Alien Relic Hunter

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A month passed almost in the blink of an eye. Perhaps because of the Immortal Crew Association, Ke Lan's month was relatively peaceful. No one from the Morgan family came to trouble him again, and the people in the alleys of the West Third District It was as if the assassination had never happened at all - at least in the public media, Ke Lan had not seen any reports related to it, not even a little bit.

All matters related to the hunting group also went smoothly. Many departments that originally needed to negotiate basically gave the green light all the way to the end as soon as they heard the name of the hunting group, so that the hunting group was prepared beforehand. The bearer savings cards used to pay bribes are still piled in the safe under his desk, and none of them have been given out.

In addition to their original core team, Hound recruited a group of support staff - almost all of whom were selected from his old subordinates and their families. Although they were slightly less experienced, they were at least loyal. There is no problem with the speed. As long as they are given enough time, these people can become the backbone of the entire hunting group.

This proposal was originally proposed by Ivan, It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish. Although the hounds now have money, it is not a long-term solution to rely on money to support them. Use this method to provide them with a stable job. Anyway, in terms of remuneration, the Hunting God Hunting Group will never wrong them.

The basement of this building rented by Thor Heavy Industry to the Hunting Group is divided into three parts: the vehicle warehouse, the equipment warehouse and the mechanical workshop. The first to third floors belong to the office area, reception hall, reception room, conference room, The mission analysis room, archives room, and digital computer room are all located in this area, and the fourth floor has been transformed into temporary employee dormitories for employees who live far away from the headquarters.

As for the fifth and sixth floors, although the outside looks unchanged, the inside is completely strengthened into a fortress - this is an area that only core members of the hunting group can enter and exit. If someone wants to break in by force, The first thing we have to face are the nearly thirty kinds of traps in the corridor outside, ranging from non-lethal ones to those that can instantly evaporate people on the spot; from fully automated controls to those controlled by ancient but reliable mechanical structures... …almost everything.

In the words of Layton, the designer, the institute's defense system is almost at this level.

Even if the intruder can break through these mechanisms, at the end of the corridor, there is a barrier that cannot be broken at all - a battleship-level energy shield generator. Although it is only the smallest level, its defense strength is still higher than It is dozens of times stronger than an individual soldier-level shield. Even if the entire building is destroyed, the people protected by this energy shield will not be harmed.

This month, Ke Lan and the others have been busy from morning to night almost every day, so much so that the plans of the Anderson Consortium have not progressed at all... However, according to the information provided by Zofia, the little girl named Heather Anderson seems to have I was really obsessed with Ke Lan. At least four times, I asked the driver to take a long way to pass by the entrance of the hunting group headquarters. It was a pity that Ke Lan, who was too busy to touch the ground, never bumped into him.

Fortunately, the situation on Qin Zhao's side did not escalate further - since she did not express her willingness to change jobs or her dissatisfaction with Polaris, the managers of the Polaris Hunting Group still thought that she was still in the dark and were not in a hurry. After breaking his skin, he planned to make this intern who had returned from the sinkhole by chance a full-time job. Of course, if you think about it with your toes, you would know that the contract for full-time job promotion must also be full of various profit traps.

However, at least nothing will happen in the near future. Even if the contract is to be replaced by a regular employee, Qin Zhao will have to receive three months of advanced training first, so the issue of liquidated damages is not that urgent.

…

One week before the start of the Mecha Competition, Ye Yan sent people to Ke Lan and others to deliver engineering prototypes of several new models that had not yet been officially released. According to people sent by Ye Yan, these new models were also included in the list. The list of available models for this competition has been compiled. With slight modifications and debugging, it can be used directly on the field without any need to prepare additional aircraft.

Ye Yan seems to have made up his mind that they want to participate... However, relying solely on the advantages of the new aircraft and without the pilots to adapt to it, if they want to qualify in the group stage, they still have to It’s as difficult as climbing to heaven.

But Layton didn't care about this. After the new machine was delivered, he spent the whole day in the mechanical workshop on the basement floor. Even during meal time, he was nowhere to be seen.

…

Meanwhile, on the other side.

How could this happen?! The middle-aged man looked at the tablet in his hand, his face full of anger and confusion, Why is this happening? Why! Why!

He raised the tablet as if he wanted to slam it to the ground, but in the end, he slowly put his hand down - there was not much balance left in his account, and in order to modify the mecha, he even more He applied for a loan from all the institutions that could lend money. Although this second-hand tablet was very cheap, he had no money to buy it.

He had no way out, he could only bite the bullet and move forward. He believed in Valentina. He believed that with her ability, even if the road ahead was full of thorns, she would be able to overcome them...

But now, there are no thorns ahead.

Not even a road.

He raised his head and looked at the huge mecha standing quietly in the warehouse, and a feeling of despair gradually filled his heart.

Major...what happened? Valentina stood behind him until he stopped yelling hysterically, then she asked.

The Striker III skeleton... has been completely eliminated... The man handed the tablet behind him without looking back. According to the list of available skeletons announced by the event organizer, we must at least replace the skeleton with a strong one... Only the Raider Type IV can qualify for this competition... But let alone changing the skeleton, we don't even have enough money to replace the outer armor...

We... can't use it to compete? Valentina took the tablet and glanced at the rusty mecha - just yesterday, the middle-aged man she called the major had just put the tablet on The armor was assembled. Although they could only afford second-hand armor, and although they were not even willing to spend money on rust removal and painting, Valentina knew in her heart that even such a mecha would be in her hands. Here, you can easily defeat those glamorous opponents.

But if she can't play, even if she has the strength to be a champion... it's meaningless.

Although the competition format of the competition was announced three months ago, the list of available skeleton models was only made public just now... According to the organizer of the competition, the Yip Foundation, this was done to ensure the mystery of the new model, but it also made the competition more mysterious. What the Major and Valentina didn't expect was that in addition to adding new machine frames with names they had never heard of at the end of the list, the Ye Consortium also eliminated six old-fashioned frames at the top of the list, including Including the Raider III frame they used.

There are a total of four models of six-meter humanoid skeletons in the Striker series. Except for the Type IV, which is an enhanced skeleton launched by Hermas Industries eight years ago based on the Striker III, the other three models are It is an antique with a history of at least thirty years. The number of contestants using this series of skeletons is almost negligible. Even if there are, they are basically spare bodies registered by some relatively poor clubs. Even if the organizer removes these antique skeletons from the list If eliminated, the impact on the contestants can be said to be minimal.

But for the major and Valentina, this Raider III skeleton is already the best skeleton they can buy because they are frugal and borrowing money. But now the Raider III But he was suddenly suspended. No wonder the major became like this.

Valentina browsed the information on the tablet screen expressionlessly - although the event organizer will sell the whiteboard skeleton and corresponding accessories to all contestants at cost price, the price of the Striker IV It's still as high as more than six million credit points... Even if they sell the debugged mecha on hand, they simply can't afford such a price.

As for the existing Raider III skeleton, which has an unknown number of hands, it cost less than half a million credits when I bought it back.

The biggest difference between the Raider Type III and Type IV is that Type IV has a fully enclosed cockpit mixed with a large amount of Nino alloy, while the Type III cockpit is just a frame supported by several steel frames. , the protection of the pilot relies entirely on the thin outer armor plate.

The reason why the organizers eliminated the Raider III frame is irrefutable: the Raider III cockpit's protection measures for pilots are not perfect enough. In previous competitions, pilots using this type of frame have the highest injury rate. Still high - now that there is a safer frame, it is natural to eliminate these old models with obvious flaws.

But Valentina doesn't care. Even if she doesn't have outer armor, even if she only competes with a skeleton, she is confident that she can kill everyone who stands in her way... However, she doesn't care, and it doesn't mean that the organizer of the event can make an exception for her alone.

The world is so unfair. The commander who gave the wrong order and led to the death of 141 people in the Strangler Squadron was able to escape the military court just because he had a prominent family background... And she, even with her own life on the line, was rejected from the mecha competition just because the skeleton she used was not safe enough.

That's right, after all, her life is not valuable, just like the 141 people in the Strangler Squadron, their lives are not valuable...

The force on Valentina's fingers suddenly increased, and several tiny cracks suddenly appeared on the yellowing and aging plastic frame of the tablet. But at this moment, a dialog box suddenly popped up at the top of the screen——

An unknown user sent you a private message. Do you want to open it now?

Major... someone sent you an email. Valentina raised her head and looked at the middle-aged man who suddenly knelt on the ground and said.

Probably a debt collector...

Before the middle-aged man finished speaking, Valentina had already clicked on the private message.

The sender is a user with the ID ACMS_0420, and the first sentence at the beginning of the private message is: Fifteen minutes ago, the Ye Group just announced the list of available skeleton models for this mecha competition. As far as I know, your Excellency The registration materials submitted by the participating teams only included one airframe, using a Striker III frame that was not on the list.

Who is this person? How did he know? Valentina was stunned and immediately moved her gaze to the next line.

“According to the rules of the event organizer, if you fail to update your body information and submit it for inspection within 72 hours before the start of the competition, you will be disqualified.

However, judging from your economic situation, you may no longer have the ability to replace the body.

The owner of this account, Chi Hanfeng, has remaining assets of 161 credit points. In addition, there are 26 debts totaling 486,050 credit points. The latest debt repayment date is September Queen of Heaven, 31,100 credits with interest.

Who are you? Why do you know these things? Valentina became more and more frightened as she read. Even she didn't know much about these data. She only knew that the major secretly borrowed a lot of money to modify the mecha. But she was never told the specific amount.

Me? I'm just an intelligence broker. But this time I'm doing a favor for an old client and working part-time as a headhunter and a talent agency... Of course, these are not important. What's important is that if you are disqualified from the competition, those arrears , you haven’t paid at all, have you?” This ACMS_0420 was online, and as soon as Valentina sent the message, he immediately responded.

To make a long story short, I have an old customer who also wants to participate in this competition, but his situation is exactly the opposite of yours. He has several of the latest models of competitive mechas, but he can't find a strong pilot. Manipulate them... He originally asked me for help with the idea of ​​​​trying it out, and I don’t know whether it was my luck or his luck that allowed me to find you.

You decide for yourself whether you want to join or not.

Major...Major, this person...is not here to collect debts. Valentina took the tablet and walked up to Chi Hanfeng.

Not debt collection?

He...he said there was a team and invited me to join...said they had the latest competitive mecha... Valentina said hesitantly. She was not sure whether what this person said was true or not. A complete liar.

But I'm not sure whether what he said is true or not.

What? Chi Hanfeng grabbed the tablet and quickly read the content in the chat box.

His breathing was slightly rapid, he raised his head, stared at Valentina and said: This... this may be our only chance. Whether it is true or false, we should give it a try.

He immediately typed and asked: What is the name of the club that invited us to join? How are the pilots treated? If we get ranked, how much bonus will we get? Also, if there is a draft contract, can you send it to me first so I can take a look? ?

The invitation to you is not a professional club, but an amateur team.

Amateur team? Who is the boss behind it? Chi Hanfeng asked. Since they can get the latest competitive mecha, the financial resources of this amateur team cannot be underestimated. Maybe there is a big consortium behind it. The son of a big family.

Hunting God Hunting Group.

God hunting group? Chi Hanfeng was stunned for a moment, then opened the search engine in another window and entered these four words.

The search results popped up quickly. As Ark's officially registered consortium-level hunting group, at least the information on the surface is something that everyone can search on the Internet.

But when Chi Hanfeng saw one of the photos of the founder of the hunting group, he couldn't help but exclaimed——

This, this person...is he that guy Nick?!

[P.S. Thanks to Wang Shaoquan for the 10,000 starting coins, and I also wish you can become an excellent people's policeman in the future. 】