The first floor of the Bottle Cap Arcade was an ordinary gaming hall.
Residents of the inner and outer cities, as well as drifters, could all enjoy various games here to relax.
The second floor and above were also gaming halls.
However, the games up here were rather special. Playing them—and playing them well—cost a hefty price.
Li Ban, wearing a full suit of Smart Mecha, utterly shocked everyone in the gaming hall.
After all, they usually only got the chance to wear a full-body Smart Mecha inside the games.
Drawing a wave of envious stares, Li Ban piloted the Smart Mecha up to the second floor, stepping steadily toward the multiplayer private room the other party had designated.
The room had been booked by 9899 using points, at Li Ban's instruction.
She had originally been chased by the Shen Family until she was penniless.
She was highly proactive, completely eliminating the need for Li Ban to provide any initial funding.
Of course, even if she had asked him for it, Li Ban didn't have any to give.
Walking into the room and taking a seat, Li Ban refused a waiter's offer to connect his Smart Mecha to the gaming network. He checked the time and sat rigidly upright in the massive sofa chair, waiting for Vice Minister Jia Gu.
Ten minutes later, Vice Minister Jia Gu arrived on time.
When he opened the door and saw the guest sitting inside wearing a Smart Mecha, he was equally taken aback.
He quickly entered the room and locked the door tight.
"I didn't expect today's guest to be an inner-city resident," he said.
Li Ban replied calmly, "There are no inner-city residents here."
"Alright, alright." Jia Gu smiled and nodded, not pressing Li Ban about his identity. "I heard you want to purchase an Independent Data Reader. May I ask what you roughly intend to use the device for?"
"I'm buying it for a friend. The specific use is just the normal function of a reader. Data analysis, reading, conversion, and so on. What, does the reader you're selling lack even those basic functions?"
Li Ban's tone was not polite.
As the deputy minister of the logistics department, Jia Gu usually carried quite an air of importance. Aside from his minister and the higher-ups, even the company's directors and executives treated him politely.
However, facing the impolite Li Ban, Jia Gu didn't show any temper.
"Of course it has those basic functions. Haha, I was just worried that you might dismantle the reader you bought from me to use elsewhere. I must state in advance that our readers have internal encryption. Once they detect an abnormal data intrusion, they will immediately destroy their internal chips.
"Of course, I'm not suggesting you want to hack our machines. I just fear you might make an unnecessary operational error and damage it. For goods sold through this channel, we do not provide returns, exchanges, or maintenance."
"As long as there are no quality issues with your goods, I won't cause you any trouble."
"Alright. Then next, please inspect the goods."
Li Ban raised a hand, stopping the man from standing up. "Aren't you going to verify my funds?"
Jia Gu said with a face full of smiles, "Isn't your full-body Smart Mecha your proof of funds? This is worth far more than a reader!"
So they had their eyes on this mecha.
Once Li Ban finished dealing with the suicide note, he planned to leave this world that had already been discovered by Du An. This mecha naturally wouldn't be of any use to him anymore.
However, he had no intention of trading the Smart Mecha for the reader right now.
This mecha was both his disguise and his encyclopedia. Unless he completely left Trash City, he wouldn't abandon it easily.
Jia Gu stood up and pressed a few buttons on the private room's gaming interface.
Subsequently, the wall of the room opened, revealing an elevator car.
"Please, I'll take you to see the goods."
This elevator car was very small. Once Li Ban and Jia Gu stepped inside, there was barely any room left.
Moreover, Li Ban's helmet left a scratch on the car's ceiling; he had to lower his head slightly to avoid bumping into it.
"Roughly how many points do you need for the reader you're selling?"
Li Ban currently only had a one-hundred-point card.
"Normally our asking price is 1,100 points, but I'll round it off for you. 1,000 points."
It was expensive.
Li Ban had asked the Smart Mecha; the price of an ordinary reader purchased by a normal company ranged from 400 to 700 points.
Even if Li Ban wanted the latest top-tier model, it should only be around 800 points.
What Vice Minister Jia Gu and his people were selling was retired equipment from the military corps. Although there was no need to worry about performance, they were all second-hand goods.
That meant Li Ban was essentially buying it at double the price.
But he didn't say anything, nor did he haggle.
Jia Gu observed Li Ban's reaction from the side.
It was just that the external Smart Mecha prevented him from seeing anything.
Even the length of the other party's strides was mechanically controlled to be exactly identical.
He thought to himself, "No wonder he came wearing such a suit. It covers him so tightly, making it impossible to read him."
The elevator brought the two of them underground.
Just like the Western Base, there was a massive underground railway network tunnel here.
After it was abandoned, they had blocked up a few tunnel exits and turned it into their own secret base.
After transferring elevators twice, they finally arrived at the lowest level.
Li Ban also raised his vigilance.
Armed patrollers began to appear in the tunnel.
If a fight broke out here, escaping with the reader would probably force him to use his methods as a Priest.
Then not only would he expose his identity, but he might also leave traces for Du An to find.
Du An was currently still in the Wizard World, but seeing how eager he was to acquire merit, it was clear he was still very anxious to return to the Trash Realm.
Fortunately, the logistics department's second-hand market was already mature. As long as Li Ban showed no ill intent, they made no sudden moves—though they were exceptionally wary of a customer arriving in a full suit of Smart Mecha.
They were clearly also afraid that Li Ban's attitude might change, turning straight from a guest into a robber.
However, looking at Vice Minister Jia Gu's calm and composed appearance, they might even be hoping he'd reveal an intent to rob them, allowing them to get their hands on a Smart Mecha for free.
Amidst the mutual wariness and restraint of both sides, they arrived at a warehouse.
Vice Minister Jia Gu used his identity token to open the warehouse's main door. Sensing someone entering, the interior lights automatically turned on row by row.
The warehouse wasn't large. Inside, four machines were neatly placed.
They were arranged from largest to smallest.
The largest machine was a massive device one meter tall and two meters wide.
While the smallest machine was only about the size of a microwave in Li Ban's memory.
"We currently have four types of readers—"
"Which one has the strongest reading capability?"
Li Ban asked, looking at the first machine.
After all, it had the largest volume and looked like it could carry the most computing power.
But Jia Gu led Li Ban to stand next to the third machine.
This machine looked just like a small car refrigerator.
The operating interface was similar to the ones Li Ban had seen in the Northern Base before. However, the interface was more refined.
Li Ban tested it out, using a chip provided by Jia Gu to perform reading, analysis, and other operations. The system was incredibly smooth and produced almost no noise.
He then increased the computational load according to the method Nana had taught him, and the machine continued to run perfectly.
Li Ban turned back. "This is the one."
Seeing Li Ban act so decisively—not haggling over a single point and flying through the inspection—made Vice Minister Jia Gu even more convinced that the faction behind him was far from simple.
Li Ban raised a hand, pulling out a point card and handing it to Jia Gu.
Jia Gu inserted the card into a mechanical component on his arm.
The machinery flashed twice, and a number appeared on the screen.
1,000.
Li Ban peered through the Smart Mecha's visor at Jia Gu's arm. Seeing that the machinery hadn't thrown an error and had properly read the point card he'd modified using his powers, he felt relieved.
If modifying the point card's data had failed, he really might have had to pawn his Smart Mecha.
After all, Smart Mechas were pretty easy to "drop" as loot out in the wilderness.
Vice Minister Jia Gu was extremely satisfied with this transaction and immediately called someone to pack the machine for Li Ban, securing it inside a shockproof briefcase.
Li Ban picked up the briefcase with one hand and headed back the way he came.
After Li Ban left, someone stepped up beside Jia Gu and asked in a low voice, "Why does Shen 19 have the money to buy a reader? Wasn't he abandoned by the Shen Family?"
Jia Gu said with a confident smile, "It's either a smokescreen from the Shen Family, or he secretly defected to that bunch on the outside."
"The outside? You mean the Ash Alliance? If the minister finds out we sold a machine to the Ash Alliance, won't there be trouble?"
Vice Minister Jia Gu chuckled dismissively. "What are you afraid of? It doesn't matter even if it's the Ashes. Do you think the Main Brain really wants to wipe out the Ashes completely?"
His companion was stunned. This was his first time hearing such a theory.
However, Vice Minister Jia Gu just shook his head, refusing to say another word.
It was as if he had merely let it slip by accident just now.
Holding the briefcase, Li Ban left the Bottle Cap Arcade directly.
Behind him, several people were watching him. Their movements were rather obvious, caught and marked by the Smart Mecha.
Li Ban stopped in his tracks, turned around, and swept his gaze over the area behind him.
Those restless, scheming eyes immediately behaved themselves.
However, true desperadoes couldn't be scared off, especially in a place like the Bottle Cap Arcade.
Li Ban wasn't afraid either. He walked all the way from the arcade out of the outer city.
He didn't know how long his modified point card could hold up; either way, he needed to hide this identity first.
After he arrived in the outer city, the number of people tailing him had noticeably increased.
He ducked into a pile of garbage, then used a spell to leave.
The trackers waited outside the garbage pile for a long time, but didn't see anyone come out.
Li Ban's Smart Mecha made them wary, yet they couldn't bear to give up.
What if that large case was full of energy sources?
That was one of the most valuable things in the Trash Realm.
After a while longer, someone finally stepped forward. Under the guise of digging through the trash, they cautiously peeked inside the garbage pile, only to find it completely empty.
Where was the Smart Mecha?
Easily shaking off his tails, Li Ban arrived at the even more desolate wilderness.
This place was very far from the outer city and wasn't close to the war zone.
Normally, only people heading further out to scavenge trash or patrol would pass through here.
Seeing Li Ban's mecha appear, 9899—who had been hiding here all along—immediately came out and waved.
She had left the city in advance last night. Taking the signal tracker paired with Li Ban's mecha, she had found a concealed spot in the wasteland and set up a small, temporary base.