Chapter 50: Massive Merit Points! Fifth Master, Come On Out!

Real world, late night.
Hilton Hotel.
On the soft and spacious bed, Lin Ran was fast asleep.
A slender, well-proportioned, 98-centimeter-long milky-white leg unceremoniously pressed across his waist.

That afternoon, after leaving the street neighborhood committee office, Lin Ran had made a trip to the parallel world, intending to check on the progress of the plan.
Upon learning that the headquarters had approved his plan, he hurriedly exchanged for dozens of walkie-talkies and handed them over to Li Yunlong.
As it happened, the brigade commander was also there, and as a result, the generous and hearty brigade commander dragged him into a heavy drinking session.
How could Lin Ran possibly match the bottomless alcohol tolerance of that brigade commander?
After a few bowls of fierce liquor went down, the world was already spinning.
Barely managing to beg for a piece of calligraphy personally written by the brigade commander, he found an excuse and slipped away.

Returning to the real world, Lin Ran felt dizzy and, compounded by the two large bowls of invigorating tonic soup he had drunk at noon, he simply couldn't hold out any longer.
After wandering around Sanlitun for a bit, he ended up at the Hilton Hotel.
As for what happened next... Lin Ran couldn't quite remember clearly.
He only remembered three idioms: feeling like pins and needles on his back, having a fishbone stuck in his throat, and sitting on a pincushion...

Suddenly, deep in his sleep, a series of notifications rang out in Lin Ran's mind:
[Ding! With the host's assistance, the Eighth Route Army has successfully annihilated no less than one full division's worth of enemy forces. Mission accomplished, the T2 Arsenal is permanently unlocked!]
[Ding! The Eighth Route Army has annihilated the 36th Division, the Mizuno Regiment, the Tanaka Regiment, and the Suzuki Regiment, totaling 36,821 enemies eliminated, earning 97,562 merit points!]
[Ding! The Eighth Route Army killed Lieutenant General Dancing Cloud Man, commander of the 36th Division, earning 5,000 merit points!]
[Ding! The Eighth Route Army killed Major General Takahashi Akari, chief of staff of the 36th Division, earning 2,000 merit points!]
[Ding! The Eighth Route Army recaptured Zhi City, earning 10,000 merit points!]
[Ding! The Eighth Route Army recaptured 12 county towns including Hu County, Guan County, and Lu County, earning 60,000 merit points!]
[Ding! Sakata Shintetsu has been killed, Main Quest 1 completed, earning 1,000 merit points and +50 prestige!]
[Ding! The host indirectly killed a Jap general (lieutenant general)! +50 prestige!]
[Ding! The host indirectly killed a Jap general (major general)! +20 prestige!]
[Ding! The host's actions triggered a major historical event deviation! +50 prestige!]
[Ding! Eighth Route Army soldiers have developed high attention and strong affection toward the host! +50 prestige!]

"Mmm..."
Lin Ran let out a muffled grunt and rubbed his head.
In his grogginess, he instinctively reached out and shoved away the heavy, warm, and obstructive long leg resting on his waist.

After quite a while, he barely recovered from his hangover and began to digest those terrifying figures.
Immediately following that—
"Holy shit!"
Lin Ran sat up abruptly, all sleepiness instantly vanishing, his eyes wide as copper bells.

How many?!
He hurriedly pulled up the system interface and carefully counted.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands..."

Over thirty-six thousand Japs?
Li Yunlong wiped out over thirty thousand little Japs in a single battle?
A division and a half?
And they even recaptured a major city and twelve county towns?!

"Holy mother of god!"
As his voice trailed off, a drowsy, cutesy voice came from beside him:
"No... I can't anymore, really... don't..."

Lin Ran curled his lips.
What a lightweight!
Though, truth be told, the tonic soup Xiangwan brought over was truly miraculous!
Next time, he definitely had to get the recipe from her.

He quickly put on his clothes, called a cab, and headed straight to his quiet courtyard house.
Along the way, Lin Ran couldn't help but open the system panel again.
Looking at that long string of merit points, another wave of excitement washed over him!
This battle had unexpectedly yielded over 175,000 merit points, far exceeding Lin Ran's expectations.

"Hahahaha, I never expected that recapturing county towns would also grant merit points!"
Recapturing a major city yielded 10,000 merit points, and a county town yielded 5,000.
Previously, he had been worried that there wouldn't be enough Japs to kill, but now it seemed that worry was completely groundless!

"Let's see what heavy gear we should bring over for Old Li this time..."
Lin Ran rubbed his hands together and clicked open the T2 Arsenal.
170,000 merit points might not sound like much—it was just enough to trade for 170,000 AKs.
But it wasn't a small amount either; it could buy over a thousand tanks and armored vehicles.

This time, however, Lin Ran's gaze didn't linger on offensive weapons, locking onto defensive categories instead.
Once a base area was captured, the key was holding it!
Having just experienced a major battle, it was precisely the time for recuperation, and guarding against the Japs' retaliatory bombings was the top priority!

"Anti-air firepower, this is an absolute must!"
Without even thinking, since the little Japs suffered such a massive loss, it would be a wonder if they didn't send planes over to bomb them for several rounds!

"Hongqi-1..."
Seeing the Dragon Country's first anti-air missile, Lin Ran's eyes lit up.
Developed in '58 and commissioned in '65, it fit right into the T2 Arsenal.
This thing was a hardcore badass that had actually shot down a U2! Its might was unquestionable!
However...
This thing was a missile!
And its merit point cost wasn't low either!

"Forget it!"
Lin Ran shook his head, feeling it was a bit like using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat.
"Using this thing to fight the Japs' Type 92, Type 96, and Type 97 antiques? That's simply shooting mosquitoes with cannons—way too extravagant!"

The little Japs hadn't even commissioned their Zero fighters yet, and even if they had, it wouldn't require the Hongqi-1 to make a move.
Lin Ran looked further down.

"Type 59 57mm anti-aircraft gun, this is good, let's start with two hundred!"
Economical, practical, and high-volume!
"Type 59 100mm anti-aircraft gun, give me fifty!"
Greater firing altitude, even more devastating firepower!
Combining these two types of anti-aircraft guns would cover both high and low altitudes.

"This firepower network should be able to protect those dozen or so county towns..." Lin Ran muttered, stroking his chin in calculation.
But immediately afterward, he shook his head again.
"No, the best defense is offense!"

His finger slid rapidly across the weapons library, finally pausing on a sleek, silver-gleaming fighter jet:
"Fifth master, come on out!"
That's right, it was none other to the J-5!
Using a jet fighter to fight propeller planes was quite literally a dimensional reduction strike.
Both flight altitude and speed completely crushed them!

"Let's start with ten! Give Old Li and the others a chance to practice and cultivate seed pilots!"
It wasn't that Lin Ran didn't want to give more, but he was genuinely worried that the Eighth Route Army didn't have enough people who knew how to fly them.

Following that, Lin Ran exchanged for some ammunition supplies: 107mm rockets, RPG rockets, 7.62mm bullets...
With such fruitful battle results, ammunition consumption naturally wouldn't be low.
However, using merit points to exchange for ammunition made Lin Ran's heart ache!

"Rockets are fine, but these bullets... what a waste!"
Lin Ran thought to himself that he should probably start laying groundwork over in the Eagle Country as well.
At the very least, buying a few ammunition production lines over there would be great.
Although they couldn't produce rockets, basic bullets would be an absolute breeze.

Having finished all this, Lin Ran closed the weapons library—he would exchange just this much for the time being.
He planned to go over there to take a look and also ask what Li Yunlong actually needed.
He didn't want to get all heated up and blindly exchange random things!

Besides, holding out in the Taihang and Taiyue mountains was fine for now, but once they advanced into the North China Plain, they would need a massive number of tanks and armored vehicles.
Those hundred-odd thousand merit points really weren't that much; he had to spend them sparingly.

Returning to the courtyard house, Lin Ran had a single thought:
"Off we go!"