Chapter 462: Chapter 170: Wasteland Wanderings, A Special Hiring Platform!

The bartender sat behind the bar, idly playing with the butterfly knife in his hand. The blade spun skillfully at his fingertips, flashing cold light.

Walking up to the bar, Wang Qing deftly fished a silver badge out of his pocket and whispered:

"Sir, I need a menu."

The bartender took the badge and placed it on the table. With a beep, he pulled out a notebook from under the bar.

The words "Silver Level" were prominently displayed at the top of the notebook.

"And please get me a glass of Orange Sunrise," Wang Qing added.

But what he took out this time left Cheng Ye utterly astonished – it was actually... Happiness Coin?

A 10-value Happiness Coin was handed over to the bartender just like that.

Soon, he exchanged it for a small glass of orange liquid from the bartender.

Compared to the purchasing power in Happiness City, the Happiness Coin here was clearly devalued. Yet in retrospect, this was a mercenary organization far away in Sea Province, and the fact it was universally accepted was already remarkable.

"I never expected the currency of Happiness City to be as robust as the rumors said!"

Cheng Ye felt a sense of emotion rising within him.

As the view followed Wang Qing back to the table, he reached out to open the thick menu and began carefully perusing it.

Inside, it should contain all the tasks available for someone of his level.

As Wang Qing’s gaze settled on the first page, Cheng Ye quickly hit the pause button and started carefully reading word by word from top to bottom.

[Silver 1: Acquire ’Happiness Alloy’ from Happiness City; long-term repeatable task; 1kg/150 silver coins]

[Silver 2: Acquire second-generation ’Origin Processing Chip’ from Happiness City; long-term repeatable task; 10 pieces/100 silver coins]

[Silver 3: Acquire third-generation ’Stellar Drawer Battery’ from Happiness City; long-term repeatable task; 100 kWh/55 silver coins]

[Silver 4: Acquire ’Healing Reagent’ from Happiness City; long-term repeatable task; 50ml/55 silver coins]

[Silver 5: Acquire ’Ink Shield Encryption Module’ from Happiness City; long-term repeatable task; 1 set/55 silver coins]

[...]

?

Are they targeting Happiness City to fleece it?

Cheng Ye was dumbfounded.

He couldn’t figure out who issued these tasks. The first page alone had 20 tasks, all of them long-term repeatable tasks targeting various finished technologies from Happiness City.

Among them were the familiar Happiness Alloy and third-generation drawer battery, as well as the unfamiliar Origin Processing Chip.

Further down, there were things like Healing Reagent, Ink Shield Encryption Module, and Light Pivot Fiber Bundle...

A whole bunch of items Cheng Ye had never even heard of.

"Instead of acquiring technology, they’re just collecting ready-made items. Is this reverse engineering?"

"But if they had the capability to reverse engineer these technologies, why go through scatter platforms like the Pinghai Building for procurement? Wouldn’t it be more efficient and reliable to buy directly from the official channels of Happiness City?"

Cheng Ye stared blankly at the task list before him; this first page resembled more of a ’Wasteland Recycling Platform’ than a mercenary task board.

There was none of the thrilling sensation of high-profile assassinations he had imagined.

Recalling the fourth feature of the ’Pinghai Building’ organization: a black market intermediary, Cheng Ye nodded slightly, beginning to understand where these resources would ultimately flow.

Combined with his past experiences on duty, and insights gathered from consulting Sun Weicheng after establishing a caravan during this period,

It seemed that ordinary caravans entering Happiness City faced no sales restrictions, but purchasing items required adherence to a caravan points system.

The higher one climbed in this system, the more extensive the list of firearms, drugs, and industrial goods available for purchase.

However, there was an exception: all high-value items with ’core technology’ from Happiness City were non-tradable.

They wouldn’t let ordinary caravans roam around selling critical assets from Happiness City, making profits from price differences.

These would only be made available to other Shelter Cities through ’direct connection’ channels, with official representatives sent to purchase them.

And in the Wasteland Era, the value of scarce resources clearly outweighed that of individual worth, explaining why the first few pages were all procurement tasks.

Of course, this could also be because the ’Silver Level’ tasks weren’t considered as valuable as these materials.

Perhaps at a higher tier, the focus of tasks would shift from ’objects’ to ’people’.

Resuming playback, Wang Qing didn’t linger on the first page but quickly flipped through the menu, barely pausing when his gaze skimmed the procurement tasks.

Cheng Ye would occasionally pause the screen to inspect, flipping through 20 pages non-stop, reaching the 240th task, and finding they were all still procurement tasks.

The acquisition tasks marked ’Happiness City’ accounted for 178, with the rest focused on surrounding areas such as ’Yueye Shelter City’, ’Daxing Shelter City’, ’White Stone Shelter City’, and ’Red Mountain Shelter City’...

All were various forces within Stone Province, with entries varying from a dozen to twenty based on their scale.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t control Wang Qing to check the nearby Guang Province. Cheng Ye was quite curious about what prices Rainbow Light Shelter City’s technologies could command at the Pinghai Building, and how they compared to the resources from Happiness City.

Finally, when the menu reached the 27th page, after skipping over a total of 540 different procurement tasks,

Wang Qing’s finger finally stopped, starting to read line by line.

Cheng Ye let out a long breath; this page finally didn’t involve resources but rather ’names of people’.

[Copper 1: Assassinate White Stone Shelter City Industrial Research Division, Deputy Minister, Zhang Zhong; 100 copper coins]

[Copper 2: Assassinate Stone Heart Settlement, Lord, Wan Huaian, 95 copper coins]

[Copper 3: Assassinate Three Stone Bay Settlement, Vice Lord, Damien Olsen, 95 copper coins]

[Copper 4: Kidnap Red Mountain Shelter City Foreign Trade Department, Head Daughter, Sophie, 93 copper coins]

[Copper 5: Investigate Happiness City Checkpoint, Intern Inspector, Cheng Ye, 90 copper coins]

[Copper 6: Investigate Happiness City Red Stone Machinery Factory, R&D Group Leader, Zhao Rui, 85 copper coins]

[Copper 7: ...]

...

Seeing himself in a prominent fifth position, Cheng Ye was quite surprised.

But upon closer inspection of the note at the top of the list, he realized that this menu wasn’t exclusive to the Silver level but was a summary of tasks available to Silver-level executors at lower levels.

"Could it be that Silver-level tasks are only for resources?"

Cheng Ye didn’t pause and his gaze followed Wang Qing as he continued turning pages.

Wang Qing didn’t directly select a task but took out a small notebook, jotting down the tasks he was interested in one by one.

Continuing to flip, beyond the Copper-level tasks, there were even lower Iron-level tasks. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Wang Qing didn’t pay much attention to the Iron-level tasks, but Cheng Ye still paused the screen for a glance.

Iron-level tasks were all "collective tour" type tasks.

For instance, a destruction task requiring 30 people, with the goal of destroying a certain settlement’s resource warehouse.

Another example, an interception task requiring 50 people, with the goal of intercepting a caravan about to pass through Stone Province.

An extensive menu with a myriad of tasks, yet when categorizing them, the division was quite clear:

Silver for objects, Copper for people, Iron for groups.

"Beyond that should be the Gold-level tasks, right? I wonder what those involve... could it be targeting technology, prominent figures, or even the Extraordinary?"

Cheng Ye couldn’t help but speculate, but the scene suddenly shook violently.

As Wang Qing closed the menu, the entire intelligence space shattered, countless pixels splintering and scattering.

There was no scene of Wang Qing accepting a task, nor of him checking task details.

But returning to the theme, the goal of this intelligence search did not deviate.

"Was this the first time Wang Qing saw my name appear in the menu?"

Cheng Ye quietly looked ahead.

All the shattered pixels converged again, Wang Qing still maintained that eerie smile. However, the man in front of him unknowingly saw through him, perceiving the distant Pinghai Building Isle miles apart.

[Intelligence Subject: Wang Qing]

[Designated Direction: Related to ’my’ task]

[Intelligence Quality: Level 1.2 (Quality decreased by 0.3 due to designated target, 100% cooperation fixed increase by 0.5)]

[Current Replay Times Available: 4]

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