66: Is this okay?

Fifty thousand...

Li Xiao's mind raced. It seemed this Dark Soul Mercenary Group wasn't particularly wealthy either; he might as well quit while he was ahead.

"Fine! It's a deal. But first, you have to let my troops go back. I'll stay here and help you upgrade!"

"Deal!" The Bald Man walked over, looking quite pleased. He said, "Since we're now in a partnership, let me formally introduce myself. I am the leader of the Dark Soul Mercenary Group, Wang Si!"

"Wang Si... Brother Wang, are you sure you didn't leave out 'Cong' at the end of your name?"

Wang Si: "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just asking."

Di Yun and the other seven were quickly released. Li Xiao had them drive the two fierce tiger h9s back the way they came, leaving only Zhao Feipeng to stay with him temporarily.

Wang Si ordered a squad of mercenaries to follow behind Li Xiao. Nominally it was to help, but in reality, it was surveillance.

However, he didn't care; after all, this was a trivial matter for him.

"Let me calculate... twenty vehicles means six hundred thousand durability points, which equals three hundred ordinary civilian off-road vehicles..."

Li Xiao's brain started working, and within a few minutes, he came up with a brilliant idea!

"Hey! Liu Nian? Post an announcement on the team channel immediately. Say that starting right now, everyone must go out and destroy one civilian off-road vehicle. Anyone who completes it will be rewarded with fifty Star Coins!"

"Holy crap! Fifty Star Coins? Are you some kind of nouveau riche? Civilian off-road vehicles are everywhere; isn't this just free money? Wait for me! I'm going to blow up twenty or thirty of them for you right now!"

"Get lost! Only one per person! And you can't hurt civilians. It's only fifty Star Coins!"

"Fine, I'll get right on it. But what kind of crazy operation is this? What's the point?"

Li Xiao didn't bother explaining, simply saying, "Anyway, it's a great thing for the team."

In fact, gathering durability was quite simple. Now that the large-scale war between the Black Hawk Empire and Tian Yu had ended, civilians had resumed their daily routines, and the traffic flow was much higher than when they first arrived.

But he couldn't just kill civilians recklessly. Not only would that draw attacks from Tian Yu and the Black Hawk Empire, but it would also have a negative impact on controlling Xi City in the future.

Having arranged the durability matter, Li Xiao began to inspect the pickup trucks.

When it came to being affordable and durable, pickup trucks were truly the undisputed main force of the Blue Star's Middle East.

He hadn't expected that even on Hanhai Star, these things would still be so popular.

Liu Nian was very efficient, but the attraction of Star Coins was also a major factor. Now that resource production had increased, the demand for Star Coins had risen, and the exchange ratio between Star Coins and resources had reached ten to fifteen points.

Fifty Star Coins were worth seven or eight hundred resource points; the team members definitely wouldn't pass up such a deal.

So in just a few dozen minutes, his Life Pool's durability attribute shot up, actually breaking through six hundred thousand and reaching seven hundred thousand.

In the team channel, members were saying they could take out a few more vehicles, otherwise, the money felt unearned.

Li Xiao didn't dare let them hit any more. He hurriedly told Liu Nian to call it off; if they kept going, trouble would surely follow.

With the durability points in hand, Li Xiao felt at ease.

So he walked up to a pickup truck and started to show off. A group of mercenaries behind him quickly crowded around, wanting to see what was happening.

However, as Li Xiao touched the hood, there was no response in his field of vision.

"Eh?"

Li Xiao froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered. The off-road vehicles and other things he had captured before only showed information after the owners were killed. Since the Dark Soul Mercenary Group wasn't dead, he didn't have permission.

This was going to be tricky...

Looking at the group of expectant guys behind him, Li Xiao coughed and said, "Go get your leader. Tell him there's a slight unexpected situation."

It was clear that the mercenaries really needed these pickup trucks; two of them quickly turned and ran off.

After a while, Wang Si walked over solemnly and asked, "What is it? Is there something else?"

"Sorry, here's the situation. Regarding increasing durability, there are actually certain restrictions. One of them is that the vehicle must be ownerless, or belong to a teammate."

"What do you mean? How does upgrading a pickup truck involve who the owner is? You'd better not be playing tricks!"

"No, no, no!" Li Xiao quickly explained, "Actually, this is quite easy to handle. As long as your mercenary group merges into my team, it might work."

"You mean to say that for you to help me upgrade twenty vehicles, I have to throw in my entire mercenary group?" Wang Si clearly didn't believe Li Xiao anymore. His right hand gripped a large-caliber revolver in the holster at his waist, as if he might draw it at any moment.

"Of course not!" Li Xiao said awkwardly. "Actually, you just need to merge in, and once I finish the upgrade, you can immediately withdraw with your original crew."

"That's impossible! If it's an alliance, I might consider it!"

"An alliance?"

Li Xiao pondered for a moment. He only knew about merging; he hadn't tried an alliance.

"Ma Kui, go get some paper and a pen!"

Wang Si seemed to act with vigor and speed, possessing a bit of a leader's dominance. Soon, Ma Kui brought paper and a pen and handed them to Li Xiao.

"Draft an alliance agreement. Both sides sign and seal it with a bloody thumbprint. That will count as an alliance!"

"This... works?"

Li Xiao took the paper and pen skeptically, then hastily wrote a simple—extremely simple—alliance contract, signing his name and adding his thumbprint.

Then, something magical happened. When Wang Si pressed his bloody thumb onto it, Li Xiao actually received a message notification about the alliance with the Dark Soul Mercenary Group.

"Holy crap! This actually works!"

Li Xiao thought to himself that the system was far too open and free. Playing like this was just too exciting!

Sure enough, this time when Li Xiao approached the pickup trucks, the information popped up.

Most of these Dark Soul pickup trucks looked old and worn out, but their durability was still there. They had maximum durability limits of three, four, or five thousand, which seemed to be related to wear and tear.

There should be data for Structural Values involved; that is, durability was health, and Structural Values affected the maximum limit.

Behind the pickup truck's durability value, Li Xiao successfully found the plus sign and subsequently completed the durability upgrade.

A few minutes later, Li Xiao clapped his hands. "Commander Wang, check it out. Done!"

"That's it?" Wang Si walked over in disbelief, took a few looks, and then shouted happily, "Brothers! We're definitely going to win this time!"

The dozens of players present immediately cheered, some even firing into the air in celebration.

Li Xiao also noticed something: the local natives seemed to be like their players, able to see the durability of their own vehicles.

And they could even see the enemy's durability; otherwise, they wouldn't have noticed the condition of his two fierce tiger off-road vehicles, and he would have been turned to ash long ago.

Furthermore, Li Xiao had another suspicion. Since he could form an alliance with the Dark Soul Mercenary Group, it was possible he could also ally with Chang Zhan's Tian Yu Militia Organization.

And since they could ally, perhaps they could also help him collect life points...