Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 929 Recruitment
Mukach Fortress, Trigger Bar.
Although the name of the bar is a bar, the Trigger Bar is actually a comprehensive gathering place that integrates accommodation, catering, entertainment and intelligence equipment trading. It is invested by four financial groups and operated by the Field Corps. Located inside the first wall of the Mukach Fortress, it is one of the few areas in the fortress that is open to the public as a "non-military restricted area".
This is a building with an area equivalent to that of a large shopping mall. The area where the "Trigger" bar is located was fortunately preserved during the heretic attack and suffered minimal damage. It resumed business immediately after the incident and became the most popular place in the entire Mukach Fortress for a period of time.
The main guests of Trigger Bar are mercenaries and relic hunters who travel on missions. Many people who make a living in the wilderness also regard this place as a forward supply station and resting point. After all, with thick walls and the protection of nearly 10,000 field legion soldiers, it is definitely safer than camping in the open wilderness.
Some officers and soldiers on leave also like to go to the Trigger Bar to drink, chat and brag with mercenaries and hunters, and do some "small business" that may be legal or illegal.
It is now two o'clock in the afternoon, which is one of the quietest times of the day in the Trigger Bar - the bar's guests are either working or sleeping in the guest rooms. It is not until after eight o'clock in the evening that the bar's lobby will gradually become lively.
But even so, there were still several tables of people sitting scattered in the lobby. Some were drinking, some were eating, and some were just sitting there chatting with nothing on the table - the third type of people were the most numerous. Of course, the bar managers would not drive away these people who were occupying seats without spending any money at this time. There were plenty of empty seats anyway, so why not let this group of people add a little popularity to the lobby?
However, compared to last week, there are fewer customers consuming drinks and food in the Trigger Bar, both during the day and at night... This is not because the bar has less traffic, but because the prices of all drinks and food have increased by nearly 50% compared to last week.
"I heard that the supply of materials is tight recently, so the prices are going to soar..." A man dressed as a mercenary played with the kerosene lighter in his hand and whispered to his companion, "I'm thinking about forming a transport team to transport materials from the Ark and resell them here. If we can control the price difference, we should be able to make a lot of money."
"Make a fortune? I'm afraid you didn't make any money, but lost your life instead." His companion frowned and said, "The information I got is more accurate than yours. There is no news about the truckload of supplies that should have arrived yesterday, so the prices of things in the base have increased. In my opinion, I'm afraid there will be a war."
"Is this news reliable?" The mercenary who made the first statement stopped what he was doing, stared at his companion across the table with a nervous look on his face, and asked.
"I used fifteen rounds of tungsten armor-piercing bullets to exchange this information with a non-commissioned officer who came to the bar yesterday to 'seek business' during his day off. Even if there is an error, it is not far off." Another mercenary lowered his voice.
The so-called "looking for business" is a slang term. People in the army sometimes leak some irrelevant information to these civilians, using this method to make some extra money. However, the authenticity of this information is entirely up to the buyers to judge for themselves. Some guys who are good at speaking and making up stories can even get a hearty midnight snack by telling a few lies.
"Tsk, if there's going to be a war, wouldn't it be dangerous for us to stay here? Is there any convoy heading back to the Ark soon? Hurry up and pack up and follow the fastest convoy back to the Ark. To be honest, the sense of security that only the Ark can give me cannot be replaced by any fortress base."
"Pah." An empty glass was turned upside down, and a young man with white skin, white hair, and even white eyebrows and pupils sat down on an empty chair beside the table. "There will be no convoy returning to the Ark in the near future... I have the latest and most reliable news. If you can buy me a drink, I can give you this news for 'free'."
"Who are you?"
"He's just an unknown relic hunter, working as an intelligence dealer on the side." The man in white said, "Or rather, he's an intelligence dealer on the main job, and he goes to the relic occasionally... After all, who would be willing to risk their lives if they can make money safely, don't you think?"
The two mercenaries looked at each other, and the latter shook his head. "No one has ever heard of you in the underworld. How can you guarantee that your information is worth a glass of wine? Why don't you tell us the information first? If we think it's useful, we will naturally buy you a drink."
"I'm afraid this is against the rules." The white man shook his finger. "Once the news gets out, it's worthless. Besides, my throat is very dry now, I need to get something to moisten it first."
"Are you thinking of getting something for nothing?" The first mercenary who spoke looked a little annoyed, and his hands on the table clenched into fists - although fighting is strictly prohibited in the Trigger Bar, as long as you leave the range of the surveillance cameras, everything will be unpredictable. The expressions and actions of these two mercenaries already carried a hint of threat.
The young man in white didn't seem to realize that he had angered the two mercenaries at all - in terms of physique, let alone fighting two alone, even if he fought two against one, he seemed no match for these tall and strong mercenaries with muscular bodies.
Moreover, there were no obvious signs of transformation or enhancement on this man - perhaps, as he said, intelligence dealer was his main occupation.
For mercenaries and relic hunters, a true intelligence dealer is someone they must befriend, but the guy in front of them is a character they have only heard of, and he might be a swindler who came here to cheat.
"How about this," the white man revealed a look of embarrassment, "I can tell you half of this news first. If you think it's valuable and want to know the other half, you can buy me a drink. If you are not interested in this news, or think it's fake news, then just pretend you haven't heard of it, how about that?"
The two mercenaries looked at each other again and nodded, their expressions slightly softened: "You tell us your half first, and we will naturally make a decision after listening to it."
"No problem." The white man cleared his throat and first glanced at the bar lobby with the corner of his eye. Then he leaned over and said to the two mercenaries in a very low voice, "Six hours ago, all the drones used for reconnaissance at the Mukach base were released from the hangar. An hour ago, probably less than half of the drones returned, and these drones showed signs of extremely unstable flight. Obviously, the long-distance flight exhausted the built-in energy crystals."
"What kind of news is this? We also know that there will be a war - then you must send drones to scout the battlefield first!" The first mercenary was stunned for a moment and frowned. Just when he wanted to wave his hand to send this liar away, another mercenary held his companion's hand and said to the white man: "I'll buy you this glass of wine, please continue."
The white man smiled without saying anything. He tapped the table twice with his right index finger and glanced at the empty glass in front of him.
"Pour him a glass of wine, the cheapest one." The mercenary called to the bartender.
The cheapest drink in Trigger Bar right now is "diluted wine" made by mixing concentrated liquor with water. This stuff has a faint smell of industrial alcohol and not many people like it. But even so, the price of this kind of wine has now risen to eighty credit points per glass.
On the Ark, eighty credits were enough to buy a whole bottle of a cheap brand of sparkling wine.
When swiping the card to pay, the mercenary's eyes revealed a trace of heartache that was hard to conceal.
"Gudong, gudong..."
The yellowish-brown liquid was poured into an empty glass - the concentrated wine is transparent and colorless, and the yellowish-brown color is the food coloring added to it. Although it can improve the appearance, it does not help with the taste and flavor.
"You didn't say what kind of wine it was, right?" the mercenary said to the man who claimed to be an intelligence dealer.
"That's fine, that's fine." The white man picked up the glass, sniffed it hard, then drank half of it in one gulp. He smacked his lips and continued, "The Mukah base has secretly entered a level one combat readiness state. You can't leave here now. When you walk to the exit of the base, you will be stopped by guards who will say that a routine exercise is going on outside and the entire base needs to be sealed off for about one to three days. But in fact, the troops throughout the base are making pre-war preparations. I saw with my own eyes that they were loading live ammunition, not dye bullets for training."
"Is that all?" The mercenary who invited him to drink frowned. "Where the battle is taking place... do you know?"
"I don't know where the war is going to happen, but I know where those drones are coming from."
"Where?" the mercenary asked hurriedly.
"Noah's Ark." The white man said word by word.
"What?!" The two mercenaries were stunned, and then their breathing became rapid. "You mean, the battle site is... the Ark?!"
"Hey, I didn't say that. I just said that the drones flew back from the direction of the Ark." The white man waved his hands and said, "Don't talk nonsense. Be careful of what you say."
"How do you know that the drone's reconnaissance location must be the Ark?" The mercenary asked suspiciously, "Mukakh officers will not sell you this level of secrets."
"It's simple. It's about observation." The white man pointed at his eyes with his index and middle fingers. "First of all, these drones are used for ultra-long-range reconnaissance. When they return to the hangar, their energy is almost exhausted. They must have taken the shortest straight reconnaissance route, so the direction must be correct."
"There are so many places in that direction. How can you be sure it is the Ark?"
"All the drones that have returned to the hangar are fourth-generation reconnaissance drones. This type of drone uses either the fourth-generation electric engine produced by the military itself, or a fourth-generation engine produced by a third party such as DJI. Whether it is military or civilian, the performance is similar. Combined with the energy crystals and endurance of this engine, the reconnaissance radius of the drone can be directly locked. At the maximum value of this reconnaissance radius, the only target worth reconnaissance is the Ark."
The expressions of the two mercenaries froze. After several seconds, the first mercenary murmured, "Mukach...Mukach wouldn't want to...create..."
Before he could even utter the word "rebel" in "rebel", his companion covered his mouth and said in a deep voice: "Don't talk nonsense, it's impossible... Mukach doesn't even have a warship, it's impossible..."
He paused in the middle of his words and couldn't help but raise his head and meet the white man's eyes: "Could it be that something happened on the Ark?"
The white man did not speak. At this moment, with a "bang", the door of the bar, which was originally half-closed, was pushed open violently, and a school officer walked in quickly with a team of fully armed soldiers.
The two mercenaries, feeling guilty, immediately lowered their heads and did not dare to look at the officers and soldiers who broke in.
Although officers and soldiers would come to the Trigger Bar to drink on weekdays, they were all officers and soldiers on duty, so there wouldn't be such a scene... Even if someone got drunk and started a disturbance in the bar, at most they would send a few sentries on duty with rubber batons and riot shields to beat the person up and take him away...
But each of these soldiers is armed to the teeth. Even if you don't look them in the eye, you can feel the murderous aura emanating from them... There is no doubt that these people are the elite who survived the cruel battlefield and the warriors who crawled out of hell.
The leading officer looked at the dozen people in the lobby and couldn't help but frowned. He said to the bar manager who came out to greet them, "There are too few people here. Call down everyone in the guest rooms upstairs. We have an urgent task and need to recruit a group of good hands."
…
Ten minutes later, the originally quiet bar lobby was filled with people. A few guys who were woken up from their sleep wanted to lose their temper when they came down, but after seeing the group of murderous soldiers standing against the wall, they were immediately scared out of their sleepiness and even their bad temper disappeared.
"There is a very difficult mission that requires the recruitment of ten to twenty volunteers. Regardless of occupation, identity, age, or gender... as long as you think you have a skill and are familiar with teamwork, you can sign up." The officer saw that most people had arrived and said to everyone in the hall through the loudspeaker, "The reward for the mission is very high, enough to ensure that you will have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of your life. However, I can tell you that the mortality rate of this mission is also very high."
As soon as the words fell, the crowd began to whisper. Soon, a brave mercenary raised his hand and asked, "Sir, can you tell us what the mission is?"
"No, the mission is top secret. I will tell you only if you are sure to take the mission." The officer refused. "But if you take the mission, you can get 300,000 credit points. After you set off, you will be given another 300,000 credit points. You can deposit it into your personal account or any account you specify. This is just a deposit. If the mission is completed, 6 million credit points will be paid in one lump sum. Note that it is not 6 million for the entire team, but 6 million for each person."
