"The entry requirements for this instance are insane. Level 30, 500 Orokin for the ticket, one round trip takes at least a week, and you even have to make a reservation. After you get to Cuba the equipment insurance price is tripled???"

In the very first minute of the new version going live, the long‑awaiting players rushed to open the instance page, only to find that Cuba's entry threshold was even more ridiculous than Dog Town in the last version.

Even the damn equipment insurance price went up.

Fine, that's still… barely acceptable.

But even choosing a respawn point in Cuba costs money, isn't that going way too far?

Their moldy Soldiers die and at worst get written off as MIA with no pension payout, and you still want to charge players a reincarnation tax. You're crueler than the moldy ones; even the King of Hell would have to give up his seat for you.

Lin Miao was helpless too; his only goal was to raise the price of death so this band of lawless maniacs would be a bit more cautious in Cuba and stop treating their own lives like trash.

He didn't have that many modification pods on hand, he couldn't handle this crowd using their own bodies to test every endurance limit of carbon‑based lifeforms.

Besides, once they got into Cuba, great scholars would naturally argue the scriptures on his behalf.

"Higher cost is normal, right? Look at the stuff we pulled in Dog Town, which job wasn't huge? The Giants and the Europeans make nearly a million a month smuggling clean water; it's more profitable than drug dealing."

"Those pros can just walk into some cartel vault and walk out with several tons of Gold. If we can take one of those down, we're set for life!"

Money makes the heart move.

With the example of the pros in front of them, even if the instance cost was high, players were happy to sink money into it.

That's the power of role models.

So, within less than two minutes of the reservation entrance opening, the first batch of 450 slots was completely filled.

[Main Quest: Operation Pig Bay (1) — Amphibious Landing]

[Mission Background: Our scouts have located a suitable location for landing, but armed cartel patrols who received intel are still roaming the area]

[Mission Briefing: Board Military Technology hovercraft, enter the landing craft and stand by; once you reach the destination, punch through their defenses with lightning speed]

[Mission Rewards: This Cuba operation is a large‑scale battlefield mode. Completing objectives, capturing key targets, or killing enemies will grant you Armament Points. These can be used on the logistics page to exchange for limited Military Technology equipment or to call in on‑site support]

Redeemable items include but are not limited to: cyberware, firearms, ammo, special gear, tanks, APCs, IFVs, air‑dropped bombs of various yields, napalm carpet bombing, and air support.

As long as Lin Miao could afford it, Military Technology could directly launch missiles to bomb Cuban cartels.

That's capitalism for you—if you've got the cash, everything's negotiable. Lin Miao was just the middleman and didn't even skim off the top.

Sword Saint's luck was pretty good; their guild was assigned to the first wave of the assault and became the vanguard, boarding a heavy armed Military Technology hover‑warship at the Watson District port.

Once on board, Sword Saint looked down at the more than 180‑meter‑long hover‑vehicle warship under his feet and clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Tsk tsk tsk… how the hell does something this big even fly? It's more ridiculous than those legendary mega‑planes; it can haul tens of thousands of tons of cargo into the sky. Feels as badass as the Shield Bureau's helicarrier; bump it up a bit more and you could call it a spaceship."

Arnold shook his head.

"I don't know."

He didn't care where the hell it was from—what did the game designers plugging in values and lore have to do with him? Tell him this ship could jump through Subspace and he'd believe it; as long as it was usable, that was enough.

"Forget it, talking to someone with 2 INT is a waste of time."

Sword Saint felt like he was playing a lute to a cow.

One day he'd buy a ship himself, build a church on it, and when it was time to fight he'd just wave his hand and say:

"Who do you think I am? Bring that ship right up to them for me." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

That would be peak style.

Sword Saint snagging the responsibility of the vanguard meant that, yeah, compared to the players coming later they'd probably take heavier casualties, but they weren't without perks.

At least they had actual seats, whereas the Hell Divers coming after them weren't so lucky.

What they got couldn't even be called standing room.

"Stack them up neatly, squeeze a bit and we can stuff a few more in. Think three‑dimensional—can't you lay another row sideways on top?"

Lin Miao cheerfully directed the transport‑platform robots, shoving one after another disconnected, dormant Hell Diver body into boxes.

These boxes looked like display cases in an exhibit, perfectly square. The players, already dressed in full Hell Diver kit, lay in them snugly. To keep them from suffocating, Lin Miao even considerately placed a small oxygen tank in each display case.

Once a player was packed into one of these boxes, robots would then load the boxes into shipping containers, stuffed to absolute capacity—basically coffin wholesale.

At this scene, even if the Nazis who built Auschwitz came back to life, all they could do was gasp in awe and admit they were outclassed.

They had been way too merciful.

Even the gray livestock of Tsarist Russia at least had relatively roomy sleeping space.

But Lin Miao announced proudly: this is the universally acclaimed Super Earth!

He turned to look at the only two beings from Super Earth on this trip who hadn't been crammed into containers.

"A2, 2B, once we reach the destination, throw them out as planned. The display cases have some shock‑absorption; a drop of a few meters won't kill them."

The two androids, already suited up in Hell Diver gear, immediately snapped to attention and saluted Lin Miao.

"Understood." *2

They didn't quite understand why they had to do this, but the man before them was the supreme head of government of Super Earth; whatever he said had to have its own logic.