This is really not mechanical ascension-Chapter 40 - The Gigashield Company’s Pickup Card

Transfer +5000 Star Coins

The limping man’s eyelids suddenly twitched, this kid was truly going mad; the past couple of days were only in small amounts, a thousand, two thousand, but today it jumped directly to five thousand.

Only an F-grade life form would have this level of bounty.

He’s too bold!

“Taking the risk to deliver stuff to you, isn’t so you can be a blood-licking Bounty Hunter,” the limping man frowned and muttered to himself.

He’d thought about giving Li Ming a piece of advice, to calm him down a bit.

But after opening the call window, he closed it again; he had only met Li Ming once and had no right to caution him.

“Forget it, ‘fortune and disaster are brought by oneself.'” The limping man shook his head, he had his own problems to worry about.

“Limping man, hurry up, the shift change is almost over; if you don’t come now, you won’t be able to smuggle through.” In the dark night dotted with stars, someone called out softly in the distance.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

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…

“Hmm, ninety thousand.”

Two hours later, Li Ming sat on the bed, watching the various seductive poses of the virtual poster girl on the wall changing.

He looked at his Black Hole Network balance, and next to his Bounty Hunter avatar, another star appeared, a notification window popped up—

“Congratulations on becoming a one-star Bounty Hunter, please continue to strive for higher bounties, and leave your own legend across the stars.”

A one-star Bounty Hunter needed to complete tasks with a total bounty of one hundred thousand; to rise to two stars, one needed a million, and so on.

The advantage was, when claiming high-value bounties, you’d get to be noticed earlier by the issuers, as well as gradually unlocking other permissions.

As a two-star Bounty Hunter, you could unlock the Scavenger’s privilege, which allowed you, in certain places, to pay the Black Hole Network to clean up traces.

He glanced at the City Guard’s internal network, obtaining several pieces of information.

“The first batch of Bounty Hunters has already started to take action, so I can make my moves a bit bigger too.”

…

The next morning, facing the morning mist, Li Ming went to work.

For the past seven or eight days, Silver Grey City had become increasingly chaotic; the gang firefights in the outer city had already caused more than twenty civilian casualties.

The higher-ups were at their wits’ end, and the rest time of the lower staff had gradually reduced, some clerks even received non-dangerous field assignments.

Just as he reached the office and hadn’t even sat down to warm his seat, Old Knife walked out of Yang Peng’s room, brisk and decisive: “Old Diao, Li Ning, Li Ming, the three of you come with me.”

“Brother Knife, where are we going?” Old Diao packed his things while biting a pork bun.

“So many questions, just follow me.” Old Knife led them down to the 57th floor—the operations equipment warehouse.

“Get four Mimic Masks.” Old Diao showed his ID and told the colleague at the window.

“Tail surveillance huh…” Old Diao realized as the side gate opened and four metal boxes came on a conveyor belt.

Opening them, a thin-as-cicada-wing “face” laid on top.

“One for each.” Old Diao distributed them, and Li Ning taught Li Ming: “This is an Optical Mimicry Mask, the facial coating can change your appearance.”

Li Ming accepted it, his eyes flashed slightly—

[N-2 Intelligent Optical Mimicry Mask—F-grade: Made of liquid colloid mixed with various chemical materials.

Control Conditions: 40 points of metal energy

Control Effect: Concealing Blessing—40%

Control Ability—Mimicry: Slight facial data adjustments, easier to be discovered.]

Li Ming followed the instructions, casually pinched a face, and then adhered the cool “skin” to his own.

It felt as if something was wriggling on his face.

Checking with the smart terminal’s front camera, he indeed looked different.

However, this minor adjustment was quite crude.

Upon closer inspection, one could still spot some clues, such as the pupils and ears remaining unchanged.

Not to mention other features, but if upgraded, his ability should gradually strengthen, he mused secretly.

“We’re heading to Giant Shield Insurance Company.”

It was only after they left the door that Lao Dao informed them of their destination.

“Giant Shield?” Lao Diao raised his voice a few notches, “That damned place has special operational rights, we can’t search there.”

“That’s why we’re going to tail someone,” said Lao Dao, getting straight to the point.

“Tail who?” Lao Diao was puzzled.

“Captain Yang said that in Scar-faced Tiger’s safety deposit box, there’s a Giant Shield Company pick-up card.”

“It seems to be something Scar-faced Tiger planned to give Tu Zheng on the Fierce Tiger Gang’s founding anniversary, said to be quite precious.

Killing Scar-faced Tiger, someone might come to pick it up.”

A pick-up card?

Li Ming was slightly stunned, then his spirit perked up.

Could it be that card?

“It’s been ten days, I’m afraid someone has taken it already,” Lao Diao said nonchalantly.

Lao Dao shook his head, “No, they say it’s something big.

Captain Yang had people on watch previously, and every large item matching the description that was taken out has been thoroughly inspected by him.”

“This time we’re understaffed; we’re just filling in for the day.”

How does Yang Peng know about this?

Is there someone from Yang Peng in the Fierce Tiger Gang?

Li Ming was brimming with conjecture and couldn’t help asking, “We have a search warrant, yet we can’t inspect Giant Shield Company?”

“Giant Shield Company has special operational rights.

Even the supreme court’s order can only require their cooperation; not to mention a search warrant, it’s no use even if Minister Qin went,” Li Ning shook his head.

Giant Shield Company…

Li Ming thoughtfully activated his smart terminal to search.

It was a massive inter-civilization company that undertook transportation, storage, and security tasks.

It enjoyed special operational rights in multiple civilizations and boasted to be—”The most solid barrier!”

Essentially, it was an interstellar version of a courier company.

Various storage options could be chosen, including real-name authentication and anonymous storage…

He glanced at the anonymous storage option—it was a special storage service designed specifically for those without local civilization citizenship.

Although Giant Shield Company had special operational rights, the precondition was that they had to comply with local civil laws.

Anonymous storage emerged to exploit loopholes.

Commonly known as “recognize the card, not the person,” the card was specially customized, and to mislead onlookers, it could even bear the logos of other companies.

Most of the members of the outer city gangs, including Scar-faced Tiger, were essentially Star Creation Company miners without Blue Star citizen status.

Giant Shield Insurance Company was not far from the city guard headquarters, but Li Ming had never come in this direction before.

A massive golden shield hung on the building with a prominent black cross in the center emitting a dazzling light.

There were many people coming and going, all dressed in suits and leather shoes.

There was also a large delivery outlet on the ground, which was closed at the moment.

“Lao Diao, you go there.

Li Ning…

Li Ming…” Lao Dao instructed, finding spots for everyone, mainly around the large delivery outlet.

“Anyone taking away a large item, we need to note it down,” Lao Dao ordered over the channel.

In principle, surveillance cameras would’ve made tailing unnecessary.

But, out of privacy considerations, Giant Shield Company had no surveillance cameras within a five-hundred-meter radius, which was part of their special franchise rights.

Just then, the large delivery outlet under the building slowly opened.

With a buzzing sound, the heavy metallic door receded, and a metal container rose.

The transport spacecraft was already prepared, pushed the container into the ship, blue flames spurted, and the ship ascended.

“You wait here, I’m going to have a look…” Lao Dao’s eyes flickered slightly.

Tailing was tedious, several large items within the size range were taken out, but they all checked out fine.

As daylight waned and shifts changed, the group returned to headquarters and returned their Mimic Masks.

Li Ming went home, retrieved the magnetic card from under the floorboard, thought for a moment, and also took the splendid recommendation letter with him.