NOVPUBMartin surveyed the crowd and asked, "The monsters in the Mauritania pyramid were ferocious. According to video analysis, the Ghoul’s bite force is ten times stronger than a crocodile, and it has the ability to resurrect. If Daniel could escape from the mouths of these creatures, doesn’t that say something?"
A punk-dressed young man scoffed, "It just proves that these monsters, which even a regular person can kill with a gun, are of low danger. It’s like facing an entire herd of beasts; unbelievable for the common folk but for us evolved ones, it’s child’s play."
The hot-headed young man chimed in, "Mosen is right. In my view, the danger level of these creatures doesn’t even reach the lowest F rank. It’s not worth mentioning. Any one of us could easily deal with these low-tier monsters."
Most people at the conference table nodded slightly, agreeing with the two.
But the man who had earlier argued with the hot-headed youth expressed a different opinion: "I don’t see it that way."
"You all must have seen the video circulating online. That youth named Daniel initially showed extreme fear when entering the pyramid. But when he faced Atelarxus, he was unusually composed, eerily calm."
"Even after defeating Atelarxus, he was the same when facing the Ghoul. And when he exited the pyramid, there was no joy of having escaped death. From a psychological standpoint, this is not normal at all."
"So, he must have unlocked the gate and became an evolved one in the pyramid."
The hot-headed youth immediately retorted, "Mike, I think you’re just a coward. Do you need to be an evolved one to face these rank of monsters?"
The man’s face instantly darkened: "Andy, you really want to fight!"
Before he could say more, Mosen disdainfully said, "Even if he is an evolved one, a monster that even a freshly evolved one can defeat is not worth our attention."
"The same old line: this level of danger, anyone can handle it."
Mike spoke gravely, "Don’t talk big if you haven’t actually fought these creatures."
"These monsters are remnants from the old days, and each one appearing in human society could cause a catastrophe."
"The very purpose of our Investigation Bureau is to prevent such incidents. If you can’t adopt the right attitude, I doubt if you can be the support for all of humanity. You don’t deserve to join the Investigation Bureau!"
Mosen repeated, "Again, this level of danger, just send anyo—"
Before he could finish, Martin frowned and angrily interrupted, "Enough!"
"Are you a freaking parrot? Do you only know that one line?"
He felt both a headache and aggrieved, thinking, ’Who the hell did I offend? I could’ve been a decent congressman, but instead, I’m stuck managing these buffoons!’
Even more tragically, Martin had foolishly attempted to hold an investigative hearing with these people. They didn’t have the brains for it!
Martin took a deep breath and then said, "Mike, Julia, you two go and check if Daniel has unlocked the gate of evolution, and also investigate his character and abilities to see if he’s fit to be part of our Investigation Bureau."
The two named individuals stood up and responded in unison, "Understood."
...
Not until the next day did Daniel and Gwen leave their love nest.
At the hotel entrance, Gwen hailed a taxi.
When the car pulled up, Gwen, with lingering affection, embraced Daniel: "Dan, if my father hadn’t strictly ordered me to return, I’d want to stay with you forever."
Daniel grinned, showing his bright teeth, and said, "I think your dad’s just worried about your safety. Go home; I’ll be back to Libertopia soon."
Gwen stood on her tiptoes and left a tender kiss, "Then I’ll wait for you in Libertopia. Goodbye."
Daniel touched his lips, still savoring the kiss, and smiled, "Goodbye."
Gwen got in the car, waved with a smile, and the car slowly drove away.
Daniel turned and headed west of the hotel.
He didn’t plan to go back right away, having prepared his strategy beforehand.
Not far from the hotel was a weapons shop.
Within ten minutes, Daniel found it.
Mauritania had lax weapons control. Whether cold or hot weapons, regardless of their power, even nuclear weapons could be legally owned by civilians.
Helplessly, Mauritania had no nuclear weapons of its own. Why would they care if civilians had them? They even hoped that some of their more powerful citizens would purchase nuclear bombs so they could join the few nuclear-armed nations in the world.
The shop clerk, seeing a customer, immediately greeted, "Hey, my dear friend, what kind of weapon can I help you with?"
Daniel got straight to the point, "Recommend all your heavy weapons to me."
The clerk’s eyes widened. A big spender!
He immediately beamed, handing over a tablet, "Sir, you can take a look at the information here."
Daniel took the tablet, and the first thing that caught his eye was a man-portable anti-tank missile.
Starting with missiles? This shop had something special.
As Daniel continued scrolling, his excitement grew.
Man-portable cannons, self-propelled guns, howitzers, even special combat tanks. If it existed in the world, they had it.
Even the top-tier missile technology, the Wind God series of ballistic missiles, was available, albeit older models.
Daniel pointed to one of the 15 medium-range ballistic missiles and asked, "Can you deliver this guy right now?"
The clerk’s eyes lit up, "Of course, my dear friend, you have a keen eye."
"We only have one of these missiles in our store. Although it’s not stored here, if you’re serious about buying, we can deliver it today!"
This was a weapon worth tens of millions, and it hadn’t been sold for several years.
Just the annual storage costs alone amounted to over a hundred thousand.
The boss had said that whoever managed to sell this thing would get a direct 20% cut.
Twenty percent of ten million is two million!
Besides, the price of this missile was far more than that.
Hearing the clerk’s words, Daniel made his decision right then and there: "I’ll take this missile, and all of these as well."
Daniel casually pointed at a few images, all of them different types of heavy weapons, including tanks.
The clerk was dumbfounded.
This guy’s casual wave was worth hundreds of millions.
And these weapons were enough to destroy a small country.
Even the world’s largest terrorist organization might not possess this level of firepower.
The clerk was so shocked that he remained in stunned silence.
Seeing this, Daniel asked, "What’s the matter? Is it not doable?"
His brows furrowed slightly.
Having faced death countless times, what he hated most was being trifled with.
The clerk hurriedly replied, "No, no, no, of course, it’s possible."
"I’ll contact our suppliers right away. You can come over here to pay."
Daniel followed the clerk, swiping his card to make the payment.
A notification popped up on his phone:
"You have spent StellarCoins 200,000,000, remaining balance 1,780,050."
He would have to find time to sell the gold mine, or go back and make some money in the blind box auctions.
Daniel put away his phone, asking, "When will I receive the shipment?"
The clerk responded promptly, "Very soon!"
"You can have someone pick it up here, or give us an address, and we’ll deliver it."
Daniel provided the hotel address.
The clerk didn’t find it strange and dared not ask further.
Someone who could buy so much heavy firepower must have an unimaginable organization backing him.
Transaction complete, Daniel left the weapons store.
After wandering the streets for a while, buying some food and drink, he returned to the hotel.
Now it was just a matter of waiting for the weapons to be delivered, then handing them all over to the system, to see if he could obtain any advanced technology weapons.
That evening, Daniel received the shipment.
As the tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the hotel parking lot, the hotel’s security staff were taken aback.
What’s going on? Are we at war?
Then, all the security guards threw their batons and guns to the ground, raising their hands in surrender.
They joked, "We only earn a measly two or three thousand StellarCoins a month. Who would risk their life for that?"
Daniel approached the hotel manager, intending to borrow the hotel’s warehouse.
The manager looked at the parked armored vehicles and missiles securely mounted on the trucks, and his eyes went wide.
Could it be a nuclear bomb?
Could this guy be part of a terrorist organization?
The manager didn’t dare to say no and promptly cleared out the hotel’s largest warehouse.
Daniel had the weapons moved into the warehouse and sent everyone away.
After closing the door and ensuring that no surveillance was running, he walked straight up to a tank and silently commanded in his mind, "System, buyback."
The next second, the system’s voice rang out.
[You have obtained 1,500,000 StellarCoins!]
Daniel frowned.
Is that it? What about the special reward?
The first one didn’t have anything; it seemed his luck was a bit off today.
Then, it dawned on Daniel that he already possessed a universal driving skill for land vehicles.
He could easily handle a tank, so that was one less special reward option.
He refused to believe that after buyback so many items for the system, he wouldn’t receive a single special reward.
Daniel immediately turned his eyes to the self-propelled artillery on the side.
