It was then that Bai Li submitted her own footage.
“Beep Beep Beep”
[Review completed. Your battle achievement: 3288 points!]
Zhou Hao unwittingly peeked at Bai Li.
What happened today that Bai Li ended up participating in their mission?
It was not just Zhou Hao that looked over at Bai Li. The rest of the staff working there too, stole glances at Bai Li. Footages captured during missions were as solid as they could be, meaning that this female aptitude user was not just another delicate eye candy to ogle at.
“Umm, ma’am, it seems that you haven’t been certified as an aptitude user yet. As such, the authorities may not release your rewards in a lump sum. I hope you can understand and I apologise for any inconveniences caused!”
Bai Li was not able to grasp the twists and turns in the staff member’s words but nodded regardless.
Seeing this, Qin Feng intervened. “Let’s get you certified then. After all, we’d accepted multiple missions back at Chengbei Colony!”
Many of those gathered here were taking up missions in order to get their aptitude user badge and this Quest Hall was a place where one’s abilities could be reviewed and consequently, award the reviewees with their respective badges.
The most important thing however, was not the badge but the financial subsidy provided for aptitude users!
For F-tier aptitude users here participating in the conquest of Han Town, so long as they could maintain a daily score of a thousand points and above, they would receive a grant of ten thousand yuan as well as a special rebate of 9.5% off when converting it into battle achievement points.
To put it simply, the greater one’s daily points, the higher the rebate percentage.
“Understood! Please wait here for a second!”
The staff member proceeded to make some calculations for both of them which was then completed a short while later. With a smile on his face, he produced two F-tier aptitude user badges.
“Congratulations! According to our statistics, both of you are F-tier aptitude users. These are your badges! I have just updated your personal information. The two of you will be enjoying more benefits from now on!”
Qin Feng accepted the two badges before pinning one of them onto Bai Li’s chest.
“It looks kinda ugly! It doesn’t fit with my clothes at all!” Bai Li complained.
“Make sure you have it on, it’ll be of great use when the time comes!”
“What do you mean?” Bai Li asked doubtfully.
“At least some of the rascals won’t dare mess with you again!” Qin Feng replied.
Nodding her head, Bai Li proceeded to help pin the badge onto Qin Feng’s chest.
“Now, they won’t mess with you too!”
Qin Feng smiled.
Zhou Hao, standing nearby, covered his eyes. At the sight of the lovey-dovey couple, he felt a massive blow smash into his heart. It was downright cruel to show such acts of affection in front of this single man’s eyes! On that day, he was reminded of just how cruel life could be at times.
Pulling Bai Li’s hands, Qin Feng led her out of the hall. The F-tier aptitude user badges worked perfectly. While many of them did not know who the strange duo was, they sure could recognise the badges pinned on their chest. The men who once lustfully drooled over Bai Li now looked at her with fear and moved aside for them to pass.
At the moment, noise seemed to only come from one corner outside the hall. They were the shouts of merchants here to bid for exotic goods.
“Fresh plow worm meat! Buying at twenty yuan per pound!”
“Bloodthirsty beetles’ blood backs for sale! Offering fifteen grand a pop!”
“Steel-back snail’s outer-shell!” I’m willing to pay thirty thousand yuan a piece!”
The prices they yelled out were much lower than what Qin Feng remembered hearing in the past. The price of materials from G-tier ultra beasts seemed to have been cut by half; what was once priced at four to five thousand yuan back in Chengbei Colony now cost a mere one to two thousand yuan. This was partly because of the insectoids’ small body size as well as their overflowing supply; it was simple economics at work.
There were just too many insectoids!
However, these merchants were buying insectoid parts at a substantially higher price than the authorities, which was why so many people preferred to sell the materials they had gathered from the battlefield here.
After all, not everyone here possessed a spatial runic equipment of their own; they had nowhere else to store the materials which would accumulate pretty quickly into a large mound over time.
It was not long before Qin Feng caught wind of someone offering to buy blacksteel ant parts in a corner.
“Are you collecting blacksteel ants? How much are you offering?” Qin Feng inquired.
The merchant’s eyes lit up instantly. Seeing the F-tier aptitude user badges displayed on both of their chests, they must possess the ability to hunt blacksteel ants, he thought. If that were the case then he must have hit the jackpot!
“Twelve grand!”
Qin Feng’s brows furrowed upon hearing the offer. He followed up with a question, “How many are you looking to buy?”
“How many do you have? I’ll buy em’ all!” The man waved his large hand confidently. Perhaps because he was far from being short of cash.
Seeing the merchant’s commendable bravado, Qin Feng tapped on Bai Li’s waist, a gesture for her to retrieve the items.
With a wave of her delicate arm, dinner-plate-sized armor scales showered out from a point in mid-air until a large mound was formed on the ground.
Merchants and sellers around them alike were wide-eyed at the scene.
“I’ll leave the counting to you.” Qin Feng said.
The merchant gulped nervously, his face flushed. With a stutter, he replied, “That uh, boss, can I get some of my friends to buy it together? This is, uh, a bit too much for me to handle!”
“Big boss, are you selling? If there’s too much then I’m offering to buy at 12,600 yuan!”
“12,700 yuan for me!”
“Thirteen grand!”
The first merchant was now drenched in cold sweat as the other merchants moved in like hungry predators.
“Hey, you’re all breaking the rules! You can’t just swoop right in and snatch away my goods!”
However, there was no denying that the number of goods was too much for a single merchant to handle. Each piece here could provide a profit of around two thousand yuan but that would easily reach up to more than ten thousand elsewhere. Too bad his business capital was simply inadequate to handle this amount of goods!
Qin Feng was certainly not looking to lose out in this deal.
“Thirteen grand, tell me how much you need!” Qin Feng announced.
The entire place suddenly erupted with the shouts of greedy merchants.
On that night, Qin Feng had killed around a thousand and two hundred blacksteel ants. Even without selling the materials he had foraged from the ultra beasts, he managed to earn around 16 million yuan from the single deal alone.
This amount was more than enough to earn the envy of many other F-tier mercenaries.
However, there was one group of people who was in for a greater shock—those who had consistently tracked Qin Feng’s progress.
“Qin Feng had that many blacksteel armor? He must’ve killed a mountain of blacksteel ants then!” Zhao Yu said in astonishment. “But the points he accumulated did not reflect that!”
Zhang Tianche, being the more attentive person, understood quite well what Qin Feng’s strength was like, which was why it did not shock him as much as it did the others.
Maybe it was because he did not want to expose his actual strength to the people around him!
“Footage quality goes downhill pretty quickly after sunset. Maybe that’s why Qin Feng did not bother to turn on his recorder!” Zhang Tianche swiftly came up with an excuse to back Qin Feng up.
Zhao Yu on the other hand, felt a sting in her heart. “That would’ve given him even more points though!”
Gao Linghan, who unintentionally eavesdropped on their exchange felt a prickly warmth spreading over his face.
He initially thought that the battle points Qin Feng collected was nothing impressive, but the materials he had gathered were almost five folds greater than the points he had! For there to be such a huge gap in difference, it left Gao Linghan in despair and humiliation!
It appeared that he was no longer worthy to be Qin Feng’s rival.
Not wanting to see Qin Feng’s face, Gao Linghan rose from his seat and gave his final order of the day. “I want all of you to hit the sack soon. A fight’s waiting for us tomorrow.”
Gao Linghan left the place as soon as he said that, returning to the simple room from before to catch some shut-eye.
When Qin Feng finally returned to the campfire, only a handful of his team members remained at the site. He was completely oblivious to the fact that he had caused utter despair in the first-rate genius that labeled himself as Qin Feng’s rival!
The simple room had limited amenities. Luckily, it had one of the most basic of all amenities—a clean water supply. After freshening himself up, he climbed onto the iron-framed bed and slept with Bai Li between his arms.
The night was tranquil, until a woman’s moan echoed through the air from afar.
Bai Li’s ears perked up.
Qin Feng’s mouth twitched. Swiftly, he covered both of her ears and ordered, “Sleep!”
“O-okay!”
Bai Li gave a tiny yawn and fell asleep in an instant!
She slept with no issues, even with Qin Feng’s hands covering her ears tightly. Seeing the sleeping beauty between his arms, he could not help but sigh.
“What great energy he has.” Qin Feng muttered under his breath.
This room was far from being sound-proof. The camp was filled with men who fought constantly in the frontlines, staring death in the eyes nearly every second of the day. Naturally, they would have to find some place to vent out their frustrations, to release their pent-up energy after a hard day’s work out on the battlefield.
This was men’s fundamental flaw.
When Han Town fell, the first people to be rescued were those living in slums which were located at the outskirts of the small town. The fact that they had been rescued did not mean that three meals a day was guaranteed. In order to survive, many of them had to offer something up for sale. For those living in poverty, that “something” came in the form of their bodies. Thus, the practice of prostitution became the norm in the provisional colony.