22: Level 5 base

Although most of the chat channel was filled with meaningless chatter, it still provided a lot of information.

He closed the chat system and checked the exchange conditions; indeed, it was five points for one resource crate.

Resource crates were divided into three types: steel, fuel, and rare ore.

The first two cost one hundred points each, while rare ore only cost fifty points.

Additionally, some people in the chat channel mentioned that the equipment crates could yield good items, such as a pack of ten C4 explosives or fragmentation grenades, or advanced bulletproof suits, among other useful things.

After a quick calculation, Li Xiao exchanged for ten steel crates, five fuel crates, and fifteen rare ore crates.

Because of the morning's battle, he had captured four to five hundred points of fuel, and he was only four hundred points short of the fuel needed to upgrade his base to level five, so he exchanged for more rare ore here.

He used the remaining eighty points to exchange for equipment crates.

“Come on, let’s see if I’m unlucky or not!”

With a tap of his finger, Li Xiao's backpack flashed, an equipment crate opened, and a set of pitch-black bulletproof armor appeared.

This was a high-grade defensive suit called Special Bulletproof Armor, including a bulletproof vest and a full titanium alloy bulletproof helmet, capable of reducing sixty percent of damage.

“Di Yun’s bulletproof vest and helmet were blown up by a missile, so this set will be for him.”

Di Yun’s bulletproof vest had taken many bullets since he enlisted and only had about twenty percent durability left; yesterday, an anti-tank missile directly destroyed it.

The second crate opened to reveal an assault rifle, a light yellow-coated SCAR assault rifle equipped with a 2x scope, an infrared sight, and an extended forty-round magazine.

Its lethality was more than ten points higher than the standard QBZ-19 assault rifle, and headshots could inflict an additional seven to eight points of damage, though its firing rate was slightly weaker.

However, this SCAR excelled with many tactical attachments, offering a clear advantage in medium-range engagements, so Li Xiao still gave this rifle to Di Yun.

The third crate yielded ten sets of jungle camouflage, which were ghillie suits, not immediately useful to Li Xiao, but he could send one set to Zhao Feipeng first.

When the fourth crate opened, Li Xiao paused; it was a four-rotor reconnaissance drone, slightly larger than his palm, which felt like a modified civilian aerial photography drone.

It had a forty-minute endurance and a maximum flight radius of five kilometers.

“Hey, giving this to Zhao Feipeng might significantly enhance his search capabilities!”

Now, after an entire day and night, Zhao Feipeng still hadn't found Luo Feng's base; with this drone, it might be twice as effective.

“Yang Chao, make another trip and deliver this camouflage suit and drone to Zhao Feipeng.”

“Yes, sir!”

After dealing with these items, Li Xiao felt a bit of a loss; his overall strength hadn't improved much, he had only gained some resources, and he had almost lost his life.

After opening all the resource crates, he had enough resources for a level five base, so Li Xiao immediately clicked upgrade.

It was already past midnight, and Li Xiao did not use the refreshed conscription order.

He now had experience and knew that base upgrades often unlocked new unit types; if he waited until the base upgrade was complete before using the conscription order, he might get new units.

The upgrade speed for a level five base was noticeably slower; it took until noon the next day, roughly twelve hours, for the base to complete its upgrade.

A level five base now had an area of six thousand square meters.

Li Xiao eagerly opened the base information panel, and this time, the base provided two new buildings at once.

One was a warehouse; as players survived longer in the Otherworld (Otherworld), they would acquire more items.

Although one hundred slots could be stacked infinitely, each type of item still occupied one slot.

A built warehouse could directly store surplus materials, with one hundred slots per warehouse, also infinitely stackable.

This warehouse also had extremely high durability, two hundred thousand points; it would likely take more than a dozen anti-tank missiles like yesterday's to destroy it.

Of course, the warehouse was also quite expensive, costing five hundred points of steel and two hundred points of rare ore.

The second building made Li Xiao's eyes light up.

Primary Military Academy: A functional facility dedicated to training comprehensive combat capabilities for all land, sea, and air units. Once academy instructors are stationed, corresponding unit types can undergo systematic training to improve individual soldier ratings.

The first time he checked Di Yun's information, he noticed that his rating was G-rank and also had a star indicator.

After nearly a week of combat, Di Yun had already been promoted to Private First Class, and his rating had increased to G-rank 5 stars.

It's worth noting that the increased health cap Li Xiao gave to Di Yun and others seemed not to be included in the system's strength evaluation criteria, so Di Yun's true overall strength should already far exceed his current rating.

This military academy aimed to improve soldiers' combat abilities through theoretical methods, but the prerequisite was to have specialized instructors stationed there.

And he felt that it probably wasn't free; it would definitely cost money, and the training time would certainly not be short.

The construction cost of the military academy was exactly four times that of the warehouse; Li Xiao currently had no resources available, so he could only put it aside for now.

“Resources, oh resources, I still need to get resources!”

At noon, Li Xiao took the time to use the three conscription orders, and surprisingly, he actually managed to recruit a new unit type: a Sniper!

Seeing the Sniper, Li Xiao recalled how badly they were suppressed by snipers during the Banshan Steel Factory battle.

If they had a Sniper back then to counter that Black Hawk Empire bastard, they wouldn't have handed over their hard-won victory to the Tian Chao Squad.

The newly enlisted Sniper was named Yan Yizhou, and he used a QBU-A7 sniper rifle with a ten-round magazine and an effective range of 900 meters.

This rifle used 5.56mm general-purpose rifle ammunition and could also use dedicated sniper ammunition/armor-piercing rounds of the same caliber; headshots, even with a Kevlar helmet, could deal eighty-five points or more of damage.

The other two conscription orders yielded one Scout and one Communications Soldier.

The Communications Soldier who arrived yesterday unfortunately sacrificed himself, and now another one came, filling the vacancy.

His total troop strength was now sixteen, exactly two standard squads.

After adding one thousand health to Yan Yizhou, Li Xiao began to consider the matter of resources.

His current fixed income was one hundred seventy points of all three resources from Wu Feng Town and two hundred fifty points of steel from Banshan Steel Factory, a pitifully small income.

Li Xiao truly couldn't care less about such meager income; ever since he struck it rich at the Transit Yard, he felt that fighting the Black Hawk Empire's forces was the only way to make real progress.

After thinking for a long time without any clear ideas, Li Xiao simply contacted Liu Nian.

Liu Nian was actually also idle, mainly due to insufficient troops and ammunition, so he could only slowly develop.

As soon as he heard Li Xiao wanted to go out and be active, Liu Nian immediately responded.

The two of them synthesized the map information and unanimously decided to head to Xi City to try their luck.