America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 203 Millionaire

Zhang Ailun's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "Firepower, firepower, here we come!"

I immediately opened Opportunity Network and found Thunderfire, a subsidiary of Mayweather Company. I discovered that not many people had seen this information, but some people had already made reservations in advance. Who knows how they could be so fast? Were they watching the page 24 hours a day?

The leader quickly secured and reserved the free tickets, thinking that if the price was right, he could consider acquiring one of the Gazelle drones, an armed escort vehicle, and, if the price was right, also select the best drones.

Lei Huo Company: Congratulations on booking a qualified seat at the Lei Huo Private Armed Military Exhibition. The Little Antelope attack helicopter (serial number 56678) and the armed escort vehicle (serial number 56679) will be on display at 2 PM. For on-site pickup, please go to Hangar B-52 at Agula Mountain. Please contact our staff upon arrival. If you purchased online, a detailed address is required for delivery.

Zhang Ailun was definitely considering conducting an on-site inspection. After all, it's really not advisable to buy something blindly without having someone appraise it; there's always a chance of something going wrong.

[Daily News: A heinous armed robbery has occurred in Lancaster City. The up-and-coming Black Ribbon gang, imitating Bowhead Whale and Black Boots, attempted to rob the largest bank in the area, Garden Bank. They premeditatedly shot and killed the vault manager, hacked the security cameras, and stole $168 million before fleeing. However, they were pursued by police, and members of the gang were shot and killed in the crossfire. The seriously wounded driver escaped police cars and went to a hilltop cabin where they planned to sell the stolen goods, where he tragically bled to death.]

[Details: The driver was found carrying $26 in cash, abandoned at a mountaintop cabin, and remains unclaimed. Police have issued a $5 reward for information leading to the arrest of the fugitive and expect to find the stolen money within 36 hours.]

Zhang Ailun clicked his tongue in amazement.

Silly kid. How could you actually dare to rob a bank? Without someone to practice with you, you're just asking for trouble.

One can only marvel at the abundance of talent on the West Coast.

$26 and nobody wants it? If nobody wants it, then I'll take it.

They risked their lives, meticulously planned a bank robbery, only to be caught red-handed and end up benefiting someone else. Well done! We need more intelligence like this!

Zhang Ailun exited the intelligence page and discovered that the people at Luo Jinwei Military Base were really lazy; it was already 8:30 and no one had contacted him from the back end.

Just then, Sieg woke up, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "Boss, what time is it?"

"8:32 AM," Zhang Ailun replied helplessly. "The people in the military base's bidding department probably haven't gotten up yet, right? I sent them a message last night, and no one has responded yet."

"Then let's wait a bit longer. After all, they have plenty of connections. They're just trying to make more money by issuing tenders. If we want to make that money, we'll have to be mindful of their attitude. It's only right that we wait a bit longer." Sieg was used to this. He got out of the car, ran to the grove, took a leak, and stretched his muscles.

Not long after, a whooshing sound came from overhead. Zhang Ailun peeked out and saw an unidentified transport plane. It circled the Roginway military base briefly before landing.

The leader suspected they were also involved in arms dealing. He logged onto the Opportunity Network and refreshed the information, and sure enough, he saw the relevant notification.

Lokingway Military Base Bidding Department: Hello, it is now the official bidding period for Lokingway Military Base. We are very grateful for the armed support from Thunderbolt Armed Nation. If the munitions have been transported to the vicinity, please contact us as soon as possible and provide vehicle and personnel information. We will send personnel to meet you. The munitions need to be transported to checkpoint 2a for relevant security checks, and pricing will be handled by our specialized evaluation department.

Thunderfire Armed Nation: Hello, we have arrived near the military base. The vehicles are a black armored armored transport vehicle and a sand truck with license plate number xxx. All passengers are registered employees of Thunderfire. Please send your staff to meet us as soon as possible.

Tendering department: Received.

Zhang Ailun finally received the notification from the military region and also notified Sig and the Beggar Clan disciples to prepare to transport the batch of clay explosives by car.

As the vehicle arrived at the gate of the military base, the soldiers on guard immediately raised their hands to stop it.

"Hello, we are from the Thunderfire Armed Nation. We have already contacted the bidding department in advance," Sig explained, rolling down the window of the armored vehicle.

The base soldier took out his walkie-talkie and reported the situation. After receiving a response, he approached the man and said seriously, "Hello, sir, we have received the relevant mission notification. After getting off the vehicle, please proceed on foot to the manual passage for a security check and fill out a form. If you are carrying any of the following dangerous items: tactical knife, fragmentation grenade, fully automatic or semi-automatic pistol, rifle, or sniper rifle, please unload them in advance and report them to avoid misunderstandings and unpleasant friction."

"Okay," Sig nodded in agreement.

This was Zhang Ailun's first time visiting the military region, and he was surprised to find that the prestige project was quite well done.

Perhaps because they were new faces, doing business here for the first time, and didn't have any connections, facial recognition wasn't very effective here, so they couldn't just go in directly.

Zhang Ailun and his men got out of the car and, led by soldiers, went to the manual passage. They then unloaded all their equipment, filled out forms, had their personal information photographed, and printed labels to attach to their security gear for easy retrieval.

No, you're taking my phone too?

Zhang Ailun looked at the phone wrapped in plastic wrap. Was this much care? Were they being treated the same as suspected spies?

However, while the new client was still presenting reports, the old client had already shown his ID and let him through, speeding away.

The leader heard the roar of the engine, turned around and saw a heavily modified bulletproof off-road armored vehicle. It was flooring the accelerator, carrying boxes of goods. It simply swiped its ID at the gate, and the soldier who had been guarding the gate let it through without hesitation.

"Why don't they need to be checked?" Zhang Ailun asked the staff, puzzled.

"Sir, they are an armed nation that has cooperated with our military region on multiple occasions. If your armed nation has a two-star or higher qualification and has had transactions or cooperation with the local military region in California within the past six months, you can apply online in advance and print out the military region's access pass," the staff member replied.

"I don't think I've seen any print prompts or application links in the backend," Zhang Ailun said, feeling puzzled.

The staff checked Thunderfire's qualifications again and explained, "That's because you need to rebuild your credit score and restore your original qualifications. Your Armed Nation has not had any transactions with the military region in the past six months and has not entered into a transfer contract. California law clearly stipulates that within three months after the transfer, Armed Nation vehicles entering and leaving the military region must fill out the required forms. If any violations are made during this period, the qualification to cooperate with the military region will be revoked. If a transaction exceeds $20, it will be considered normal credit, and the next transaction will not require a special procedure."

This is also to ensure that terrorists and spies can no longer easily take over an armed nation and swagger into a regional military region to carry out bombing retaliation and intelligence gathering, otherwise military bases would be too easy for them to infiltrate.

But infiltration isn't actually that difficult.

All you need to do is pay.

The military region leaders made money and saw your sincerity. Of course, they'd be happy to welcome you to do business! They might even want you to stay and participate in some exciting programs.

The main focus is on a superficial project that I was cautious about, but not entirely cautious about.

Zhang Ailun understood the situation perfectly and cooperated with the staff to complete all the checks before being allowed to proceed to the bidding hall of the military base.

During the visit, I saw soldiers getting up for training and running around the parade ground, as well as many other arms dealers being led by staff to tour the base facilities.

The Roginway military base is quite large, covering a vast area. Several Black Hawk helicopters, an Apache attack helicopter, armored vehicles, and tanks are parked in the adjacent military training area. Just the military expenditure for these items alone exceeds several hundred million US dollars!

This is just a relatively unknown military base in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California.

This gives an idea of ​​just how luxurious the equipment used by the military can be, given the annual military expenditure of nearly 9000 billion US dollars. And how much money can be made by secretly selling it off?

However, the level of equipment does not represent true combat effectiveness. Zhang Ailun felt that this thing had probably only been used a few times, and it had battlefield limitations. The current main battlefield should be the era of drones and electronic warfare. Even the most powerful armed helicopter would be ineffective against a Stinger rocket launcher once it was jammed and locked on.

The Black Hawk helicopter costs $700 million, while the Stinger only costs $4, yet it can be destroyed with a simple decision.

However, these weapons are still a devastating blow to many third-world countries that lack air defenses, let alone small-scale private armed groups and drug lords, which are primarily bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong.

From the outside, you can't tell anything, but once you walk in, you realize that the military base isn't exactly guarded every three or ten steps, but there's a camera every corner, so it's quite difficult to do anything here.

The staff led the leader and his entourage to the bidding department's lobby, told them to wait patiently for the assessment documents for the munitions being transported, and then left.

There were already many people waiting here, holding tags and ID cards, and some were even getting free breakfast at the military base.

Zhang Ailun also found a place to sit down, while Sieg led his people to order food: sandwiches, milk, fried eggs, and coffee gummies. They quickly ate what they had.

"Boss, this should be a regular bidding and trading area. If it involves arms worth more than a million US dollars at once, we would definitely be invited to the VIP room upstairs for private negotiations and transactions. This is our first time here, and we are relying on them for our livelihood, so our treatment is definitely not that good," Sieg explained.

The leader nodded, seemingly unconcerned, took a bite of the sandwich, and thought it tasted quite good. Better than the ones sold in convenience stores and supermarkets on the street.

After all, the military's food rations have been quite good since the last century; soldiers have never been mistreated. Being stationed at overseas military bases is a dream job—they get cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, and even comfort women every day. What more could they ask for?

They quickly finished the free breakfast, and then a notice came over the loudspeaker: "Please have the staff of the Thunderfire Armed Nation go to bidding window number 26 to collect the evaluation certificate and proceed to bidding office B-5 to discuss cooperation."

Zhang Ailun led Sieg to window number 26, where they collected the evaluation documents from the brown-haired female employee. After inquiring about the exact location of the bidding office and receiving directions, they politely thanked her before turning to leave.

Sieg took the lead, knocking on the door. An inviting voice came from inside: "Please come in."

He pushed open the door and entered. Zhang Ailun saw a middle-aged white man with a buzz cut, dressed in military uniform, sitting in the office. On the desk were weapon boxes and clay explosives in their open packaging.

Looking up and seeing the group enter, the man smiled and warmly shook hands, saying, "Hello, I'm Will, the head of the bidding department at the Luo Jinwei Military Base. You must be staff from the Thunderfire Armed Nation, right? Please have a seat."

Sieg readily agreed and led his men to sit on the sofa. Zhang Ailun also recognized that his shoulder insignia indicated the rank of major.

Sig introduced himself: "Hello, Mr. Supervisor, I am Sig Comprey, the head of the Thunderfire Armed Nation. I served in the Marine Corps and my rank is Captain. The goods we are escorting for this tender are a batch of clay explosive raw materials."

The major smiled slightly upon hearing this and immediately praised, "Your clay explosives have passed our professional testing and evaluation. The soldiers are very satisfied with your explosives. The manufacturing process is simple yet practical. How much would you like to quote?"

Siegfried thought, "Then I think $50000 a box is a reasonable price, not for any other reason than to give the soldiers better weapons."

The major paused for a moment, then quickly said seriously, "I think so too! Poor-quality weaponry simply cannot guarantee the safety of soldiers. Thank you for your support of the Luo Jinwei Military Base! You can collect this payment now."

With a wave of his hand, he signed the bidding contract.

Sieg happily took the contract and left, and soon more people lined up to come in.

I vaguely heard familiar scripted lines: "Hello, I'm Will, the head of the bidding department at Rockwell Military Base. You must be from Cobra Armed Nation, right? Please have a seat. Your M24 sniper rifles have passed professional testing and evaluation, and the soldiers are very satisfied with the quality of these weapons..."

You're just a pure NPC, huh?

I don't know how many times I have to repeat this line to others every day.

Zhang Ailun wanted to complain, but after glancing at the contents of the contract, he saw that the $1200 million in military expenditure included a significant item related to clay explosives.

Although the detailed amount is not written above, only the transaction settlement amount of 350000 is given, a little calculation will show that they are definitely trying to push the price up as much as possible.

How much? $450 million? What are you going to blow up that would cost that much money?

Wait, 75 kilograms of explosives? Is this made of gold clay or silver clay?

Then the military region would say: You little brat, don't touch the warlord's cake! If you turn another page, we'll send you to see your great-grandmother right away!

Sieg took the contract to the finance department for settlement. The staff carefully reviewed it, calculated the amount, and filled in a series of numbers. Opening the safe revealed stacks of greenbacks—at least $900 million in cash!

But not many belong to them.

"Hello, the total transaction amount is $350000. Please check your account."

The military region also uses cash transactions. Sieg counted the amount and put it into his handbag; the $35 was still quite heavy.

Zhang Ailun glanced at the receipt: $350000. The signature wasn't from Rockwell Military Base, but from a department he'd never heard of. But the gun shop's credit score had undoubtedly increased once again!

Without lingering there, Zhang Ailun asked a staff member to lead the way, found his escort vehicle and the sand truck in the parking lot, collected his equipment, and left the military base.

Halfway there, he also took out $350,000 in banknotes, kept $300,000 for himself, and gave $50,000 to Sieg, telling him to take it and share the profits with the others.

"Thanks, boss!"

Sig grinned from ear to ear.

The Grand Master's total net worth has reached a terrifying $965,890.

Including the profits from Sanji's bar and the revenue from the recycling center, he's already a true millionaire!

After distributing the money to the Beggars' Sect disciples, the leader was in a great mood, but he didn't forget to try and snatch up the $26!

(End of this chapter)