The Walking Dead: I Sell Arms as a Sixth-Rate Seller in the Apocalypse

9:15 am

Atlanta Police Department

Seeing Levin being brutally beaten by Tompney, Rick pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and walked towards Tompney.

As Tompney kicked Levin's fat belly, Rick decisively said...

"Boss, calm down. Even if you kill him, it won't solve the armory theft. Have a smoke and take a break."

Tompenny's foot slowed down slightly after the sound, and he turned around to see a stranger, a SWAT team member, offering him a golden cigarette with a solicitous expression.

Upon seeing the person in front of him, Tompney didn't dwell on who he was. He took the cigarette offered by the other person and put it in his mouth without thinking.

Seeing this, Rick took out the lighter with the golden dragon and phoenix printed on it and lit a cigarette for Thompson.

At this moment, everyone's attention shifted from Levin to the SWAT team members in front of them, and several of the SWAT team members began to whisper among themselves.

"Who is this kid? How dare he go up to Tomboy when he's angry?"

"I don't know, I've never seen him in the team."

"This is going to be interesting. Tompney hates it when people interfere when he's hitting someone."

"Hehe, yeah, this is going to be a good show. I'll bet you two bottles of beer that this kid will follow in Levin's footsteps."

"Okay, I'll bet you."

There were quite a few people discussing this matter in the hall, while others stood aside and watched coldly.

Rick ignored the people and remained standing next to Tompney, watching him. Tompney, on the other hand, was completely absorbed in the mental pleasure that the cigarettes brought him. He even forgot that he was beating his subordinate to vent his dissatisfaction, but these dissatisfactions vanished after a few sips of the cigarettes.

He puffed on his cigarette while sizing up the unfamiliar SWAT team member in front of him, and then said.

"Kid, you're the second person to dare interrupt me when I'm venting my anger, and the first one is already dead."

Rick wasn't intimidated by Tompney's malicious words; he calmly replied as usual.

"Boss, getting angry is bad for your health. Even if you kill him, the weapons in the armory won't come back, will they?"

"Speak, who are you? I've never seen you before."

“Boss, my name is Rick. I used to be one of the snipers in our SWAT team. Before the apocalypse, I was stuck in Kings County until I met Franklin yesterday, and that’s when he let me come back.”

"What? Franklin? Where did you meet him?"

“In the North District, there’s a church where I met him. I even ran into Michael and Jerry. The gun I’m holding was given to me by Michael.”

Upon hearing this, Tompney took a drag of his cigarette, slowly exhaled a smoke ring, looked at the crowd and Levin at his feet, and patted Rick on the shoulder.

"Good lad, you've come back just in time. There's an operation later that needs your participation, so get ready."

"Okay, boss."

Seeing this, Rick was about to return to the crowd when Tompney called him back.

"Wait a minute, the lighter and cigarettes you have are pretty good..."

Before Tompney could finish speaking, Rick handed him the gold lighter and two boxes of cigarettes.

Seeing that Rick was so cooperative, Tompney patted Rick on the shoulder and praised him.

"Good, kid, you're a good one. You'll be my protector from now on."

Hearing Thompson's words, everyone looked at Rick and Thompson in disbelief. They had just attended a meeting in the office and knew how dangerous the upcoming operation was. However, when they heard Thompson entrust his personal protection to a stranger he had just met, they were shocked. Thompson, such a despicable, shameless, and cowardly man, would never entrust his safety to a stranger, even if he was his confidant.

Thinking about this, everyone began to scrutinize this sycophantic stranger.

Seeing this, Rick quickly nodded in agreement. Then, ignoring the strange looks from everyone, he dragged Levin, who was lying on the ground like a dead pig, to the next lounge.

The commotion ended with Rick's sudden appearance.

Inside the lounge.

Francis applied medicine to Levin, while Rick watched the two of them with a serious expression.

The atmosphere inside the room instantly became extremely awkward.

A few minutes later.

Francis pulled Rick aside and said.

"Thanks, buddy. I'll keep my promise and tell you how to get into Tompney's secret room."

Rick nodded and continued talking to Francis.

A few minutes later, the two arrived at the underground archives.

In the archives room.

Francis pushed open the largest iron cabinet in the archives, revealing a hole behind it. The two exchanged a glance, then each turned on their flashlights and walked into the hole.

A few dozen seconds later, the two reached the end.

At the end, a metal plate blocked the way. Francis reached out to move the plate without thinking, but Rick stopped him and said...

"Shh, don't move, there's a sound coming from behind the door."

Upon hearing this, Francis stopped what he was doing and squatted down to listen to the sounds behind the iron plate.

Rick used his abilities to sense that someone was approaching from the secret room behind the metal plate.

Inside the secret room, Tompney sat in a gold chair, smoking cigarettes and counting gold bars.

Looking at the room full of gold bars and various gold and silver jewelry, Tompney was in high spirits and had long forgotten his anger over the loss of the armory. He muttered to himself as he puffed on his cigarette.

"Hahaha, once I bring that stinky woman Liz to Dross, I can leave this godforsaken place. Today is the last time I'll touch you. Once I get the method to control the zombies, I'll come back to reunite with you."

After saying that, Tompney kissed the gold bar in his hand and then walked toward the elevator.

Rick sensed that Tompney had gone far away, and he and Francis returned to the archives.

Taking advantage of Francis's momentary lapse in attention, Rick struck Francis on the neck, instantly knocking him unconscious. After dragging Francis's body onto a chair in the archives, Rick turned and returned to the hole. He carefully moved the metal plate blocking his way, and the scene before him stunned him.

The entire secret room was resplendent in gold, with rows of gold bars neatly arranged on both sides, and a pure gold chair placed in the center on a high platform at the far end. Looking at this scene, Rick felt that there were more gold bars in the bank vaults in the movies than in this secret room.

Rick didn't rush to retrieve it. He first walked to the golden chair and plopped down on it. The chair still retained the warmth of Tompney's body.

Looking at everything before him, Rick knew his points treasury would be replenished again. Without thinking, he summoned the system to recycle them, and a few seconds later the system's mechanical voice sounded.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, successful recycling. Recycling points have been credited to your account.]

Upon hearing the system's announcement, Rick was as happy as if he had won the lottery. However, just as Rick was fantasizing about what to exchange for, a mechanical voice sounded and nearly killed him.

[Ding! Host points exceeded limit. Simple Trading Mall is forcibly upgrading. This upgrade will deduct 5000 points from the host and will take 100 minutes. The system mall will be unavailable during the upgrade.]

"Shameless scoundrel! Give me back my points!"

Upon hearing the system's voice, Rick immediately began cursing at it.

However, this time the system ignored Rick's impotent rage and went silent.

As Rick watched his points decrease, his heart felt like it was being cut by a knife.

Rick, unable to contain his anger, immediately called out the system.

"System, system, you deducted 5000 points from my system shop without my permission. That's too much!"

[Ding! Host Gou, don't be ungrateful. These 5000 points won't be wasted on leveling up. There will be rewards after the level-up is complete. Furthermore, after this update, the items available for exchange in the system shop are much better than those in the current shop, and you'll definitely be satisfied.]

Upon hearing the system's words, Rick stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and then asked.

"Oh? Then tell me, what are the changes after this upgrade?"

[Ding! After the upgrade is complete, the weapons you can redeem are no longer limited to firearms. You can also redeem some blind box items in the Simple Trade section, such as weapon blind boxes, special tool blind boxes, medical item blind boxes, food blind boxes, special ability blind boxes, enhancement needle blind boxes, etc.]

Rick was overjoyed to hear this. He was very familiar with the blind boxes in Simple Trade. When playing Project Zombie, Rick often used his extra points to open blind boxes, especially vehicle blind boxes. When he was having the best luck, he opened the Doomsday RV MK2 and the UH60 Black Hawk helicopter.

With that thought in mind, Rick ignored the system and looked around the secret room.

The secret room was empty except for the elevator at the door and a discarded iron plate. Although the military-grade weapons Francis mentioned were not found, the system shop was upgraded so that these items could be redeemed with points, so there was no need to worry about not having heavy firepower.

Checking the time, Rick decided to go back to find Mieko. He left the secret room, picked up the iron plate and put it back. He returned to the archives, carried Francis, and sneaked back to the lounge when no one was paying attention.

Meanwhile, Levin was fast asleep on a bed in the lounge. Rick tossed Francis onto another bed and headed out of the police station.

Back in his office, Tompenny sat on the sofa, smoking a cigarette and gazing at the deathly silent city, fantasizing about the day he would return, rule over everything here, and transform this place into his own kingdom.

However, he didn't know that his secret stash of money had already been swindled away by a thug, just like in the armory, leaving him with nothing except the iron plate blocking the entrance. The thug then swaggered out of the police station through the main entrance.