Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 43 Big Purchase

"Honestly, if it weren't for the 'boss' connection, I wouldn't dare let the border control people in."

"Ghost Wolf" sat behind the counter in the huge gun shop showroom, wearing a faded indigo denim shirt with the collar loosely open.

Milton glanced at the black and green tattoo on his chest, then scanned the merchandise in the showroom, and frowned: "That's all?"

The guns in the exhibition hall looked impressive, but to Milton they were basically just a pile of scrap metal.

At first glance, it looks a bit like a Glock 17, but upon closer inspection, it is clearly a smaller version of the Karl P9 lady gun.

There's also the Remington 870 with its choke mechanism replaced by a welded iron plate; Milton seriously suspects that this thing will explode.

In the exhibition hall beneath the "Ghost Wolf," there is a seemingly respectable AK-47. However, upon closer inspection, it is neither a milled nor a stamped receiver, but a welded receiver; the feed port is not chamfered; and the stock appears to be sawn from old furniture.

This is clearly a counterfeit product made by hand from who-knows-where.

Is this all the junk they sell on the black market?
"Ghost Wolf" grinned, exhaling a foul odor: "You can speak louder, even God can't hear you here who you want to kill... There are more of these things in the store, but these are the best-selling and most profitable, so I put them in the most conspicuous place."

Milton asked with disdain, "People actually buy this junk? Let me be polite, at least 20% of these guns of yours are difficult to even fire."

“Of course people will buy them.” The shop owner, “Ghost Wolf,” chuckled. “First of all, most people here buy a gun for self-defense, to scare people away. They don’t need it to actually fire. Secondly, these guns are very cheap… Mr. ‘Hell Tax Collector,’ do you know how wonderful and tempting the word ‘cheap’ is?”

The vast majority of people here earn only 12000 qchar a year, equivalent to $1500. With an income of $4 a day, how can they afford a good gun?

The poor have their own needs, and this place is full of poor people, so the gun shop owner naturally has to find a way to meet them.

Not only do people buy broken and damaged guns, but quite a few people do.

Wealth is hard to imagine, but sometimes poverty is even harder to imagine than wealth.

Even though he had lived in this country for some time, Milton's ingrained way of thinking prevented him from considering this possibility for the time being.

Milton paused for a moment, then shook his head slightly: "You know I don't want this stuff. Bring out your real good stuff."

Ghost Wolf nodded: "Alright, what do you want?"

"what do you have?"

Ghost Wolf sighed: "I can't possibly give you a list of all my inventory. Just tell me what you want, as long as it's not heavy weaponry. Rocket launchers and recoilless rifles are being ordered. As for the rest, just tell me. Even if I don't have them, I'll probably be able to get you something similar."

Oh ho, you've got quite the big mouth?
Milton sneered, preparing to give "Ghost Wolf" a hard time: "Alright, I want a night vision device, an M224 mortar with 30 rounds of M720 ammunition; a PKM general-purpose machine gun with five 100-round ammunition belts and B-23 armor-piercing incendiary rounds; an M24 sniper rifle with any Leupold Mark 4 scope. As for the bipod and suppressor, you can just give me whatever you want."

Ghost Wolf was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed, his voice even becoming a little obsequious: "Are you sure you want it?! Wait for me, I'll bring it over for you right away, I guarantee it's all at least 8% new!"

Milton was also stunned for a moment: "You really have it?"

"Of course I do. Although I don't have many big clients, I can't ignore their needs. It's just that having such high-value goods piled up in the warehouse is really affecting my cash flow," the shop owner, "Ghost Wolf," said matter-of-factly. "I'll ask you one more time, are you sure you want it?"

Milton took a deep breath: "Let me see it first."

"Alright! Please sit here for a while. Danny, come with me to move the goods. Ruhr, quickly get Mr. 'Hell Tax Collector' a glass of water, clean water!"

"Ghost Wolf" ran excitedly into the warehouse, and soon came out with his assistant pushing a small cart.

"It's all here, can you check it?"

Milton suppressed the astonishment on his face and briefly inspected the equipment; it really was quite new!

Milton couldn't bear to look away from that PKM, especially.

PKM, the best general-purpose machine gun in the world, bar none!

It has the weight of a squad automatic weapon, the firepower of a company automatic weapon, and extensively uses stamped parts. Its simple yet extremely reliable structure allows it to operate in various extreme and harsh environments with an extremely low failure rate. Its versatility is unmatched by any other similar firearm. It boasts a near-perfect feeding mechanism; to a certain extent, even if the bullets are not perfectly positioned in the belt or the tail of the bullets in the belt is uneven, as long as the imbalance isn't too extreme, feeding failures are unlikely!
The gun has well-proportioned and beautiful features, with a Soviet-style aesthetic.

The 7.62x54R ammunition it uses is also more powerful than the 7.62x51mm NATO bullet.

It's three levels better than the M60, an industrial waste that suffers from both major flaws: the trigger doesn't click when pulled and it keeps firing even when released.

Moreover, once they have a real machine gun, their standard FN FAL can be freed up and used as a marksman rifle.

Milton feigned reluctance and said, "It's alright, make an offer."

"AN/PVS-4 night vision goggles, $2 each, I'm talking in US dollars. I have two in total. If you buy them together, I'll give you a slight discount, and I'll throw in a pair of helmet holders and 10 batteries. These are good stuff left over from the Gulf War, worth the price!"

Milton checked the panel and, unsurprisingly, it was contraband. However, similar accessories were only classified as second-tier contraband...

The panel shows the price of this night vision device as $12000—the panel does not display the military procurement price but the local market price, so this is the normal black market price.

You swindler, ripping me off like that?

“These monocular night vision devices cost at most $12000 each.” Milton said without hesitation, “Don’t try to fool me, I know you could make a profit even if you sold them for $10000.”

Ghost Wolf's smile froze—oh no, he'd run into someone who knew what he was doing.

The other party directly negotiated down to the market price in one sentence, which means they definitely knew the price.

He coughed awkwardly and continued enthusiastically introducing the other items: "PKM general-purpose machine guns and ammunition, look at this Soviet girl's legs... Hmm, the gun is fine. But the incendiary rounds you want aren't cheap, they're $12 each, and I'll give you the ammunition belt boxes for free, it'll be $16000 in total."

Milton sneered: "Go ahead and rob it. This isn't something that came through legal import channels. How could Soviet-made weapons be so expensive these days? Bullets are at most $8 a round, and you could take them all for $14,000 at most. Or you can keep selling them at this price and let the bullets rot in the warehouse."

"...Why do you remind me of a Chinese person I've met before?" Ghost Wolf could indeed make a profit at this price, but he didn't expect Milton to be able to negotiate so precisely. "Every time you negotiate, you manage to get the price right at my bottom line? Okay, okay."

It's clear that Milton is a true expert; "Ghost Wolf" didn't try to rip people off with his subsequent offers.

"The M24 is a new product and has to be smuggled from a US military base. It costs $18,000 apiece, including two magazines. It's really as cheap as it gets. With accessories, it will cost $23,000 in total."

"As for the M224 mortar, you know, it's a company-level support weapon, and it's difficult to get. It costs $28,000 per mortar, and $400 per M720 high-explosive shell. The total cost for the mortar and shells is $40,000, plus three original US military firing tables."

"If you want two night vision goggles, all this stuff packaged together will be... uh, how much was it again? Let me calculate..."

Milton blurted out instinctively, "10 dollars."

After pressing the calculator, the gun shop owner was a little surprised: "Huh? It really is $101000... Is the tax officer's math that good? Well, forget about the $1000, it's $10 in total, you can take it all, how about that? Can you accept that?"

10... Milton only has a little over 8 available. Unless he squeezes every last penny out of the underground fortress's maintenance costs and emergency funds, there will still be a shortfall of 2.

However, exchanging red points is also a waste. For example, this mortar costs 15 points!
He can't waste his points; he's waiting to redeem them for armored vehicles!
Milton was indeed envious, but he was poor and had no choice.

Never mind... we don't need the cannon now anyway.

"I don't have that much money. I don't want the cannon. Give me the rest."

“Okay…” Ghost Wolf was a little disappointed, but a $6 order was still pretty good. “I’ll have someone deliver it to you…”

"Wait!" Brandon, who was standing behind him, realized that Milton really wanted the mortar. He reached out and grabbed Milton, then looked up at "Ghost Wolf" and said, "We want that cannon and the shells."

Milton quickly shut this rumor-monger up: "Don't talk nonsense. We can only come up with 8 right now. We need to save the remaining 2."

“I still have over 2 on me, boss, have you forgotten?” Brandon forced a smile, patted Milton on the shoulder, and said, “These weapons are for our lives, how can I let you pay for them all?”

(End of this chapter)