Upgrading Cost-Effectiveness

[The Tidal Prison has been closed. Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the level.]

Back in the warden's office, Han Che leaned back in his chair and called up the system to compile statistics.

[Today, the prison prevented an intrusion by 4 player operators, and 2 players escaped.]

[Prison kill rewards are now being distributed. Each player killed by a prison soldier will receive 50 Haff Coins, for a total of 200 Haff Coins. Current prison account balance: 200 Haff Coins.]

[Prison assets lost: 500 million Haff coins, 8 prison guards. Resurrect the guards? Note: Resurrection will not be possible if not performed within 24 hours.]

"Resurrect them all." Han Che's voice was calm. With 200 million Haff coins, he still had enough money to resurrect them.

[Resurrection successful, total cost 80 million Haff coins, account balance 120 million Haff coins]

[Acquired 5 sets of player equipment, should I sell them?]

"Could we keep these for the prison guards' equipment?"

[The player's equipment cannot be equipped by the prison guards; it can be sold or used for other purposes.]

Han Che frowned slightly. "What other uses?"

[Please explore on your own, host.]

"What will the selling price be?"

[30 per set]

"?" Han Che's eyes widened like saucers. "This set of equipment must cost at least 100 million. How did you calculate the price?"

[Please understand the system's recycling price.]

Han Che's face darkened...

However, to Han Che's surprise, it actually had other uses?

I originally thought these equipment could be used to equip my own prison guards. If every prison guard could wear this level of equipment, the prison's strength would really take off.

"Never mind, it won't fetch much money anyway, I'll keep it for now," Han Che thought to himself.

"It costs 30 coins to revive myself, right? I have 120 coins left, enough to revive four times. Okay, I'll keep it for now." Han Che counted on his fingers, thinking about the margin for error that comes with reviving himself, and he unconsciously relaxed a bit more as he leaned back in his chair.

[Host, the Huff Coins required for your resurrection must be paid from your personal account and cannot be used from your Tide Prison balance account.]

"..."

"?"

"What?"

The system's words echoed in Han Che's mind for several seconds before he finally realized what they meant.

He immediately jumped up from his office chair.

"What did you say? A personal account? What personal account?"

[Host, your current personal account balance is 15, which is insufficient for one resurrection.]

"What the hell?!" Han Che slammed his fist on the table in frustration. "Why didn't my money increase after completing the mission?!"

The system did not answer him and remained silent at this point.

Han Che cursed at the air and slammed items on the table.

He had originally thought that although he wouldn't earn much by defeating the player operator today, at least he would be able to revive and wouldn't have to live in fear anymore.

Who would have thought that his reborn cheat code would lead him to his system, which would actually use his public and private accounts!

It's not like I have to pay taxes! Why are we making such a big deal out of it?! Damn it!

[Host, the Hafk Group collects a regional management fee every quarter. Tide Prison will pay a management fee of 3000 million Hafk coins next quarter.]

The new system information in his mind made the frantic Han Che stop what he was doing.

He picked up the office chair that had fallen to the ground and slowly sat down.

"Stupid system!" The curse was uttered softly, without much emotion.

Han Che neither came up with a solution nor found peace of mind.

He was at his wit's end.

Screw it, do whatever you want!

"Report!"

A respectful knock sounded on the door of the warden's office.

"Enter!"

Two shield bearers entered the office one after the other and came to Han Che's desk.

"Reporting to Warden, the operation is now complete. The combat zone has been cleared, and the fallen brothers have been resurrected and returned to their units. Please give your instructions."

Han Che looked up at the shield soldier in front of him who was reporting meticulously. "Very good. All the brothers did a good job today. I will reward them according to their merits later."

After Han Che finished speaking, he intended to continue thinking about how to make more money, but he noticed that the two shield soldiers had not left.

"Is there anything else?"

"Your Excellency Warden, I have reflected on what happened today, and I request that you punish me accordingly."

Upon hearing this, Han Che looked at the shield soldier and then stood up from his office chair.

"At the beginning of today, I made an announcement calling all the prison guards to assemble here. You were the one who reported to me then, right? I didn't even know your name then."

The shield soldier didn't expect his leader to ask such a question. "My name is Shield Soldier Number 1, and this is my younger brother, Shield Soldier Number 2."

Han Che was slightly taken aback by the answer, then chuckled, "Heh, Shield Soldier Number One."

Han Che didn't want to think about whether this was a game world or a parallel world on Earth, but judging from the way it was named, it did seem like a virtual world.

Thinking back to the scene where Shieldbearer 1 blocked Li Hao's bullet for him, never mind...

"Number 1, from now on your name is Shi Ding, and your younger brother's name is Shi Lei. From now on, you two will be my personal guards, serving me, understand?"

"But...we didn't do a good job."

"You did a good job. It's more important to prevent me from being threatened when I wasn't even aware of it than to kill a fleeing operator."

"From now on, you will be my personal guards, helping me solve my problems. I trust you two with my back."

Shi Ding's eyes were red and brimming with tears. "Yes, Your Excellency!"

"Logically, as my personal guards, I should give you some rewards, but the prison is currently facing financial difficulties, so I'm sorry to trouble you."

The brothers Shi Ding and Shi Lei snapped their combat boots shut and stood at attention, heads held high and chests out.

"For the Tidal Prison!"

……

When will the Tide Prison open next?

[The activation time and frequency can be controlled by the host, with a maximum duration of 3 days.]

This time there were only two squads, six people in total. Han Che already felt the lack of manpower and could only resort to sniping.

He still doesn't have enough resurrection points left, so he needs to prepare in advance for the next operator invasion!

Open the Tide Prison account panel.

The current balance is completely insufficient to recruit any more prison guards. Even if we could recruit more, they would still be the most basic headless, unarmored, bare-gunned Bison...

It would be better to upgrade the prison guards' equipment, which would also increase their motivation.

【护甲升级：0至1级10w/套，1至2级30w/套，2至3级50w/套，3至4级100w/套】

Looking at the price list, Han Che burst out laughing, "Hahaha, 190 million for a set of level 4 gear? Hahahaha, why don't you just rob someone?"

The system is silent.

There's not enough money right now, so spending money on armor is too inefficient. Players' operators need to use at least level 3 ammo, and the players who came today all have level 4 ammo, so low-level armor is completely meaningless.

Let the prison guards use their glass cannons instead...

[Weapon Upgrade: ...] The system panel displays a wide variety of weapons, each with a different price, and each prison guard buys them one by one.

For example, it costs 10 to switch from a Bison to a Warrior; 30 to switch from a Bison to a QBZ; and 50 to switch from a Bison to an AKM.

The more he looked, the more black lines appeared on Han Che's face.

"System, given my current financial situation, are there any cost-effective upgrade options?"

[Yes, sir! We suggest you upgrade your ammunition. Equip each prison guard with high-grade ammunition; this will increase your kill efficiency during covert attacks.]

Han Che's eyes lit up. That's right! As the saying goes, you can be poor in anything but bullets. He immediately opened the bullet panel.

【子弹升级：3级弹：500/发，4级弹：2000/发，5级弹：5000/发】

This is affordable!

"System, I need level 3 9x19mmRIP human bombs, 30 rounds for each soldier except the sniper."

[22 soldiers, 30 rounds each, totaling 33 Haff coins]

"Three snipers, each with 10 rounds of level 5 ammunition."

[Level 5 ammo, totaling 15 Haf coins]

[Total 48 Haff Coins, upgrade successful, account balance: 72 Haff Coins]

Han Che had almost forgotten that in his previous life, when he didn't have much money, he would give up armor and good guns, and just get a broken bare gun to make up his combat supplies before entering the map to run around and steal bodies.

Having served as an escort for so long, fighting only battles where resources are abundant, I've completely forgotten how to fight battles where resources are scarce!

The prison guards shot him in the legs, the snipers shot him in the head.

Even if you came in wearing six different outfits, you'd still be cursing!

Han Che was mentally planning his deployment and schemes within the prison.

Then, and most importantly, he would use these three days to thoroughly investigate this world and how to make money.

The first thing that came to his mind was those glasses.

"What are these glasses for, System?"

[Host, these glasses are for a player operator to use for live streaming.]

Live stream? These glasses are connected to their live stream? Can I go in and watch too?