to turn out this way.

Losing five people at once this time significantly damaged Li Xiao's strength, but his gains were also quite substantial, directly accumulating a small portion of the resources for a Level 6 base.

After resting overnight, Li Xiao issued conscription orders early the next morning, recruiting three infantrymen. After giving each of them one thousand health points, the troops set out to clear out the bases of the four Tian Chao Squad members.

After Luo Feng's series of insane actions yesterday, Li Xiao secretly warned himself that in this Otherworld (otherworld), being a 'Holy Mother' was truly not advisable.

Therefore, to eliminate future troubles, Li Xiao had to eradicate the Tian Chao Squad root and branch!

Zhao Feipeng's drones set out first, conducting aerial reconnaissance of the various bases. The main forces of these bases had been almost completely annihilated in yesterday's battle. There might be some troops left in the bases, but some of them were definitely professions with weaker combat power.

So, with his troops' average health exceeding a thousand, he could directly confront these people.

After the drone reconnaissance was complete, Li Xiao didn't even need to advance covertly. He drove seven all-terrain vehicles directly to the attack. In just two hours, all the players in these bases who had only seven or eight soldiers left were killed, even if the opponents pleaded repeatedly for mercy.

However, the last two players, who were relatively close, cleverly combined their forces, attempting to engage Li Xiao in a decisive battle.

But Li Xiao, with his aerial reconnaissance and rapid mobility, didn't fight them head-on. He drove his all-terrain vehicles around to sneak attack their bases. The group of opponents desperately rushed back but still couldn't make it in time, watching helplessly as their homes were destroyed and their people perished.

Two Level 3 and two Level 4 bases collectively returned twelve thousand steel, over ten thousand fuel, approximately four thousand rare ore, and over three thousand star coins to Li Xiao.

Now, his total resources had reached seventeen thousand steel, fifteen thousand fuel, six thousand rare ore, and six thousand star coins!

“Fighting to sustain the fight?”

Looking at the resources in his backpack, he wondered why he had bothered to painstakingly clear resource zones earlier.

An hour later, Li Xiao returned to his base. Since the Military Academy was under construction, he couldn't upgrade his base, so he simply went back to the command post to sleep.

Lying in bed, he couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Today's battle made him realize how dangerous it could be once a base was exposed.

In the early stages, players had few reconnaissance methods and poor mobility, which was acceptable, but what about later?

Furthermore, the more the base was upgraded, the larger its footprint, and the more obvious the target. Although this forest was large, it still had boundaries.

Therefore, how to hide his base, or rather, how to provide more effective warnings, became an important issue he needed to consider.

He first thought of setting up hidden sentries. Given his current range of activity, at least eight directions within a five-kilometer radius would need hidden sentries.

This required him to have enough scouts.

“People, why can't a hundred or so spawn in a day?”

Li Xiao thought this, then suddenly realized that even if they could spawn, he couldn't afford to support them.

As he pondered, Li Xiao finally fell asleep, until he was woken up by a voice request in the afternoon.

He got up and opened the chat interface, and Li Xiao was stunned. It was actually from Yun Dongliu. He quickly answered.

“Brother Dongliu! I was just thinking of saying hello to you. It wouldn't be right to add a friend and not say a word.”

After Li Xiao spoke, there was no response for a long time. Li Xiao wondered if he had said something wrong. He then asked, “Brother Dongliu, are you looking for me for something?”

“Lend me five thousand star coins. I'll pay you back later!”

Yun Dongliu's words were decisive. Li Xiao hardly had to think. For a cold, self-reliant person like him to borrow money from someone he had only known for a few days, it must be a matter of life and death.

“Uh... would it be convenient to disclose what it's about?”

“I don't want to say anything else. Just tell me if you'll lend it or not!”

Yun Dongliu's attitude gave Li Xiao almost no opportunity to learn more. He thought for a moment that he wasn't short on resources for now, and a Level 6 base only required one thousand star coins, which meant he just barely had enough.

“Lend! Since you're unwilling to say, I won't ask. In any case, I wish you success!”

“Thank you!”

Yun Dongliu's last sentence softened considerably, and then he hung up the call.

Li Xiao immediately clicked on Yun Dongliu's information panel and paid five thousand star coins on the spot. He wasn't worried that Yun Dongliu would disappear, because he didn't view this as just a game.

In a game, one couldn't see a person's true face, but Yun Dongliu... he had some reasons in his heart that supported his decision.

Five thousand star coins was not a small amount; it could directly allow a player to upgrade from Level 4 to Level 5. Li Xiao couldn't just watch his five thousand star coins go to waste.

So he decided to go to Xi City again to try his luck. Yun Dongliu was very likely being coerced, otherwise, guarding Xi City Bank, he wouldn't stoop to borrowing money from someone to upgrade his base.

“Feipeng, Yizhou, Li Le, you three come with me!”

Acting on his thoughts, Li Xiao immediately took his men and drove the all-terrain vehicles straight to Xi City.

Today, Xi City was devoid of gunshots, and its citizens had begun to return to the war-torn city.

Black Hawk Empire troops firmly controlled all intersections in the city, closely scrutinizing passing personnel and vehicles.

It was noteworthy that the Black Hawk Empire was actually distributing food and medicine to ordinary civilians.

This truly surprised Li Xiao. After all, it was a modern civilization, and human rights were still highly valued.

Of course, this was complementary. If you occupied a city without civilians to produce, work, and farm, you would have no source of tax revenue, and even no source of supplies.

Li Xiao parked his vehicle in the suburban forest, then took Zhao Feipeng and the other two, continuing along the old route, entering the city through the sewers.