Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 930 "Suicide Squad"
After the actual bounty figure was announced, the bar lobby suddenly exploded, and many people began to discuss privately - even if the mission could not be completed, they could still get 600,000... To put it bluntly, in the most unlucky and worst case scenario, it was equivalent to selling a life for 600,000.
Not everyone has the income level of a top hunter. Most mercenaries and relic hunters work very hard, and their average annual income is around 100,000 credit points. This is six years' income, and it can be advanced, not to mention the one-time payment of 6 million after completing the mission... Even though this is a mission comparable to sending oneself to death, many people in the bar lobby are tempted.
People die for money and birds die for food. What's more, people who work as mercenaries and relic hunters either have enough confidence in their abilities, or they often hold a glimmer of luck, always thinking that they will not be the one to die.
…
Forty-five minutes later, in Admiral Maginot's office.
Nineteen people stood in a row opposite the desk, like a group of soldiers waiting to be reviewed by a general.
However, the general is a real general, while the identities of these "soldiers" are very mixed.
There were mercenaries, relic hunters, and even scavengers and miners... After hearing about the mission rewards, the people in the Trigger Bar rushed to sign up like crazy. After a rough screening, Levi picked out nineteen people.
Standing on the far left was a woman in her thirties. She should have been pretty, but her right eye was a scarlet mechanical eye, and half of her face had been mechanized. Her right hand and right leg were also cyborg prostheses. She carried a huge variable crossbow on her back, and a circle of long and short quivers hung around her waist.
Admiral Maginot looked down at the information on the tablet in his hand. This woman was called Bianca. She had served in a special unit of the Field Corps. She lost her right eye, right arm and right leg during a mission and retired due to injuries. The compensation issued by the army was only enough for her to pay for basic treatment to maintain her life. In order to install a cyborg prosthesis, she owed a huge amount of usury. She had no choice but to become a mercenary...
It took Bikaan four years to pay off the loan and he also upgraded all of his cyborg prostheses, replacing the cheapest second-hand prostheses that required large injections of immunosuppressants with the current set of military-grade tactical prostheses.
Just like when she was in the special forces team, her position after becoming a mercenary was a scout and fire support. The variable crossbow could be used for both precision sniping and range bombing by replacing different launching components and arrows.
Among these nineteen people, there are six other mercenaries, all of whom are Bianca's teammates. Their team is considered to be familiar with the Mukach Fortress. They have completed many military operations in coordination with the troops in the base. Basically, they can be regarded as a half-external team of Mukach.
Their seven-man team usually acts independently with Bianca as the tactical core, but they are also very tacit when cooperating with the Mukach garrison - after all, except for one free man who was a relic hunter, the others have service experience and are very familiar with the general commands and tactical signals within the army.
In addition to the seven of them, there are five mercenaries among the nineteen people, two of whom are the brothers who had previously talked to the intelligence dealer in white. These two seem to have bad tempers, but in fact they are quite capable - this two-person team has been active in the area around the Mukach Fortress, taking on some tasks of clearing and expelling indigenous creatures and topographic mapping. In one year, they completed more than seventy tasks, and the overall completion rate was more than 90%... In the mercenary world, such an achievement can not only be regarded as a model worker, but also a synonym for strength and luck.
The other three were also a fixed team, but their record was slightly inferior to that of the two brothers... But in the Trigger Bar, they were considered the tallest among the short ones - you know, in an area that was not frequently involved in wars or densely populated with traffic routes, it was rare for there to be multiple top mercenary teams. The high-difficulty levels of Mukach Fortress and the surrounding areas were basically covered by Bianca's team, and it was difficult for other top teams to get a share, so they might as well go somewhere else to find business.
In addition to these twelve mercenaries, there are seven people left, including four professional relic hunters from the "Snapping Turtle" hunting group, a lone hunter, a miner and a scavenger.
I won’t go into details about the relic hunter, but the remaining miner and another scavenger did arouse Admiral Maginot’s curiosity.
However, Maginot did not question directly. After all, these people were picked by Levi, and he trusted Levi quite a lot. Since Levi could pick them out from a group of people, there must be a reason.
Maginot took a look at the two people's information and immediately knew why Levi chose them - the miner was not a cheap laborer who had signed a contract with a large consortium. Just from the appearance, he did not look like the skinny miners who lived on protein blocks and were generally considered by the public to be skinny. On the contrary, some of the equipment he was wearing looked even more expensive and professional than those of the relic hunters.
He was called a miner, but in fact, he was a mineral prospector who specialized in finding undiscovered mineral veins in the wilderness, and then sold the coordinates of the mineral veins to large consortiums that owned mining companies, or directly to the Ark official. People in this line of work could basically make enough money for a lifetime as long as they found a mineral vein that was not so barren. However, this guy named Wang Dalong actually found four mineral veins, and one of them was even at the threshold of a rich mine...
Logically speaking, this guy could live a rich life just by relying on dividends, so why would he run out into the wilderness and risk his life...not to mention taking on a mission with such a high mortality rate.
Admiral Maginot glanced at Wang Dalong several times. If a "traitor" sneaked into the team, it would be a big trouble.
Levi seemed to notice Maginot's gaze, walked up, and whispered a few words into Maginot's ear.
"So that's how it is." Maginot nodded, and there was a hint of sympathy in his eyes when he looked at Wang Dalong.
Wang Dalong was not alone in the exploration at the beginning. He was accompanied by two good brothers, his wife and his son. But when he discovered the rich mine, the exploration well collapsed and he was the only one who escaped alive. From then on, no matter how much money he had in his account , he was too lazy to care and kept doing the hard work of exploring for mineral veins... Perhaps this made him feel that those who had passed away were still around him.
Some people who know Wang Dalong privately call him "a lonely ghost wandering in the wilderness", but one thing that must be said is that Wang Dalong can definitely be regarded as a survival expert in the wilderness. He can even survive in the wilderness alone for three months without relying on any supply points. Many times, people thought he had died in the wilderness. He would always appear in a transit station or fortress after a period of time, disheveled and slap the faces of those who spread the news of his death with silent actions.
There is not much information about the other scavenger, but like Wang Dalong, he is an expert in survival in the wilderness.
"Ahem." Maginot cleared his throat, and his sharp eyes swept over the nineteen people, and he said, "Let me emphasize again for the last time that this is a very dangerous and difficult mission, and most of you may lose your lives. If you regret it now and leave this office, it's not too late - this is your last chance, you must think carefully!"
There was a trace of hesitation in the eyes of several mercenaries, but Maginot waited for a minute, but no one stood up and said they wanted to withdraw from the mission.
"Very good, then I will assume that you are all prepared." Maginot nodded, "Let me say this first. From now on, if anyone wants to quit the mission again, they will be regarded as deserters and executed directly."
"Uh... General, we are not a regular army..." The mercenary who had traded intelligence with the white man earlier whispered, "The rules of the army should not apply..."
"Then why didn't you quit just now?" Maginot glared at him. "If you just wanted to earn the 600,000 deposit, then I can give you 600,000 and a bullet now, and let your body take the money to see your family..." Having said this, Maginot paused, and finally did not say the rest of the sentence.
The unspoken words were "If your family were still alive."
"I... I'm just asking." The mercenary was instantly intimidated by Maginot's glare.
"From now on, you will be part of the regular army's combat sequence." Maginot pouted angrily, signaling Levi to explain the content of the mission to the group.
Levi stepped forward and said, "You will be divided into two groups and work with two special teams to approach ."
"ark?"
After hearing this word, everyone looked at each other with confusion and puzzlement in their eyes. Only the two mercenaries who had talked to the white man looked at each other in astonishment and subconsciously took half a step back.
The two men had already made a secret decision in their hearts. If this Lieutenant General Maginot really wanted to rebel beyond his capabilities, they would have to find a way to escape on the way, even if it meant setting up traps to kill all their teammates.
"I know you are confused, but I can tell you clearly that the target of your operation this time is Noah's Ark." Levi said seriously, "Everything you see next is top secret. If you leak it to any irrelevant personnel, you will be punished by military law!"
After Levi finished speaking, the images captured by the drones immediately appeared on the projection screen behind him.
The quality of this "mob" was much worse than that of Maginot's staff. A relic hunter from the "Alligator Snapping Turtle" hunting group even fell to the ground with his mouth wide open, making "uh uh uh" sounds for a long time without uttering a word.
The performance of others was not much better than his. Only Bianca, who had a paralyzed face due to the mechanized transformation, and Wang Dalong, who had a lifeless face from beginning to end, managed to remain calm.
"General... Colonel Levi... this... the one in the photo... is the Ark, right?" asked a mercenary from Bianca's team and Levi who knew him.
"As you can see, the Ark has been attacked by some unknown force, and the outer areas are almost completely occupied." Levi used the laser pointer in his hand to draw a circle on the screen, and circled the Ark wrapped in the fleshy fungus blanket. "But our drone still received the distress signal sent from inside the Ark. This means that there are still a large number of survivors and a large number of unconquered areas inside the Ark. They are struggling and waiting for reinforcements. On the one hand, we are gathering troops, and on the other hand, we need an elite team to sneak into the Ark and find out the specific situation."
Levi lied. They had never received any signal from the Ark. Until now, it was still unknown whether there were any survivors inside the Ark... But he couldn't tell the truth. If he told these people the truth, their morale would probably drop to the freezing point.
As a commander, even in the most hopeless times, you must let your subordinates see hope...even if it is only false hope.
As for the mission objectives, it would be best if they could sneak into the Ark. If they cannot, then just conducting peripheral reconnaissance is also acceptable... But he would only tell this to the commander of the special forces team traveling with these people. If he told these people, it is estimated that none of them would be willing to sneak into the Ark.
Who would be willing to go into an Ark that has been conquered by all the local creatures if they can get six million by just scouting outside?
"How is it possible to get in... and, if I'm not mistaken, those ship-shaped things must be the wreckage of the garrison fleet? Even the garrison fleet..." A mercenary's face was filled with despair, and his legs were shaking like a sieve... Fortunately, they were all used to seeing life and death. If ordinary people saw these things, they would probably be scared to death.
"There is one thing I want you to understand. Now it's not just you who have no way out. We, all of humanity, have no way out." Levi continued, "Do you think that without the Ark, how long can the people in the base survive with only the few production facilities in the wilderness? Do you think that this unknown enemy will not attack other fortress bases after conquering the Ark? Instead of waiting to die, it is better to fight hard while there is still room for counterattack."
At this time, Admiral Maginot knocked on the table and added: "Well, I will personally pay for each of you to complete the task. The reward will be increased from 6 million to 10 million."
Final Chapter
