Hiss!
Looking at the two pilots in the photo—reduced to mere silicified fragments resembling human faces—and then at the gigantic mutant behind them, its size comparable to a small hill, Gerald gasped in shock!
What on earth is going on?! Even though it's a heavily contaminated area, it's still some distance from the Black Zone. How did such terrifying mutants appear?! How did Renault and his team find these boxes?!
He looked up from the tablet in Renault's hand, intending to examine whether Renault was even human, when he noticed Renault's other hand making a universally understood hand gesture…
This is… asking for money? And extra money?!
Gerald's lips twitched bitterly, but considering that Renault had brought back what he wanted intact—even from such an absurd mutant—and so quickly… asking for extra money shouldn't be unreasonable, right?
Watching Gerald walk out of the spaceship's cargo hold with a pained expression, Nagant Revolver and the others curiously gathered around Renault.
"Commander! How much did you get this time?"
Renault held up a hand, looking at the dolls crowding around him. "This much."
"Five thousand…!" Seeing this hand, Nagant Revolver exclaimed with delight.
Although it was only a hand, five million was clearly impossible; this mission was no child's play.
Besides Angelia's commissions, which employer's fee was less than ten million?
"I'll go back and ask the others if they want to buy anything!"
With Nagant Revolver leading the way, the dolls scattered and ran toward their respective dormitories.
Renault was left alone in the cargo hold, watching the workers and dolls Gerald had brought unload the supplies.
Of course, besides the raw materials Gerald used to pay his wages, there were several other cargo boxes waiting for him to process. Since Gerald had already discarded the cargo crates salvaged from the contaminated area, he had no choice but to open and inventory them himself to see what was inside.
However, anything transported alongside a whole crate of crucial data storage arrays couldn't possibly be ordinary cargo. Otherwise, why use an airplane? Sea freight or train transport would have sufficed.
After the transport workers used forklifts and other handling equipment to move everything inside, Renault immediately closed the cargo door and signaled UMP45 to take off.
"Phew, finally finished. Now I can finally rest, right? Commander, you promised me a day off."
Adjusting the ship's flight mode to cruising, UMP45 immediately jumped up from her seat, as if she might stick to it if she stayed there too long.
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead."
With nothing else to do—and since the ship wouldn't encounter anything strange while cruising in the sky—he had avoided all fixed air routes when setting the cruise path.
Under normal circumstances, there would be no encounters with any other aircraft.
"Time to go home. Should I bring you some food later?"
"No need. Just tell M1 Garand to bring a few Rippers to help move things."
"Okay, okay." UMP45 yawned absentmindedly, looking sleepy. Spending so much time in the pilot's seat was getting boring.
Renault, on the other hand, simply opened the lids of several cargo crates that had been closed again.
It had to be said, the cargo crates used by Universal Anything were quite sturdy. Apart from the few damaged ones, the contents of the others were perfectly preserved.
He had been in a rush to get back earlier, only opening them to check for any collapse radiation before closing them again. Now he realized that the contents didn't seem to match the materials Gerald had mentioned for creating dolls.
The crate Renault opened didn't contain any materials for creating dolls; instead, it contained six repair devices.
The other boxes also contained a considerable amount of nano-repair materials—roughly the same quantity as what he had demanded from Gerald.
Most importantly, two of the boxes were filled with a large quantity of melee weapons, seemingly custom-made by Universal Anything, all bearing the Universal Anything logo.
This wasn't surprising, as Universal Anything apparently also offered a service renting out bodyguard dolls. These dolls couldn't openly carry firearms, so some melee weapons were essential for appearances.
Moreover, if the doll's performance was good enough, melee weapons could sometimes be more effective.
However, right in the center of these boxes containing melee weapons was a deliberately hidden box with a lock.
Renault had no intention of returning it; he simply reached out, broke the combination lock, and opened the lid.
A blinding flash of light instantly filled his vision. The suitcase, about the size of a travel trunk, was half-filled with gleaming gold bars, and the other half held a large box of uncut, natural diamonds.
"Wow, Commander, have we stumbled upon someone's secret stash of gold?" P90, who had entered the cargo hold with M1 Garand and several Rippers, immediately noticed the dazzling display of gold before Renault.
"Perhaps. The value of this whole suitcase is at least three times what that Gerald guy asked for."
Gerald, however, was clearly unaware of this; otherwise, he wouldn't have ignored the cargo.
As for the underlying entanglements, that wasn't Renault's concern. All he needed to know was that he was now rich.
P90 wasn't particularly interested in these things. "Commander, there are two more doll storage compartments over here, but they're marked 'returned.'"
"What model?"
"Butler-36, huh? That's a very popular model among the wealthy. Even though it's been on the market for several years, I never expected anyone to return them." P90 clicked her tongue in amazement, her eyes already fixed on the small wardrobes that came with the two doll storage compartments.
"It's not uncommon. The G36 was modified from this model of doll, and returns are quite frequent. There are always some strange reasons." M1 Garand shrugged, looking at the two storage compartments that didn't seem to have been activated.
"Well, surprises always happen… Hey! Does Universal Anything still have unsold inventory?"
Looking at the three doll storage compartments in the cargo box, P90 jumped in surprise.