The Future yawned, bleary-eyed: “There’s no benefit for me to set you up. I’ve already adjusted your basic modifications to the optimal state, whether it’s the original body’s tolerance or the prosthetic configuration parameters, both are impeccable.”

“You may not feel any difference now, but when you really go into battle, especially using the prosthetics in combat, then you’ll understand the vast difference between professional and amateur modifications.”

Dongdong thought for a moment and asked hesitantly: “By the way, if I later replace all my original body parts with prosthetics, will I become like the robots covered in metal from the movies? That would be horrifically ugly…”

The Future slowly said: “Don’t worry, prosthetic technology is very advanced now, perfect bionics have long been achievable.”

“Bionic prosthetics can make their appearance and texture indistinguishable from the original body. Even if you replace your whole body with prosthetics, your appearance can be exactly the same as before.”

Dongdong laughed with her hands on her hips: “Then I’m relieved, or else New Moon City would lose an invincibly cute pretty girl~”

Just then, Su Mo walked in: “Hey, Dongdong can get out of bed and move around?”

He handed over a long rectangular gift box with a smile: “Look at the gift I brought you.”

“What, what!” Dongdong eagerly took it and started unwrapping immediately.

Seeing what was inside, her eyes lit up: “Wow! A baseball bat!”

A shiny silver baseball bat lay in the gift box, with a flawless surface without scratches, custom-sized to perfectly fit Dongdong’s small hand.

She swung the baseball bat and laughed happily: “Chief, how did you know I like this?”

Su Mo thought: Did you forget you ambushed me 18 times with this thing?

According to Dongdong herself, she actually has another name, but changed it to “Dongdong” because she liked the “dong, dong” sound a baseball bat makes when hitting someone on the head.

At the time, Su Mo had one thought—amusement.

The Future widened her eyes and asked: “The material of this baseball bat is… dragon steel?”

Su Mo nodded with a smile.

Dongdong asked: “What is dragon steel?”

The Future admired: “It’s a very durable specialty material, often used in high-end military equipment. Put it this way, shooting a large caliber armor-piercing bullet at this baseball bat will at most leave just a tiny white mark.”

Dongdong gasped: “Chief, this isn’t cheap, is it?”

Any material praised by the Future certainly isn’t cheap.

Just this small volume of dragon steel in the baseball bat cost Su Mo over a million.

Of course, money isn’t really important, Dongdong went through so much hardship during the remodeling, it’s only right to reward her with something.

Su Mo smiled and said: “The price is okay, as long as it feels right for you to use.”

Dongdong, straightforward by nature, wouldn’t exchange pleasantries, she swung the baseball bat excitedly and said: “With such an amazing weapon, I’ll make sure to bash in more enemies’ heads with it in the future!”

Su Mo laughed heartily.

“Ring ring.” Just then, his phone rang.

“You guys have fun, I’ll answer the call.”

He took his phone to the living room and answered: “Hello?”

A man’s enthusiastic voice came from the other end: “Hey, you must be the famous Old Su!”

“Uh?” This opener had Su Mo confused.

It felt as if a heap of dirty work no one else wanted was about to be dumped on him.

Su Mo: “Who are you?”

The person on the other end: “I’m Dress, a middleman in New Moon City.”

Su Mo was taken aback.

Dress!

The “D” in Ou Chenyu’s phone!

Last time, Ou Chenyu intercepted the Hegemony Company’s convoy on Desert Stone Road, that game mission named “Mad Sand” was commissioned by Dress.

Dress is a well-known major intermediary, his status in New Moon City’s Mercenary Realm is comparable to Audiana, so Su Mo responded courteously: “Oh hello hello, I’ve heard so much about you.”

Dress, a somewhat flamboyant self-proclaimed social butterfly, spoke as if they were chatting casually: “Little Anna gave your number to me, I heard your efficiency and quality are quite good. How about it, interested in working for me?”

In the Mercenary Realm, intermediaries compete, but they also share resources.

Today you recommend a reliable mercenary to me, tomorrow I’ll introduce you to a forthcoming employer, mutual cooperation and beneficial exchange are quite common.

For the vast majority of mercenaries, taking commissions is free, there’s no restriction like only being able to take commissions from intermediary A and not work for intermediary B.

Unless you’re an “exclusive mercenary,” like Nuobai.

Nuobai started as a free mercenary, dealing with various intermediaries.

Until she contracted Blood Code Dissociation Syndrome, to obtain gene compiling proteins, she signed an “exclusive agreement” with intermediary Elder Tang, becoming obligated to work exclusively for Elder Tang.

Normally, without signing an exclusive agreement, a mercenary working for one intermediary wouldn’t upset another.

However, if two intermediaries are involved in the same commission or some conflict of interest arises, the mercenary must consider their position carefully… of course, these are special cases and not common.

Now with a second renowned intermediary besides Audiana linking up with him, Su Mo had no reason to refuse and agreed on the spot: “Of course I’m interested, what kind of commission? Tell me the details.”

Dress laughed loudly: “Aha! Old Su is indeed straightforward!”

“It’s like this, the Iron Blood Alliance recently expanded into a new Land of No Master, lacking internal personnel, so they outsourced some work to mercenaries.”

“I got assigned a task to organize an exploratory team to a site with their internal code TL730.”

“I’ve already found a dozen people, all excellent mercenary rookies, there’s still room for a few, and Little Anna just recommended you to me, so I’m asking if you’re interested.”

“The rewards are generous! If you die, family gets compensation; if you return alive, the Iron Blood Alliance will gift you a set of ‘Black Cat Type’ prosthetics full component, all ‘Stringently Managed Level 3’ quality goods.”

Upon hearing the code “TL730,” Su Mo instantly retrieved the corresponding information from his memory bank.

TL730…

Isn’t this the location for the side mission “Entering the Ruins” in the game “Dawn”?

According to standard procedure, this mission should have been assigned to the Tiger Fang Mercenary Corps, led by Ou Chenyu, why is it coming to me now?

Moreover, it shouldn’t be happening at this time.

The word “world line alteration” suddenly popped into Su Mo’s mind!

The storyline has been changed!

In the Desert Stone Road “Mad Sand” mission, due to his obstruction, Ou Chenyu suffered heavy losses and presumably had a falling out with Dress.

This led to a rift between the two, triggering a series of subsequent butterfly effects.

During this period, clearly he didn’t directly interfere with the “Entering the Ruins” mission.

But under the indirect influence of the “Mad Sand” mission, the commission originally meant for Ou Chenyu has ended up with him prematurely!

World line changed!

…

Not hearing Su Mo’s response, Dress asked: “Hey, Old Su, why are you silent? Not satisfied with the reward? Oh yeah, I heard you’re a Mad Corpse Blood Code Carrier and can’t use prosthetics…”

“Never mind, the prosthetics can be kept for your subordinates or traded to me, I’ll buy them back at standard market price, what do you think?”

Su Mo snapped back, smiled, and said: “No, I’m not dissatisfied. Can I bring a helper?”

Dress readily said: “Of course you can, very welcome.”

Su Mo: “Alright, I’ll take the job.”

The commission reward “Black Cat Type” prosthetics are good stuff, a very powerful close combat specialized prosthetic set, buying them on the black market would cost several million.

Apart from the commission reward, Su Mo is more concerned with the things inside TL730.

The side mission “Entering the Ruins” is highly recommended by many elite players as a must-do initial task.

Because TL730 holds a weapon.

An absurdly powerful weapon in the early stage.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep