The battle between the two gangs lasted for three hours. The center of the battlefield was littered with thousands of corpses.
When the Chem-swine entered the fray, the battle turned into a real meat grinder. To stop these creatures, the Fertilizers had to sacrifice a good portion of their fighters and their supply of explosives.
Now, the leaders of both sides, surrounded by hundreds of bodyguards, were holed up in the rear. These "elite" fighters with homemade firearms were their last reserve.
The cannon fodder was gone. Only a few hundred shooters remained alive, and both sides hesitated to continue.
Not fighting meant accepting a draw, and the issue with the reactor would remain unresolved. But if they continued, they could lose everyone left – and wouldn't be able to hold onto power upon their return.
While the bosses wrestled with doubt, and the groans of the wounded hummed over the battlefield, Li Qingyu was getting rich.
Together with Xiao Dao, he had shot down three Chem-swine. After that, Li Qingyu stopped shooting and began "harvesting."
After sending the exhausted Xiao Dao to rest, he loaded regular rounds into his rifle and began to loot.
First, he dealt with the three swine. Picking up a steel pipe lying nearby, he used it as a lever and, along with the helmet, pried the Rage Spine Modules from the carcasses.
Opening the compartments for the stimulants, Li Qingyu carefully collected the ampoules.
Result: three modules for quest completion and fourteen rage injectors.
He was satisfied, but his backpack was still not full, and there were plenty of corpses around.
Approaching the edge of the battlefield, he searched a chemist's body and found a poisoned needle in his pocket.
Putting the find away, he crawled to the next body. He hadn't reached it yet when the "corpse" coughed up blood.
"I... I'm alive?"
Li Qingyu drew his knife and plunged it into the jaw from below, piercing the brain.
"You must have imagined it. Hallucinations."
The chemist twitched and fell silent.
Pulling another needle from his pocket – a few coins for the piggy bank – Li Qingyu crawled further.
After examining everything around, he collected over fifty needles and about three hundred coins. The outskirts were cleared – it was time to head to the center.
There were far more corpses there. Li Qingyu had a real feast: he collected over forty more needles, and from the bodies of the Fertilizers who died fighting the swine, he took several dozen rage injectors.
In the midst of his looting, he heard a groan from behind a pile of construction debris. Alerted, he crouched, raised his weapon, and crept closer. He peeked out – assessed the situation.
Before him lay an elite Fertilizer fighter. His stomach was ripped open, a huge hole, guts spilling out, blood gushing. He wouldn't survive this.
Li Qingyu noticed a large-caliber homemade gun nearby. His eyes lit up. He emerged from cover and immediately grabbed the gun, checking it.
It was a .35 caliber automatic shotgun with a long barrel and a huge disc magazine holding thirty rounds.
He whistled – a real bulldozer! It would be indispensable in the narrow corridors of the Underhive.
Noticing another full magazine on the bandit, he reached for it.
The wounded man spat blood: "I think I'm dying."
Li Qingyu, without stopping, remarked, "Your guts were eaten. A Chem-swine did that. A coefficient of 1.4 – brutal. Get your ass up."
The bandit wore a strange harness that allowed him to attach two large discs to his hips. Li Qingyu wanted to take that too.
The fighter, exhausted by such manipulation, yelled, "Enough! It hurts! Finish me off!"
Li Qingyu nodded and took out his knife. The wounded man immediately panicked: "No! Not with a knife! I saw you had needles... Give me three!"
After thinking, Li Qingyu put away his knife, took out three poisoned needles, and plunged them into the dying man's neck.
The horse dose instantly severed the connection between the brain and the body. The bandit fell silent, his gaze unfocused.
Looking at Li Qingyu, who continued to pull off the harness, he whispered, "In the next life... I don't want to be human..."
His head slumped to the side. Silence.
Li Qingyu shoved the harness into his backpack, stood up, and prepared to leave.
"You want the next life? Go file a petition with Chaos!"
In the world of Warhammer 40k, there is a place called the Warp – the Immaterium, or simply, hell, where demons dwell.
Demons have their own factions, their own hierarchy, but all together it's called Chaos.
After death, if a person's soul is not taken by the Emperor, it almost certainly falls into the Warp – and becomes a toy of the Dark Gods.
So what kind of "next life" is there? Welcome to eternal slavery.
Several hours passed. The gang leaders still hadn't dared to go all-in.
Shooters are an elite. Any other can be replaced in a couple of months, but not a shooter.
The bosses invested both soul and money in them. Lose one, and you lose control over a hundred pieces of cannon fodder.
If the shooters disappear, even without enemies, your own people will stage a coup.
Therefore, the leaders decided to retreat temporarily, postponing the fight for the reactor. They would return later – when they had gathered new slaves.
Li Qingyu found a couple more decent automatic weapons, and his backpack was bursting with needles – even the "yellow overload" debuff had triggered.
A royal haul. Time to get out.
He returned to where Xiao Dao was resting.
"Let's go. The fight is over, your boss has bailed."
Xiao Dao flinched. He was exhausted to the limit – more from fear than fatigue. After the third swine, Li Qingyu had allowed him to rest.
Only hearing these words did the young man realize that the shooting had long since died down.
Xiao Dao jumped up, ready to catch up with his own men, but Li Qingyu stopped him: "How many did I kill? Do you remember?"
Xiao Dao thought for a moment: "Sixty-three junkies and chemists, four Chem-swine."
Li Qingyu nodded: "Tell your boss to prepare the money. I'll be by in a couple of days."
He counted out three hundred coins, shoved them into Xiao Dao's hand, and waved him away, disappearing into the darkness.
Xiao Dao stood there, clutching the money, blinking in confusion.
"Huh?... For one trip... you added a hundred?"