122: Chapter 122 The blonde, wavy-haired woman was indeed hiding something good.

You have to admire her; this woman was begging for mercy even in her dreams.

Qin Feng's index and middle fingers subconsciously came together, gesturing in the air as if weighing something.

Kill her, and that's the end of it—saves all the trouble.

Don't kill her, keep her, and maybe, just like she said, there could be some kind of "repayment"?

Didn't the system prompt say important things three times?

Sigh! Better just kill her; this woman is nothing but a burden.

Qin Feng looked down at his own metal legs.

"Repayment... what could she possibly use to repay me? The maintenance costs for these legs are very expensive."

He remembered the system's 100 military merit reward for prisoners, and then recalled how familiar this woman was with the underground base.

A bold idea popped into his mind.

Maybe he should keep her for now and see if she has any other valuable intelligence.

Even getting a little more military merit would be good.

Qin Feng made up his mind; once this woman's utility was drained, or if her "repayment" wasn't substantial enough, he would turn her into military merit the first chance he got.

After all, a burden with limited mobility would only slow down his draw speed if he took her along.

But for now, looking at Lanna in this half-dead state, if he didn't save her, she would probably kick the bucket before he could collect his debt.

Qin Feng sighed and opened the wretched military merit store.

[Battlefield First Aid Kit (Basic): Contains nano-repair gel, potent painkiller, broad-spectrum antibiotic, needle-free injector, synthetic skin patches, etc. Price: 100 military merit/unit.]

Looking at that "100 military merit" price tag, Qin Feng's heart felt like it had been tightly clenched by an invisible hand.

It hurt!

Heart-wrenching pain!

This was one hundred military merit! Not one hundred bucks! That could buy two "Queens Whip"s.

But then he thought about it—this thing was an entire kit, and the items inside could be used repeatedly, unlike the steamed bun which was a one-time consumable.

In the long run, the cost-performance ratio seemed... not bad?

Maybe if he got injured in the future, he could even perform surgery on himself or something.

"Investment! This is all an investment for the future!"

While building up his mental resolve, Qin Feng gritted his back teeth and roared in his consciousness: "Buy!"

[Ding! 100 military merit consumed, [Battlefield First Aid Kit (Basic)] has been delivered to the system space.]

[military merit: 185 points]

Looking at his instantly shrunken military merit balance, Qin Feng felt his heart bleeding.

He took out the silver-white metal box from the system space. After opening it, rows of medical tools shimmering with futuristic technology were neatly displayed inside.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Feng's gaze became focused and calm, as if he had returned to that all-capable Soldier King state from his past life.

"Surgery, starting now."

He looked at Lanna's right leg; the situation there was even worse than he had imagined.

A threaded steel bar with a diameter of over three centimeters had pierced through the outside of her calf and exited from the inside, pinning her leg firmly to the ground.

The other end of the steel bar had been bent by immense force and was deeply embedded in the concrete floor.

Never mind an injured woman, even if a strong man came along, he wouldn't be able to get this thing out by brute force.

If not for Qin Feng, her only ending would be to bleed out her last drop of blood right here.

"Little spider, get to work."

The bionic spider crawled down from his wrist. Its eight limbs rapidly deformed, and the tips combined into eight synchronously operating high-frequency vibration cutting wheels.

"Hum—zzzzz—"

The piercing sound of cutting echoed in the silent pipe, accompanied by a series of dazzling sparks, and the hard steel bar was forcibly cut off at the base.

But this was only the beginning.

The truly high-difficulty part was still to come.

Qin Feng took the needle-free injector from the first aid kit, drew a dose of potent anesthetic and a dose of antibiotic, and with a "pfft" sound, completed the injection into the artery at Lanna's neck.

"This is the down payment; the interest starts counting from now," he muttered to himself expressionlessly.

After finishing the preparations, he laid out the instruments from the first aid kit on the ground in order.

Then, he walked over and gripped the steel bar that was still embedded in Lanna's leg, covered in blood and gore.

Cold, slick, and nauseating.

He adjusted his breathing, his metal leg bones digging deep into the ground, steady as a rock.

"Hang in there."

He said this to the unconscious woman, then exerted force suddenly!

"Ugh—ah—!"

The heart-wrenching, lung-tearing pain instantly pierced through the anesthetic's defense!

Lanna, who had been unconscious, arched her body violently, her tightly closed eyes snapping open!

Those azure blue eyes were filled with boundless pain, her mouth wide open, yet she couldn't make a sound due to the extreme agony.

She had woken up.

In her pupils, which had dilated drastically from terror, a blank-faced man was clearly reflected, using a force bordering on cruel to pull that damn steel bar out of her mangled leg, bit by bit...

The severe pain was like a tsunami, instantly engulfing Lanna's consciousness completely.

A torn scream erupted from her throat, and then, her head tilted to the side, and she passed out again.

Qin Feng ignored this.

The muscles in his arms bulged, veins like coiled dragons, exerting force steadily without the slightest tremor.

With a dull, tearing sound of "squelch," the entire steel bar was forcibly pulled out of Lanna's leg.

Warm blood, like an uncontrolled fountain, instantly sprayed out.

"Damn it, what a waste."

Qin Feng cursed under his breath, but his movements were fast as lightning.

He threw away the steel bar and lightning-fast grabbed the nano-repair gel spray from the first aid kit, aiming it at the mangled hole and pressing down hard.

"Sss—"

The translucent blue gel instantly covered the entire wound.

The blood that was still gushing out wildly seemed to have met its nemesis, and was immediately solidified and stopped.

"One hundred military merit—I can't let you waste a single drop."

To avoid suspicion, he did not completely heal the wound.

Qin Feng wiped the blood off his hands, looked at his masterpiece, and nodded with satisfaction.

If the combat medics from his past life saw this smooth, fluid operation, they would probably kneel down on the spot to ask to be his apprentices.

After doing all this, all that was left was to wait.

Once the anesthetic wore off, this beautiful debtor would wake up.

In his spare time, he thoroughly searched the debtor's backpack and suddenly discovered another hidden pocket inside.

Reaching in to touch it, there was something inside, and it felt hard.

He took it out and saw it was a black, hard metal box the size of a palm.

This box was different from all the military equipment he had seen before.

Its surface had not a single scratch, it was pitch black, the material was neither gold nor iron, it felt ice-cold to the touch, yet carried a strange sense of warmth.

The seams of the box were airtight, and he couldn't find any latches or buttons to open it.

Qin Feng weighed it in his hand; it was very light, and it seemed to be hollow inside.

"Interesting."

He didn't use brute force to smash it, but instead summoned the bionic spider.

The tips of the spider's limbs extended several probes finer than embroidery needles, and along the seams of the box, it began high-precision acoustic detection and structural analysis.

[Beep... Analyzing locking mechanism... It is a composite pressure-sensitive combination lock...]

[Attempting to crack... Over one billion password combinations... Estimated cracking time: 72 hours...]

"So troublesome?" Qin Feng frowned.

However, he suddenly thought of something, and a wicked smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

He grabbed the hand of the woman who was still lying unconscious on the ground and pressed her thumb onto the surface of the metal box.

[Beep! Fingerprint verification passed!]

[Beep! Pressure sensor verification passed!]

[Beep! Heart rate... verification failed... target heart rate too low...]

"Heh, quite smart."