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“Aunty Xinqing, I have something to confess. Actually, I’ve awakened a certain ability ever since becoming an evolved ability user. It’s not just me. Sis Bitong, Lixiang, and Qiaoqiao have all awakened abilities too. The whole story is a little long for an impromptu conversation, I’ll fill you in when there’s more time.”

Naturally, Aunty Xinqing already knew that Bitong and the girls had some sort of ability, else she would not have been able to put them in the Bureau, no matter how much authority she wielded.

As the name suggested, this bureau wasn’t meant for ordinary civilians.

“Alright, since it’s not convenient to talk about it here, I won’t pry further.” Aunty Xinqing had complete confidence in me. Seeing as I did not want to talk now, she knew I had my reasons. She simply told me to be careful before parting with this, “Oh right, General Rodenas said he wanted to talk to you.”

She then winked at me after which the screen went black. The next time the screen lit up, a different person was displayed. A decidedly balder, ugli- Ahem… Well, the bald Raging Bear wasn’t exactly an affront to my eyes, but he certainly wasn’t related to the word handsome at all. And that shiny head… Pfft… Ahem. Laughing at his baldness would be rude, so I definitely did not do that!

“We finally meet again, Lady Mo Ke.” The bald general started off with a beaming grin in a bid to present a softer image of himself. However, with a face that even a mother wouldn’t love, smiling was only going to make him seem scarier.

I coolly nodded my head. “Greetings, General sir, I hear you’ve got something for me?”

“Actually, it’s nothing big… I just wanted to talk to Lady Mo Ke about a certain matter.” At that, the bald general blushed like a schoolboy talking to his crush. “The 12th District has a military warehouse that has been abandoned for five years. There’s a number of unused exosuits stored there. They should come in handy for you… That facility was supposed to be a maintenance facility, but it was later sealed up for reasons… I’m not entirely sure what reasons they are, but I just came across this piece of information and I thought it would help you.”

“You have my thanks, General sir.

Since the start of this zombie virus outbreak, it could be said that all the possible armed forces in Southern Plains had been mobilised. But the enemy had proven too unpredictable… Even without factoring those zombies, the appearance of those ghosts and skeletal beasts had resulted in the loss of ninety percent of Southern Plains’ forces.

The only two ways of strengthening ourselves now could be broken down into two broad categories: searching for surviving members, or scavenging usable exosuits, and then filling those exosuits up with anyone able to pilot them.

Thanks to advances in technology, the controls of an exosuit could be perfectly simulated in games. It wouldn’t be a surprise at all if some of these survivors knew how to control an exosuit.

In that sense, we weren’t really lacking in soldiers, just weapons to arm those soldiers -something General Rodenas helpfully delivered right into my hands. How thoughtful of him.

They might be five year-old goods, but something was always better than nothing. I mean… they couldn’t be worse than those entertainment exosuits we piloted, right?

“Haha, there’s no need for that. As long as Lady Mo Ke finds them useful, I’m happy.” The general scratched his non-existent hair and put on a stupid grin in response to my thanks. It was just a pity that even this series of innocent actions looked terrifying on a face like his.

Not long after closing the comms channel with Rodenas, I sent out a video call to Bitong. She quickly accepted the request and the image of her cockpit appeared before me.

“Ke, how are you doing over there?” She immediately opened up in concern.

“Everything’s fine. I’ve found the first batch of survivors, roughly fifty civilians and five SAT members.” I began telling her about my encounter. “… but now I’m faced with a lack of manpower. There are too many survivors to escort them safely to the inn. I can only leave them here for now… Oh right, there’s another important matter regarding that serum… The incubation period doesn’t seem to be constant amongst those who drank it. There might still be infected hiding amongst the survivors… I did not have much time to check them all before leaving… If possible, you guys should buy one of those 100 point virus detection kits…”

“Got it, I’ll do it right now…” She immediately attempted to access the Marketplace.

“It’s not working, the Marketplace seems to be locked down…”

“Locked down?” I tried opening up the Marketplace myself. I succeeded without any difficulty. “That can’t be right, my Marketplace is working fine. Are you sure yours is locked down?”

“I’ll try it again.” A while later, she came back with a sigh. “It failed again. The system says the Marketplace is locked down.”

“Hold on a second, Sis, I’ll have a chat with the system.”

“Got it.” Seeing my furrowed brows, she nodded simply.

I closed the comms channel and called for the system mentally.

System, get out here now! I have something to talk to you about!”

“Valued host, how may I assist you?”

Didn’t you tell me that Bitong and the girls can use the Marketplace once they are in the Book of Oaths? Why can’t they buy anything now?

“Has our valued host forgotten already? One of the requirements for opening up the Marketplace is for our valued host to be near his harem members. Should that distance exceed a hundred kilometers, they will temporarily lose the ability to access the Marketplace.”

A distance requirement, huh… Now that you mention it… I do remember you saying something like that…

“Are there any other questions, valued host?”

For some reason or another, she sounded really snarky when she said that. But wasn’t she supposed to be unfeeling, right? So how dare she get snarky with me!

System, is there some way I can lift this restriction for the girls?

“There is. For 1000 points per nameslot, our valued host can give his harem members the ability to access the Marketplace without a distance restriction.”

1000?

“That’s right. 1000. Cheap, ain’t it? That’s just 10 points per 1 km. Criminal pricing, love~”

System… I suddenly have this urge to murder someone. What should I do?

“Does our valued host wish to purchase this authority?”

Hey, don’t ignore me! Bah. I’ll buy it… I’ll buy three!

No matter how annoyed I was with the system’s unscrupulous sales tactics, I couldn’t say no. After all, what was a mere 3000 points compared to the girls? I had the strength to earn points easily now, so even if 3000 was a sizable chunk, it was manageable.

Yet when I saw my 6142 points decrease down to 3142, I still couldn’t help but feel a stab in my heart!

“Thank you for your kind patronage.”

You dirty merchant, are you not satisfied unless I murder you?!

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE