51: Chapter 51 First Test in the Military Camp

Three days later. Outskirts of the city, Third Field Army Garrison.

The huge steel gate slowly rose. A camouflage truck loaded with goods kicked up yellow dust as it stopped in the center of the parade ground.

Lin Fan jumped out of the truck.

The air was filled with a mixture of oil, sweat, and cheap tobacco. There were no city neon lights here, only the scorching sun and solemn formations.

“Unload the goods.”

Lin Fan patted the truck's metal cargo bed.

These boxes were different from the flashy blind boxes on the market.

These were the “Military Special Edition” that Lin Fan had rushed to produce overnight.

The materials used were extremely solid.

All D-grade or higher mutated beast flesh and blood, even mixed with the heart blood of several C-grade ferocious beasts.

“These are the supplies you’re delivering?”

A rough voice, like sandpaper grinding across a tabletop, spoke.

Thunder Tiger.

Centurion of the Third Field Army, a mid-stage Martial Master.

He was shirtless, his bronze skin covered with crisscrossing scars, like ugly centipedes. He walked to the pile of boxes and kicked them with the tip of his tactical boot.

“A hundred lumps of iron.”

Thunder Tiger turned around, his gaze cutting across Lin Fan’s face like a knife, “The City Lord’s Mansion said you would provide us with life-saving good stuff. Is this it?”

The surrounding soldiers burst into laughter.

They were grunts who risked their lives. They believed in the guns in their hands, the knives on their backs, and the backs of their comrades.

Blind boxes?

That kind of trick to fool little girls, brought into the military camp, was simply a joke.

“Officer Lei.”

Lin Fan wasn’t angry.

He pulled out a pack of special Huazi cigarettes from his pocket, drew one out, and offered it, “On the battlefield, luck is also part of strength. Isn’t it?”

“Slap.”

Thunder Tiger slapped the cigarette out of Lin Fan’s hand.

The cigarette drew an arc in the air and landed in the dust.

The atmosphere instantly solidified.

The unloaders turned pale with fright and all shrank back.

“Don’t pull that stunt on me.”

Thunder Tiger approached Lin Fan, the strong smell of blood assailing him, “Every drop of my soldiers’ blood is precious. I don’t have time to play these games of chance with you. Take your trash and get out.”

He was a man who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He hated opportunistic merchants like this the most.

Lin Fan looked at the cigarette on the ground.

He bent down, picked it up, blew off the dust, then put it in his mouth and lit it.

“Phew.”

A puff of smoke was exhaled onto Thunder Tiger’s dark face.

“Officer Lei.”

Lin Fan’s voice wasn’t loud, but it silenced the entire scene, “You don’t dare to gamble?”

The old trick, still provocation.

It was low-level, but very effective on a straightforward person like Thunder Tiger.

“I don’t dare?”

Thunder Tiger’s veins bulged on his forehead, “When I was sleeping among piles of dead bodies, you were still wearing open-crotch pants.”

“Then let’s try.”

Lin Fan pointed to the boxes on the ground, “Open them on the spot. If the items opened are useless, I, Lin Fan, will eat these hundred blind boxes raw. If they are useful…”

He paused, a characteristic Shrewd Merchant smile appearing on his face.

“Then from now on, I want all the discarded materials from the Third Field Army.”

“Good.”

Thunder Tiger, furious, laughed instead, “I’ll let you die knowing why, Old Liu.”

“Here!”

From the ranks, a gaunt old soldier stepped forward.

His left sleeve was empty and swayed in the wind. A terrifying scar, from his brow bone to his chin, disfigured half of his face.

“Old Liu retired the year before last. His arm was bitten off by a C-grade Shadow Wolf, damaging his nerves, and now he can’t even lift a knife.”

Thunder Tiger pointed at Old Liu, a hint of undetectable sadness in his tone, “If you can make him say ‘good,’ I’ll salute you.”

Lin Fan looked at Old Liu.

The old soldier’s eyes were cloudy, like stagnant water. It was the numbness of having completely lost hope in life.

“Old Squad Leader.”

Lin Fan picked out a box from the pile and handed it over, “Want to try your luck?”

This was a [Medical Blind Box].

Inside, it sealed the Regenerative Gland of a D-grade mutated gecko.

Old Liu took the box with his remaining right hand.

It was heavy.

He didn’t speak, just mechanically pressed the switch.

“Click.”

The lid popped open.

There was no dazzling golden light, only a faint green mist drifting out, carrying a fresh, earthy scent.

A green test tube lay quietly in the cushioning foam.

[Item: Lizard Regeneration Potion (Military Modified Version)]

[Quality: D+ Grade]

[Effect: Greatly stimulates cell activity, repairs nerve damage, with a certain chance of inducing limb regeneration.]

“Drink it, or apply it to the wound.”

Lin Fan said concisely.

Old Liu hesitated.

He glanced at Thunder Tiger, and seeing his officer nod, bit open the stopper.

He didn’t drink it.

Instead, he directly poured the green liquid onto his empty left shoulder wound.

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!”

A sound like something being scorched rang out.

Old Liu’s numb face instantly contorted.

“Ugh!”

He let out a suppressed roar, falling to his knees, his body trembling violently, and cold sweat instantly soaked his military uniform.

“Bastard, what did you give him?!”

Thunder Tiger’s face changed dramatically, he grabbed Lin Fan’s collar, and raised his fist.

“Don’t move.”

Lin Fan’s expression was calm, and he pointed at Old Liu’s shoulder, “Look.”

Thunder Tiger subconsciously turned his head.

He saw that Old Liu’s scar, which had long since healed and was a deathly gray, was now turning crimson.

Granulation tissue.

Countless tiny, pink granulation tissues, as if alive, wriggled and intertwined madly.

“Itch… so itchy…”

Old Liu squeezed out a sound from his throat.

He clutched the dirt on the ground, not even noticing his fingernails breaking.

That itch was an itch that came from the bone marrow.

It was the itch of life re-emerging.

Three minutes.

Only three minutes had passed.

Old Liu stopped trembling.

He panted heavily, raised his head, and his cloudy eyes were now filled with incredible ecstasy.

“Officer…”

Old Liu tremblingly controlled his left shoulder.

That originally bare stump had actually grown a small, tumor-like piece of tissue. Although ugly, and not yet fully grown into an arm.

But he felt it.

The nerves had reconnected.

That long-lost feeling of being able to control his muscles had returned.

“I can feel it… I can feel it moving!”

Old Liu cried tears of joy, wailing like a child.

Silence.

Among the thousands of soldiers on the parade ground, not even a breath could be heard.

Limb regeneration.

This was something only expensive B-grade or higher regeneration potions could achieve. One on the market would cost at least 500,000, and even then, it was hard to find.

And now, it came out of this dark iron box?

“This…”

Thunder Tiger released Lin Fan’s collar.

He looked at Old Liu’s wriggling stump, his Adam’s apple bobbing with difficulty.

“Shall we continue?”

Lin Fan tidied his collar, his tone as calm as if asking about the weather.

“Open, keep opening!”

Thunder Tiger suddenly turned around and roared at his soldiers, “First Battalion, all of you get over here! Open the boxes.”

Doubt?

In the face of tangible efficacy, all doubts were nonsense.

The scene instantly erupted.

Dozens of soldiers rushed forward, each grabbing a box.

“Click! Click!”

The sounds of boxes opening rose and fell.

“Holy crap! What is this? An energy shield?”

A new recruit held a metal disc and accidentally pressed it.

“Buzz!”

A light blue translucent shield instantly unfurled, protecting him entirely.

[Item: E-grade Individual Psionic Shield]

[Effect: Can withstand a full-force blow from a one-star Martial Artist. Recharge time: 1 hour.]

“Really?”

A veteran next to him, not believing it, pulled out his tactical dagger and stabbed at it with all his might.

“Clang!”

Sparks flew.

The dagger was bounced off, and the light shield only rippled slightly.

“A divine artifact, this is a life-saving divine artifact!”

The recruit was so excited he was incoherent. With this thing, his survival rate in a beast tide would increase by at least 30%.

“Mine is a potion, red.”

Another soldier held up a bubbling red potion.

[Item: Low-grade Berserk Potion (Side-effect-free version)]

[Effect: Temporarily increases strength and speed by 30%. Weakness for 10 minutes after the effect ends, no permanent damage.]

Side-effect-free.

These four words were a golden signboard. The berserk pills on the market would leave you half-dead if not completely dead after consumption, yet this stuff only caused weakness for ten minutes?

One hundred blind boxes.

In less than ten minutes, all of them were opened.

Not a single one was empty.

The worst items were several pieces of high-energy compressed beast jerky, one piece of which could stave off hunger for three days.

The best even yielded an Alloy Battle Saber mixed with profound iron, capable of cutting through iron like mud.

Lin Fan stood aside, watching this group of grunts in a frenzy.

The system’s notification sound was wildly scrolling through his mind.

[Ding, customer opened E-grade shield, triggered hundred-fold return, obtained C-grade item: Force Field Generator Blueprint.]

[Ding, customer opened Berserk Potion, triggered hundred-fold return, obtained B-grade pill formula: Dragon Blood Boiling Powder.]

[Ding,...]

He made a killing.

The cost of this batch of blind boxes was merely a pile of unwanted scraps and a few low-grade inner cores.

But what he got in return was massive prestige and high-grade items.

Indeed, the military was the biggest consumer group.

“Lin… Brother Lin.”

Thunder Tiger walked over.

This time, his dark red face was beaming with smiles, even carrying a hint of deference.

His previous arrogance had long been thrown to the wind.

“Slap.”

Thunder Tiger stood at attention, chest out, hand raised.

A standard military salute.

“It was my, Thunder Tiger’s, ignorance just now.”

Thunder Tiger’s voice was loud, “I apologize to Brother Lin.”

He was a rough man.

Whoever could save a few more of his soldiers’ lives was like his own father.

Lin Fan returned an awkward salute.

“Officer Lei, you exaggerate. We are all fighting against mutated beasts, just with different roles.”

“Yes, yes, yes, different roles!”

Thunder Tiger wrapped an arm around Lin Fan’s shoulder, a force that almost sent Lin Fan flying.

He pulled Lin Fan aside, away from the soldiers with pricked ears.

His voice lowered, as if he were a thief.

“Uh… Brother Lin.”

Thunder Tiger rubbed his hands, his face full of anticipation, “Could you perhaps allocate more of these special blind boxes next month? You know, we’re going to guard that damned Rift No. 3, and casualties are high…”

“If those bastards from the First Battalion knew I had these good things, they’d definitely try to snatch them. Could you… privately save me two hundred more?”

Lin Fan looked at Thunder Tiger’s eager eyes.

He smiled.

The fish had taken the bait.

And it was a big fish.

“Two hundred?”

Lin Fan shook his head.

Thunder Tiger’s heart sank, “No? One hundred fifty is fine too!”

“No.”

Lin Fan extended a hand, fingers spread.

“Five hundred.”

“As long as Officer Lei can guarantee the supply of raw materials, I will give you five hundred slots every month.”

Thunder Tiger was stunned.

Then, ecstasy surged in his heart.

“Deal.”

Thunder Tiger excitedly slapped his thigh, “From now on, all the mutated beasts hunted by the Third Field Army, apart from those to be handed over, are yours! Whoever dares to snatch from you, I’ll shoot them!”

The two exchanged smiles.

A rough, large hand and a slender, fair hand clasped tightly together.

The sun set in the west.

Stretching their shadows long.

Lin Fan looked at the system space, now filled with gains, and his crazy plan finally took its most solid step.

The military line was connected.

Next.

It was time to bring this “blind box opening” joy to all of humanity.