Chapter 1152: Chapter 375: Money Is a Bastard—If You Don’t Take It, It’s a Waste_3

Tanks shooting down planes

And doing it up in the sky

What the fuck, you high out of your mind or what?

If you said helicopters, we could at least think about using some AA missiles on them

Shooting down an attack jet in the sky—why don’t you just go solo a goddamn spaceship while you’re at it? 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The person in charge watched the squad turn around and walk off, not fast, not slow

"If you walk away now, you’ll have to pay our company twenty times the penalty fee."

Hans stopped, then spun back around in a rage, grabbing the manager by the collar and spitting as he yelled

"You think screwing with us is funny, huh? If you wanna get us killed, why don’t you just put a bullet in my head right here?"

"Drive a tank!"

"Go up in the sky!"

"And shoot down an attack jet on top of that!"

"Even a dumbass should know that’s impossible!"

Only after he finished ranting did Hans suddenly let go and shove the manager away

He couldn’t figure out why the company would take on such a dumbass contract and even name their squad for it—did that thing about him sleeping with the boss’s wife get out?

The manager wiped the spit off his face and calmly pointed at the terminal in Hans’s hand

"I know it’s hard to believe, but someone has done it. And it was just a month ago—someone used a tank in the sky to shoot down a Ragewind-12. The video’s right there.

This is not good news for us, because Military Technology might hype the hell out of it any time they want. When that happens, it could trigger a massive PR shitstorm. So we need one successful run. We need a hero."

Hans felt like he was listening to scripture in Martian

He couldn’t help opening the terminal in his hand; they’d already pinned the video in the most obvious spot

The footage was stitched together from multiple fighter perspectives and the cockpit cam of the plane that got shot down.

On screen, that Komodo floating tank rolled out of the exploding transport plane without a scratch, used its ADS to swat down two air-to-air missiles, then a blond musclehead burst out, smashed the avionics with one punch, seized control of the guns and just hosed the attack jet with a full-auto burst

Yeah, the pilot being cocky definitely played a part, but even with Sianweistan doping, that guy’s reaction speed was freakishly insane.

The fighter plunged into the clouds

The other pilots didn’t dare risk it anymore and all started getting ready to use long-range missiles to take the tank out

But it looked like something went wrong with the tank; within a few seconds it just went into a straight free fall toward the ground, and then the footage cut.

Hans was watching with cold sweat all over his head.

"What about that tank and its crew?"

At this point, he had to admit there’s always a higher mountain, always someone better than you.

They hadn’t even fought on the ground yet, but just off that level of balls, they’d already outclassed 99.9% of tank crews worldwide.

"They were never found, but we don’t believe they’re still alive. Probably crashed somewhere no one pays attention to."

Twenty, thirty thousand feet up, free fall, no parachutes

Tech analysis departments in several companies all said there was absolutely no way they survived.

Sure, there’s a theoretical chance of a successful crash landing, but that’s like saying theoretically the author can one-punch peak Tyson in the ring.

Read as ’theoretically possible’, translate as ’not happening in this lifetime’.

"Our company will provide you with escape gear, an escort squadron, and guarantee your survival odds. If you manage to shoot down one enemy aircraft, we’ll not only hire you as brand ambassadors, but also pay each of you an extra 100,000 Orokin as compensation."

Fuck...

With that kind of money on the table, even though Hans knew this was basically a suicide mission, he couldn’t help getting tempted.

In this world, there’s nothing money can’t buy. If there is, it just means your offer wasn’t high enough.

Dassault Company had considered just using AI in Cyberspace to forge a video record. If they were willing to burn enough cash, they could make it almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Problem is, the folks over at Military Technology would see through it at a glance. Once that lie gets punctured, it only puts them in an even weaker position.

Stuck with no better options, they had no choice but to hire the ace crew from Black Forest Mercenaries and try to recreate a kill record.

Even if it cost them more, it was still better than letting Military Technology team up and short their stock into the ground.

The other side had sat on that video for a whole month without releasing it, which obviously meant they were gearing up to pull some big-ass move.

"Fuck!"

After hashing it out with his teammates for a bit, Hans lost all the swagger he’d had when he first got off the plane

After all, twenty times the penalty fee was not a fucking joke

"We’ll take the job. But let’s be clear first: we get to pick and mod the tank ourselves. You also have to figure out a way to clear all enemy AA for us and get us out afterward, or else..."

He wanted to toss out a couple of tough-guy lines, but when they reached his mouth, he swallowed them back down

Don’t let that ’Europe ace crew’ label fool you; in the company’s eyes they were just dogs that could be put down whenever convenient.

And the guy all these Europe companies and tank crews were obsessing over was, at this moment, busting his ass at a frontline logistics depot.

For a full month, Potato, the Femme Fatale and the others hadn’t gone back to the front. They’d been squatting in the supply depot, reporting the route of every supply convoy in the game channel so Wildman and the rest could infer Cuba’s force deployment.

You could say their intel had given Wildman and the other command players a huge boost

Because as a commander, you never have enough troops, the intel you get is always outdated, and the orders you give are always for the future

If you can map out the enemy’s supply routes and quantities, you can roughly estimate their manpower and distance, getting ahead of the enemy and largely making up for the lack of satellites.

What the Giant and the others had done here was worth a lot more than sending them to the front as a few high-end fighters.

After this stretch of grinding at the supply depot, they all looked dusty and beat-up, wearing grimy uniforms, hair a mess, straight-up National Army vibes.

At lunchtime, Shui Yue hurriedly dragged the Giant and the others into a relatively secluded corner

"I found it, I got the info—I found out where the command post is."