In the living room of the base, everyone was staring at Mercer with an incredulous look.
Meanwhile, V was just staring blankly at the bank balance displayed in his prosthetic eye, emitting a question from the depths of his soul: "So, we're all broke again now?"
Mercer just had a nonchalant attitude and said, "Actually, I still have over 100,000 Euros. I left enough for next month's utility bills and the Trauma Team's membership fees, I won't touch that money."
"Is our shop doing any business?" V still felt a bit dizzy in his head so far.
Pira also fiddled with her fingers a bit anxiously: "We did manage to distribute some of our program chips, but to capture the market, we supply first and collect payment after sales... so there's no return on funds yet."
"What about firearms and equipment?" V continued to inquire.
"Uh, A said to study them carefully first, no rush to open for business..." Pira turned her head to look at Mercer.
V, collapsing, held his head in his hands: "We spent over seven hundred million Euros in just three days?"
"The money didn't disappear, it just changed locations to keep us company."
As soon as Mercer finished speaking, V shot him a fierce look: "That's seven million! Seven million Euros!"
Before Mercer could reply, V took a deep breath, then turned to look at Pira: "How much money do you have left? What did you spend it on?"
Pira looked at the ceiling: "Well... apart from some equipment and tools... well, you know, Liz had a recent member promotion, VIP clients get 10,000 Euros free with a 50,000 Euros top-up..."
"Rebecca?" V couldn't be bothered to listen any more, directly interrupted him and turned to look at Rebecca.
Rebecca hadn't long just taken a shower, her green hair hanging down, at this moment she was just twirling her long hair with her fingers, while looking at the somewhat collapsing V, couldn't help but laugh in her heart, casually responded:
"Still have tens of thousands of Euros, mate. Got the Frenzy System installed, ICE added on skin, Krenzikov installed, and went and bought a super cool big vehicle from Old Captain."
"Lucy?" V looked at Lucy.
Lucy smiled, turning her head to look at Mercer: "I've already given all my money to Mercer."
V turned to look at Mercer, and Mercer just took a sip of his coke with a smile: "It's all spent."
That made V throw his hand and slap on his own head.
"I still have about 60,000 Euros," Qiwei said proactively: "I didn't buy much of anything, mainly spent a lot of A's money before, and still owe him a 50,000 Euros 'redemption fee', got to pay him back."
Then, V painfully covered his face: "So, Mercer, how much more do you still need?"
Mercer thought for a while and said: "Over 300,000 Euros, about another 300,000, and I could buy everything I want."
"..." V said nothing, first transferred all the remaining money to him, and then looked blankly at the remaining 10,000 Euros in his bank balance.
Qiwei and Rebecca were roughly the same, didn't say a word, left some living expenses, and transferred the rest directly to Mercer.
This made Mercer sit a little embarrassedly in his seat, taking a sip of ice cold coke: "Well, consider it a loan from everyone, I'll pay it back when I have money in the future..."
Just as he finished speaking, V angrily interrupted him: "Don't make me angry!"
Mercer blinked, said nothing more.
V, puffing with anger, sat back in his seat and said: "I'm guessing your money was all spent on the base too, how could I possibly say it's a loan from you... consider this part as my donation to the team."
"Uh-huh, I thought so too, well~ when the money is gone, just earn some more, with Mercer's skill, we can certainly earn the next five million Euros soon!"
Rebecca said this confidently, still smiling cheekily, spoke to V: "It's just a bit of money, won't it be fine if we spend it and then earn more?"
Mercer also justified himself: "All the stuff I bought is essential, no wasteful spending."
"Well said, I was just about to ask... you've got to tell us, where exactly did all the money go!" V stared at him angrily.
"Um... first, I spent over 300,000 Euros, bought over a dozen second-hand drones of various sizes and brands," Mercer said.
V glared at him: "Why did you buy so many drones?"
"You don't understand, drones from different companies not only vary in size, a lot of the mechanical parts are also very unique, I have to dismantle them to understand the structure...
Once I figure it out, we can custom build our own drones! Also, these drones, once I'm done studying them, can be modified and sold, or used as part of the base's security, can this be considered wasteful?"
Mercer finished his explanation, and emphasized: "Need I remind you, this is Dog Town, there's no telling when some idiot will suddenly try to rob you, the security facilities must be strong enough.
If we're not home, and only a few hackers are left at the base, we have to leave some security measures to buy some time for rescue, right?"
V sighed: "Okay, this makes sense, what else?"
"I also bought a few second-hand security robots, spent about 200,000 Euros, for the same reason," said Mercer.
V barely nodded: "Fine, what else?"
"Spent about 300,000 Euros on guns... don't get agitated, this is also for research!"
Mercer quickly covered V's mouth, explaining immediately: "From the cheapest kind you print out of a disposable printer for 100 Euros each, up to sniper rifles and heavy machine guns costing tens of thousands of Euros.