17: Chapter 17 Signing the Contract

"I want to stay!!!"

Before Zhou An could finish his sentence, Luo Ning jumped right up from her chair, her speed so fast it was as if she were afraid Zhou An might go back on his word.

She grabbed Zhou An's sleeve, her clear, large eyes filled with pitiful pleading; the previous attitude she had shown was nowhere to be found.

"Big Boss! Boss! Please take me in!"

Luo Ning wailed without a shred of integrity.

"I never want to float in the sky to sleep again! I never want to be cold and hungry again! You have no idea what it feels like to be woken up by the cold wind in the middle of the night and open your eyes to see a Bat Monster licking your face. I was really going crazy!"

"As long as you let me stay, I'll be your thug, your bodyguard, and I'll fix your machines! Just cover my room and board!"

Watching this girl who changed her face faster than turning a page, Zhou An's mouth twitched twice. However, he had actually already considered recruiting her. In these dangerous clouds, one person could only do so much; having a powerful helper who also understood mechanics would definitely be like adding wings to a tiger.

"Alright, alright, let go." Zhou An pulled his sleeve back. "Since you want to stay, we'll do things by the rules. In a while, I'll use some materials to partition off a small single room for you in the living area, and I'll get you a bed and a few sets of clothes to change into. But let's get this straight: you are not allowed to wander into my core area."

"No problem! Long live the Boss!" Luo Ning gave a salute with excitement.

Zhou An nodded, then cut to the chase: "Since you'll be following me from now on, give me the bottom line. Regarding your Mad Scientist talent, besides being able to lock your health, how exactly does this 'scientific research' work?"

Luo Ning immediately put away her playful expression, her demeanor becoming professional.

"Simply put, it's probability-based upgrades and blueprint alienation."

She explained, "When my SAN value is at a low point, as long as I am provided with enough materials and original equipment, I have a certain probability of directly upgrading this piece of equipment or causing it to mutate, granting it special attributes."

"However, this probability is very metaphysical; if it fails, all materials will be scrapped. But as long as it succeeds, the returns are terrifyingly high."

To prove her value, Luo Ning directly opened her personal equipment panel and showed the attributes of two items to Zhou An.

[Item 1: Micro Swarm Rocket Nest (Purple)]

Source: Alienated and modified from an ordinary micro rocket launcher.

Characteristics: Ammunition consumption halved, fired rockets come with target-seeking tracking functions, and they split into three sub-munitions of high-explosive shrapnel after detonation.

[Item 2: Individual Repulsion Generator (Purple)]

Source: Alienated and modified from a Tier 1 bulletproof vest (already integrated into the tight combat suit).

Characteristics: When suffering a fatal physical attack, it instantly bursts with a layer of powerful repulsion shield, knocking away all surrounding Tier 1/Tier 2 creatures. Cooldown: 12 hours.

"All of them are Purple tier?!" Zhou An gasped.

He completely understood now. No wonder this girl dared to output wildly in that extreme, dark high altitude of 20,000 meters, bearing the brunt of a tide of thousands of Tier 2 monsters.

That [Swarm Rocket Nest] ensured her abnormal clearing efficiency, and this [Individual Repulsion Generator] was her ultimate trump card that allowed her to charge in and out of the beast horde! If it weren't for the exhaustion of energy and ammunition, those monsters wouldn't have been able to touch a corner of her clothes.

"How about it? Boss, am I a qualified thug?"

Luo Ning lifted her chin with some pride.

Zhou An looked at her.

Luo Ning's probability-based upgrades required massive amounts of materials to pile up, which was exactly what poor people couldn't afford to play with.

But who was Zhou An?

The ultimate tycoon who was ranked first on the material leaderboard by a landslide! With [Compound Interest] for infinite growth and [Level Up!] to mass-produce high-level materials!

The thing he lacked the least was materials!

"Qualified, absolutely qualified." Zhou An laughed; the two of them were a perfect, system-level complement to each other.

Luo Ning suddenly seemed to remember something and pulled a piece of parchment emitting a faint golden light from her system space.

She pushed the parchment toward Zhou An and said with a serious expression, "Boss, since I've decided to follow you from now on, let's sign this."

Zhou An looked down, his gaze instantly freezing.

[Cooperation Contract (Special Item)]

Function: Binds both parties as absolute teammates. During the contract period, both parties will activate a damage penalty mechanism.

Bylaws: Both parties can freely draft no more than five additional clauses on this contract. If violated, the breaching party will suffer extremely severe system penalties, including but not limited to erasure.

"How do you have something like this?" Zhou An was greatly shocked. In this sky survival world full of suspicion between people, this thing was the ultimate proof of trust.

"I got lucky when opening a blind box earlier; it came out of a Silver Chest."

Luo Ning shrugged.

"It's perfect to use it to bind with you now. I'm handing my back to you, so you need to be able to trust me, right?"

Zhou An looked at her with appreciation. This girl seemed crazy, but she was actually sharp and extremely decisive in her actions. With this system-backed contract, he no longer had to worry about letting a wolf into the house and being stabbed in the back.

"Alright, then let's set a few rules." Zhou An picked up the pen on the table.

After a brief discussion, the two wrote down a few core clauses on the parchment:

Clause 1: Luo Ning must not disclose Zhou An's material reserves, vehicle structure, special abilities, or other core privacy to any third party in any form, including verbally, in writing, or via code.

Clause 2: Zhou An must ensure the supply of Luo Ning's basic survival materials and must not force Luo Ning to execute suicidal missions.

Clause 3: Zhou An must provide an absolutely independent private living space for Luo Ning within the vehicle; he is not allowed to intrude without permission, except in emergencies.

After confirming there were no errors, both of them pressed their handprints onto the parchment.

"Hum —"

The parchment turned into two beams of golden light, sinking into the center of their brows respectively.

[System Notification: Absolute Cooperation Contract is now in effect, Teammate Mode enabled.]

The moment the contract was established, the invisible sense of defense between the two completely dissipated, and even the air felt a bit lighter.

"Alright, since we're on the same side now, I'll get your private space ready first." Zhou An opened the trading mall.

He first searched for indoor partition blueprints, then began to purchase furniture on a large scale. Since basic bulk materials were currently being hyped up, few people were willing to spend a lot of money on these types of luxury blueprints and furniture.

Within a few minutes, Zhou An had swept up a batch of goods.

[Modular Partition Wall Blueprint (White)]

[Single Soft Bed (Green)]

[Simple Metal Wardrobe (White)]

[Full Set of Cotton Bedding (Green)]

For this whole set, Zhou An only paid 5 units of aviation fuel! For him, who was currently producing fuel every day, it wasn't even a drop in the bucket.

After buying the furniture, Zhou An opened the clothing trading section.

Luo Ning was currently wearing his oversized black T-shirt; although it had a unique charm, she couldn't keep wearing that forever. Looking at Luo Ning's extremely quiet and well-behaved face, a thought suddenly popped into his mind: "If this girl weren't acting crazy, she would probably look quite good in a dress."

Thinking of this, he casually picked out a few sets of casual clothes convenient for activity, and impulsively bought two fresh-style skirts and a dress, tossing them all to Luo Ning in a bundle.

"The furniture is bought. In a while, I'll partition off the left side of the hall to make a room for you. Take these clothes to change into for now."

Luo Ning excitedly took the large bag of clothes. When she pulled out the two delicate skirts inside, her movements suddenly paused.

She raised her head, looking at Zhou An with a half-smile; that familiar little-devil-like smile appeared on her face again: "Yo, Boss, so you like this style? Quite a special hobby you have there."

"Less talk!"

Zhou An's old face flushed, and he coughed as if to cover it up.

"Just bought them randomly; if you don't wear them, use them as rags!"

"I'll wear them! How could I not wear what the Boss bought!"

Luo Ning giggled, her eyes curving into crescent moons. Although she was teasing him, her hands holding the clothes were tight. In these cold clouds, being able to have a soft bed of her own and a few sets of clean, pretty clothes was already very good.

"Get the room ready first. Once we settle down, I'll get you a full set of experimental workbenches." Zhou An looked at her happy expression and added, "I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of good things your talent can tinker with for me."

Just as the two were chatting, a burst of blinding light suddenly erupted outside the originally dim windshield.

"Whoosh —"

The [Cloud Top Fortress], like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon, suddenly rushed out of that oppressive and suffocating ink-purple cloud layer!

The long-lost golden sunlight poured down without reservation, penetrating the Tier 2 energy shield and illuminating the entire cabin. The sea of clouds outside had returned to that holy and vast white.

[System Notification: You have successfully escaped the 500km high-risk zone of the extreme dark erosion environment!]

[The second wave of Floating Islands and material rain has descended...]

"We're out..."

Zhou An and Luo Ning both let out a long sigh of relief at the same time, a wild joy of surviving a disaster surging into their hearts.

"This sunlight is really blinding, but it's also really beautiful." Luo Ning leaned against the glass, greedily looking at the sky outside like a child.

Zhou An stretched, his bones making a crackling sound. Since the crisis was resolved, it was time to get down to business.

"The system broadcast says the second wave of Floating Islands and material rain has already arrived."

Zhou An sat back at the main console.

"Rest time is over, it's time for us to go restock."

He turned on the radar panel and quickly scanned the screen.

Soon, about fifteen kilometers to their front right, a cluster of dark blue storm clouds was slowly forming. The altitude radar showed that the material rain was at an altitude of about 13,000 meters.

"Found it, not far away, a medium-sized material rain."

Zhou An entered the coordinates into the navigation system and slammed the throttle down.

"Hold on tight, full speed ahead!"