Chapter 106 Friendly Fire

Ten minutes past the agreed time, the power plant hadn't exploded, and the gang of robbers were getting anxious.

"Did the guys who were supposed to blow up the power plant get caught? It's been so long without any news." The crooked-mouth thug made several calls, but all he got was a busy signal, no one answered.

The gang members were clearly having second thoughts.

"The plan's been exposed, let's get out of here! If the guys who blew up the power plant got caught, they'll rat us out..."

The crooked-mouth thug's eyes were fierce, and he whispered, "What are you panicking for? Fortune favors the bold! We can't leave empty-handed!"

This was clearly a group of small-time crooks with low professional standards, yet they were also incredibly audacious… in short, they were pioneers of seeking death.

Restraining his impatience, he waited for a while and finally found an opportunity. The patrolling guards crossed paths, leaving only one guard walking past the front gate.

The crooked-mouth thug pointed to one of his underlings, "You, go assassinate that guard!"

The designated lackey reluctantly stepped forward, tiptoeing and carefully approaching the patrolling guard. His hand gripped the handle of the dagger at his lower back, trembling with nervousness, sweat dripping from his nose.

Even though there was only one enemy patrol, he was still armed.

The guard turned his head and spotted a shadowy figure sneaking within twenty meters in the darkness of the night, and immediately shouted, "Who's there!"

Lackey A was startled, quickly straightened his body, and stammered, "I... I was just passing by!"

With that, he scurried back, his face full of lingering fear, and said with a mournful expression, "Boss, I've been discovered."

"Useless!" the crooked-mouth thug cursed, drawing a crude homemade pistol from his waist and handing it to another subordinate, shouting, "You go! This pistol has a limited range of twenty-five meters, take down that guard for me!"

Lackey B swallowed hard, took the crude gun, and tremblingly crept forward.

When he got to about twenty meters, the guard spotted another figure.

"Who's there again?!"

Lackey B jumped in fright, "I... I'm just out for a walk!"

The guard used the moonlight to make out the outline of the crude gun in Lackey B's hand, and asked cautiously, "What's that you're holding!"

"This, this..."

Lackey B had a flash of inspiration and raised the crude gun near his eyes, stammering, "This is a telescope, I, I'm using it to admire the moon."

Then he also scurried back.

On the other side, Kuang Dao and his party looked puzzled—what were these guys doing, going back and forth?

The crooked-mouth thug was furious, "Useless! You're all useless! Give me the gun, I'll do it myself!"

Snatching the crude gun, the crooked-mouth thug strode toward the guard. By this point, the guard was already alert and immediately shouted a question. Before he could finish the first word, the crooked-mouth thug fired the gun. The shot rang out, and the bullet hit the guard's shoulder. The guard cried out in pain and fell backward. The crooked-mouth thug added two more shots, leaving the guard severely injured and unable to fight.

"Hurry up and go inside to carry out the stuff," the crooked-mouth thug called out, and his underlings all followed. At this moment, in Kuang Dao's party's reconnaissance vision, the robbers turned into red names, and their mission changed to capturing these robbers alive and handing them over to the shelter's guards.

It was easy to deal with enemies; players were best at fighting monsters.

Hao Tian took the lead, with Kuang Dao close behind, and the four of them rushed out. The robbers were startled and quickly pulled out their weapons to resist, but they were overwhelmed by the four in an instant, and they were horrified.

"They're Players, they're all Players!"

The four of them cut down the lackeys like chopping vegetables, leaving only the crooked-mouth thug, who was trembling with the crude gun in his hand, putting on a brave front, "Don't come any closer, or I'll shoot... I really will shoot!"

Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate slightly, and a dozen red dots lit up in the darkness, quickly approaching and revealing their true forms. Six 2.5-generation Rangers surrounded the scene, their dark muzzles locked onto everyone.

For important locations like warehouses and power plants, Han Xiao's Rangers were the real defense force, on standby at all times. Once they detected gunfire or someone breaking through the警戒 (jingjie, alert/restricted) area without permission, they immediately switched from standby to combat mode, like awakened beasts, launching a violent attack.

The Third Shelter was Han Xiao's territory, heavily guarded. How could just any Tom, Dick, or Harry come here to cause trouble!

The sudden change shocked everyone.

Kuang Dao and the others recognized the Rangers as Han Xiao's creations, and Rou Bao quickly said, "Don't fire, we're on the same side..."

However, once the Rangers were activated, their instruction was to kill everyone in the alert area, and besides, the Rangers' chips didn't have the intelligence to process speech.

In the next second, a rain of bullets sprayed out, and the gang of robbers and Kuang Dao's party were all gunned down. The robbers were riddled with holes.

The Rangers' chips were linked to the shelter's alarm system. After the firing stopped, a patrol team quickly arrived to clean up the scene and send the injured companions to the hospital.

On the other hand, Kuang Dao's party respawned in the plaza, looking at each other with expressions of dismay.

They never expected to encounter the legendary friendly fire. Not only were all the live targets required for the mission killed, but they themselves were also taken down.

The plaza was a bustling marketplace, where players set up stalls, formed teams, and were very lively. Day and night, it was always crowded with tens of thousands of players.

"Alas, there aren't any good missions to do. Han Xiao's been gone for so many days, I miss him." Kuang Dao shook his head helplessly.

Rou Bao wore a bitter expression. "Tell me about it, I don't have any material for my videos, and I've been roasted like a dog on the forums. I can barely make a living thanks to you and Hao Tian making guest appearances."

Hao Tian was taciturn and nodded in response. Feng Yue, who was beside him, had already run off to the market to look at the goods. A woman's love for shopping didn't diminish even in the game.

At this moment, the four of them sensed something and looked up at the same time.

Whirr, whirr—

The sound of helicopter rotors could be faintly heard from the distant sky. The sound gradually grew louder, and a beam of searchlights indicated the helicopter's position. The beam landed in the direction of the shelter's helipad. Soon, there was a commotion over there, and players were rushing in that direction.

One person told ten, and ten told a hundred. Soon, the players in the plaza packed up their stalls one after another and rushed over excitedly.

A vast tide of people surged toward the helipad.

Black Phantom was back!

…

As soon as he stepped off the plane, Han Xiao noticed that the streets outside the helipad were densely packed with players. As far as the eye could see, there were crowds of people with no end in sight, all staring at him with curiosity and enthusiasm.

"Wow, this is quite the treatment. There's even a welcoming party."

Han Xiao was surprised and hesitated whether to wave his hand and say, "Comrades, you've worked hard!" It was hard to swallow this impulse back down.

The players were so enthusiastic that it felt like coming home. He really loved this place.

The news of his return had already been announced to the shelter managers. Huang Yu was next to him and immediately stepped forward to report the situation, "Following your plan, the shelter has completed the construction of more areas. The war has led many wanderers to join the shelter, and now there are more than 23,000 residents..."

"Tell me something I don't know." Han Xiao raised his hand to interrupt him. He could see the progress of the construction from the mission requirements and didn't need to be told.

Huang Yu immediately said, "Overall, there have been no unexpected events, but just now, we discovered a group of petty thieves who seemed to want to rob the warehouse. They have already been killed by the guard robots."

"Well, strengthen the screening of refugee identities, don't let any riffraff mix in. Is there anything else?"

Huang Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "There is one more thing. The Players often fight each other and damage public property. Do you think we should..."

Han Xiao's eyes flashed.

The Player brawls referred to player-versus-player combat, which was the Players' favorite form of communication, so it was naturally impossible to stop it. The Great Technician Han had a flash of inspiration and suddenly had an idea.

"You go and mobilize people to build me a large arena in a few days."

Huang Yu was stunned.

An arena?

This was a shelter, after all. What was the point of building an arena? Was it for the refugees to perform programs and cultivate their sentiments? Everyone might not even have enough to eat, wasn't this a waste of space and resources?

Huang Yu had no choice but to voice his opinion. Han Xiao shook his head and said, "Oh, you're too inflexible. The Players have too much energy, wouldn't building an arena let them vent their energy? We can also collect some ticket money. Little by little, we'll recover the costs. Not only that, but we also have to encourage the Players to fight in the arena and introduce a system that supports gambling. For example, Players can bet on fights between themselves, and we, as the officials, can be fair and collect a handling fee. Wouldn't that generate revenue?"

Huang Yu opened his mouth, bewildered, "Then why not just designate an empty area for them to fight..."

Han Xiao's face turned stern. "Damn it, are you the person in charge or am I the person in charge? I just got back on the first day and you already want to rebel? Your wild ambitions are obvious! Be careful or I'll gun you down."

Huang Yu broke out in a sweat.

Alright, you're the boss anyway, whatever you say goes.

Building an arena to make money was secondary. What was more important was that it could greatly advance the progress of the Player main city. This was an indispensable function of the main city. The more the Players enjoyed player-versus-player combat, the more they would like the arena, which would increase the Players' sense of belonging to the Third Shelter.

Moreover, the long-term goal of this measure was to prepare for the S1 Star Sea Professional League to be held in the future!