67: An unexpected surprise

Li Xiao was still lost in thought when Wang Si walked over.

"Li Xiao, I have decided that this alliance can continue indefinitely. I am sure I will need your help in the future. Here are the fifty thousand Star Coins I promised you!"

Wang Si tossed a card over. Li Xiao caught it and took a look; sure enough, it contained fifty thousand Star Coins. He couldn't help but secretly gloat—this was what you called making money.

"Commander Wang is truly generous. In that case, I'll be taking my leave!"

After saying this, Li Xiao signaled to Zhao Feipeng, and they prepared to bolt. But before they could even take a step, Wang Si suddenly spoke up again: "Wait!"

"What is it? Is Commander Wang going back on your word?"

"Of course not!" Wang Si waved his hand. "To show our sincerity in this cooperation, I intend to give you a gift!"

"Oh?" Li Xiao hadn't expected such a good thing. However, what kind of good stuff could the Dark Soul Mercenary Group, which was essentially a bandit den, possibly produce?

Wang Si took something that looked like a USB drive from Ma Kui and tossed it to Li Xiao.

"This thing is useless to me, and it's not worth much to sell, so I'll just give it to you. I hope you can make use of it."

Hearing Wang Si say this, Li Xiao didn't have high expectations, but when he saw the information pop up from the USB drive, he was completely dumbfounded.

"Holy crap! M20S 66mm four-tube rocket launcher design blueprints?!"

Li Xiao was shocked on the spot. Right now, what all players wanted most were rocket launchers and tons of rockets.

Because this was the most powerful weapon players could currently access. Using it to clear out strongholds and conduct assaults was incredibly fierce, and it wasn't even sold in the Trade Center.

But now, right in his hands, there was actually a design blueprint for a four-tube rocket launcher, and it could be manufactured as long as the base reached level eight and had a military factory!

"Invincible, truly invincible!"

For this blueprint, Li Xiao wouldn't even hesitate if offered two hundred thousand Star Coins. Just imagine a vehicle with several hundred thousand durability, with four tough guys each carrying a rocket launcher capable of firing four rockets in succession while charging at the enemy—it was absolutely insane.

"Thank you so much! This is exactly the timely help I needed!"

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it."

Under the guidance of a mercenary scout, Li Xiao and Zhao Feipeng returned to the highway via a dirt road, where Yan Yizhou's off-road vehicle had been waiting for a long time.

"Let's go, hurry up and get out of here!"

The vehicle drove south, and Li Xiao fiddled with the USB drive in the car. He hadn't expected this trip to turn from a brush with death into a massive windfall.

He transferred fifteen thousand Star Coins to Liu Nian to pay the team members for the rewards for destroying civilian vehicles, and he used the remaining thirty-five thousand Star Coins to purchase the resources needed for a level nine base.

Upon arriving at the base, Li Xiao headed straight to the military factory and then opened his backpack to use the USB drive.

Subsequently, the detailed data for the M20S four-tube rocket launcher appeared in the military factory's equipment manufacturing interface.

This rocket launcher used fin-stabilized armor-piercing rockets, with an effective range of two thousand meters, eight thousand points of damage against light armor, and six thousand points against heavy armor.

The manufacturing cost for the launcher was 500 Steel, 200 Rare Ore, and the manufacturing time was twelve hours. Rockets cost 100 Steel, 50 Rare Ore, and 5 Star Coins, with a manufacturing time of one hour.

For Li Xiao, this was truly a powerful weapon that was both high-quality and affordable.

He had actually been itching to attack and occupy Xi City for a long time. Players had long since calculated that the total resources refreshed in Xi City daily were nearly five hundred thousand, which was no small fortune.

Currently, players couldn't openly send Engineers inside. Only Yun Dongliu and Liu Nian were sending Engineers through the sewers to collect Star Coins from Xi City Bank and some Rare Ore resources.

But after all, the force garrisoning Xi City was a combined arms regiment. While the troop strength sounded like only a little over a thousand, they were equipped with nearly sixty main battle tanks, dozens of armored combat vehicles, Armored Personnel Carriers, and command vehicles.

Additionally, there were battlefield rescue and repair vehicles capable of performing wartime repairs on vehicles to restore their durability.

All this information was gathered by Yun Dongliu over the course of two weeks.

Originally, heavy machine guns could be used against armored vehicles, but heavy machine guns dealt zero damage to tanks unless you could hit their periscopes, paralyze their infrared or low-light imaging equipment, and turn them into blind targets.

But now it was different; the firepower of the four-tube rocket launcher could help him easily deal with light armored targets.

It was just that the damage of the rocket launcher against heavy armor was a bit low. Wang Si had previously mentioned that main battle tanks started with at least three hundred thousand durability, which meant it would take fifty rockets to blow up a single tank.

"Are the main battle tanks on Blue Star really that insane?" After calculating the damage effect, he couldn't help but complain.

Li Xiao recalled that the main battle tanks of the US and Russia on Blue Star didn't seem to be able to withstand many RPG hits either.

Yeah, the task was still very arduous.

Thinking about this issue, Li Xiao sent a message to Yun Ying, asking her to keep an eye on rocket launchers and rockets on the market. Although it was basically impossible to buy them, he couldn't give up.

Li Xiao first arranged for the production of the four-tube rocket launchers, then produced rockets, and the production of the meng hu off-road vehicle continued without interruption.

Li Xiao estimated that the upgrade to a level nine base would take about a week. He was now hoping that the level nine base would bring him some new equipment.

After finishing these tasks, Li Xiao didn't stay idle; he drove to the forest area north of Xi City to look for the Tian Yu Militia Organization.

Meeting Chang Zhan again, Chang Zhan's life was much more comfortable this time. The food and ammunition supplies that Li Xiao had provided not only allowed his hundred-plus people to live well, but they had even added dozens of new members.

When Li Xiao proposed signing an alliance agreement, Chang Zhan agreed immediately. It was only then that he discovered that Chang Zhan's unit was called the Ninth Company of the Independent Regiment of the Tian Yu Army, Yun City Prefecture Militia.

Although it wasn't a frontline combat unit of the Tianyu Republic, the combat effectiveness of Chang Zhan's Ninth Company was extremely strong. If they had good enough equipment, they could probably take on two Black Hawk Empire infantry companies alone.

After consecutively forming alliances with the Dark Soul Mercenary Group and Chang Zhan's Ninth Company, Li Xiao's hypothesis was confirmed on the second and third days.

The Dark Soul Mercenary Group used their upgraded pickup trucks to compete with another mercenary force for control of an oil drilling platform, wiping out their opponents with minimal losses.

This battle brought Li Xiao nearly two hundred thousand durability points and over a hundred thousand health points, which made him wake up laughing in his dreams.

Having tasted the sweetness of success, Wang Si became immediately addicted to vehicle upgrades and soon scheduled the next upgrade transaction with Li Xiao.

Li Xiao, of course, wouldn't agree to every request immediately. He prepared to use various "playing hard to get" tactics to whet Wang Si's appetite, and then take the opportunity to raise the price.

As for the squad, because the Xiaoyao Squad had already become famous, and combined with the fact that they controlled seventy percent of the resource areas around Xi City, many wandering players and small squads who couldn't make it on their own flocked to join.

In just three or four days, the number of people in the squad surged to six hundred. At this time, following Yun Dongliu's suggestion, the Xiaoyao Squad began to besiege several medium-sized squads in the south from both the east and west directions.