We offered you a summer job, but you went and became a mercenary?

Dragon Kingdom, capital city, underground command center.

"Nonsense! Absolutely nonsense!"

Chief Li slammed his hand heavily on the conference table, making all the teacups on it vibrate loudly.

He pointed at the receding figure on the big screen, carrying a snakeskin bag, and glared angrily, his beard bristling.

"Refuse to evacuate? He wants to single-handedly take down seven terrorist organizations? Does he even know what that means?! That's an armed force of tens of thousands, with tanks and armored vehicles! Does he think he's a god?!"

Su Qingqing's face turned pale as she rapidly typed on the keyboard, pulling up the latest satellite intelligence.

On the screen, the map of the underground forces across the Middle East is covered by rapidly expanding red zones.

Countless armed pickup trucks and military trucks are now converging from all directions toward the seven strongholds that Lin Ye has marked out.

The atmosphere in the entire command center was extremely tense.

"Report!" An intelligence analyst's voice was hoarse. "The 'Anti-Luo Alliance' has issued a top-level red notice on the dark web, increasing the bounty to fifty million US dollars, life or death! All mercenaries registered on the dark web in the Middle East have been forced to participate in the operation!"

"This is going to... start a local war," an old general muttered to himself, forgetting to tighten the lid of his thermos.

However, on the other hand...

On the edge of a battlefield considered a meat grinder by the entire underworld, in front of an adobe house with a sign that reads "Habibi Convenience Store".

"Boss, that's a bit unfair of you."

Lin Ye squatted at the door, holding two buckets of Kangshifu braised beef noodles with faded packaging and a bottle of mineral water with an unclear production date, arguing with a middle-aged shop owner wearing a headscarf and with a stubble.

"Two packs of instant noodles and a bottle of water, and you're charging me ten dollars? Why don't you just rob me? I just checked on your local secondhand websites, and the factory price for these instant noodles is at most 50 cents. How many times is your profit margin? Doesn't your local price bureau do anything about it?"

The shopkeeper rubbed his hands together with a worried look on his face, just about to explain the issue of transportation costs for supplies in the war zone.

Out of the corner of his eye, he inadvertently caught sight of a freshly printed, still-smelling red wanted poster under the counter.

The wanted poster features a blurry but still recognizable profile shot from surveillance footage.

An Asian youth wearing floral shorts and a pink children's helmet.

The shopkeeper froze abruptly. He slowly raised his head, his gaze shifting back and forth between the wanted poster and the young man in front of him who had been haggling over a few dollars.

Cold sweat instantly seeped from his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and into his beard.

"Thump!"

The boss's legs went weak, and he slid off the stool, landing hard on his bottom, trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.

"Big...Big Brother..." His teeth chattered, his voice trembling with tears, "It's free! All of this is free! It's for you! Please...please take whatever you want! Consider it my treat!"

As he spoke, he scrambled back to the counter, grabbed everything edible from the shelves—compressed biscuits, canned goods, energy bars—and piled it shakily at Lin Ye's feet.

"If that's not enough, I'll go to the warehouse and get more for you!"

Lin Ye was taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm.

He glanced down at the food on the ground, then at the shop owner who was about to faint from fright, and raised an eyebrow.

"How could I possibly accept this?"

He was polite in his words, but his hands moved quickly, sorting the food into categories and stuffing each item into his snakeskin bag.

"Since you're so kind, boss, I won't refuse. I'll come back to your business again next time."

Lin-Ye patted the bulging snakeskin bag with satisfaction, feeling that he had saved a lot of money on food.

He found a clean step to sit on, skillfully tore open the instant noodle packaging, and used the hot water "sponsored" by the boss to soak the noodles.

While waiting, he took out the captured military tablet from the snakeskin bag and opened the Middle East military map that he had marked.

On the screen, the seven terrorist organization headquarters marked with red circles were not, in his eyes, any kind of den of thieves or tigers.

Those were clearly seven enormous treasure chests, shimmering with golden light, waiting for him to open!

"Hmm, starting from the 'Crimson Scimitar' base is the shortest route. They seem to mainly engage in oil smuggling, so there must be plenty of free gasoline in their oil depots."

While slurping his steaming instant noodles, Lin Ye took out a marker and drew a crooked connecting line on the map.

"Then we'll stop by the 'Desert Wolf's' armory to stock up on RPGs and ammo, and then head to the 'Mafia's' casino... Tsk, this route is perfect! Efficient, environmentally friendly, and most importantly, fuel-efficient!"

He did not plan an attack route.

Instead, it's a route that maximizes the benefits of both "demanding back wages" and "scavenging."

Meanwhile, on the dark web forums, a frenzy of mockery had already begun.

[Are you crazy? Has that newbie named Shura been kicked in the head by a donkey? He hasn't even run away yet?]

[He didn't just not run away, my people just reported that he was on the edge of the 'Destroy Luo Alliance's' encirclement, arguing with someone for ten minutes over a bucket of instant noodles!]

[Hahaha! Facing certain death, still caring about a few dollars? What a weirdo!]

[Let's all go home now. We'll probably see his head hanging on the walls of Arkham tomorrow.]

Just as everyone was discussing it, a newly registered anonymous account with the ID "Daily Salary, No Overtime" posted a new thread on the forum.

High-price buyback of the heads of the seven leaders of the "Destroy Luo Alliance"—one million heads per head. Cash on delivery available. Discounts for bulk orders. Contact: xxx-xxxx

The forum was silent for three seconds the moment the post was published.

What followed was even more intense ridicule and mockery.

[Who is this? Are they crazy for money? Posting something like this at a time like this?]

[I guess it's some arrogant newbie trying to ride this wave of popularity.]

[Ignore him, let him play by himself.]

After posting the message, Lin Ye didn't even look at the replies below.

He quickly finished his instant noodles, drinking every last drop of the soup, and then walked to a trash can marked "Recyclable" a few dozen meters away, precisely throwing the instant noodle container and plastic fork into it.

After doing all this, he whistled, walked to the back of the convenience store, and pushed out a dilapidated electric scooter with a key in the ignition and a pink child seat on the back.

He plopped down on the bike and turned the handlebars.

"Beep beep~"

Accompanied by a weak horn blast, Lin Ye rode this vehicle, so incongruous with his god-like demeanor, slowly heading into the depths of the vast, yellow sand desert.

At the Beijing command center, Su Qingqing covered her face, feeling a sudden dizziness.

Riding an electric scooter to fight against a coalition of 10,000 men equipped with tanks and armored vehicles?

The scene was so absurd that she began to doubt whether she was dreaming.

However, Lin Ye's electric scooter hadn't even traveled five kilometers.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

The car slowed down more and more, and finally came to a complete stop on the desert highway with a reluctant hiss.

"Damn it! They let us down at the crucial moment!"

Lin Ye kicked the electric scooter that had run out of power, looking utterly annoyed.

"What kind of lousy brand is this electric scooter! The quality is so poor!"

As he was complaining, his ears suddenly twitched slightly.

A series of uniform engine roars, growing louder as they approached, came from the end of the highway.

Lin Ye raised his head and squinted at the scene.

On the horizon, a cloud of dust rose into the sky.

A menacing patrol convoy consisting of a dozen armed pickup trucks and two light armored vehicles was speeding toward him.

The gloom on Lin Ye's face vanished instantly.

"Hey, I was just worried about not having a car."

He rubbed his hands together and a very enthusiastic smile appeared on his face.

"The delivery guys are here!"